From: "Ninure Saunders" <>

Newsgroups: aus.religion.christian,alt.christnet.theology

Subject: Re: The Nicene Creed vs. Jesus' emphases



Rowland wrote:



> -Now, class, please turn to Matthew 23:23, and Luke 11:42, where in Jesus'

> -diatribes against the Pharisees - his contemporary propositionalists -

Jesus

> -says they might be orthodox but they've missed the main points - social

> -justice, mercy, faith, love for God...

> -

> -Now class, study the Nicene Creed and figure where these key theological

> -values for Jesus are found there...



Ninure responded:



> Dear Brother,  yu are certainly correct  - they are not there.

>

> because the creed, IMHO, was never meant to be anything other than an

> affirmation/explanaton of WHO it is we believe in.



And I replied:



Ahh,,, Ninure, go back to the creeds/confessions of faith. They also contain lots of other statements - not just about _who_  but also _how_ (the nature of salvation etc.) and our destiny (heaven, hell) - and especially

historical/apologetic matters like the resurrection of Jesus and the

resurrection/parousia.



In any case, when we complete the sentence 'God is...' just about everyone says 'Love'. So it could be argued from your presupposition that the creeds don't do a very good job there either...



And, further, the creeds emanated from councils which addressed a major problem (the Arian controversy, for example) but then issued _universal_ statements about the essence of Christianity, covering lots of other topics as well...



No, let us not let 'em off the hook. The church has been dominated for 2000 years by the apologetics of Christian Pharisees... (Pity people like Francis of Assisi were not invited by Church autorities to write a formal apologetic for Christian faith and practice)...



Shalom!



Rowland Croucher