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From: mangoe@umcp-cs.UUCP (Charley Wingate)
Newsgroups: net.religion
Subject: Re: Biblical Christianity
Message-ID: <112@umcp-cs.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 25-Sep-84 19:31:11 EDT
Article-I.D.: umcp-cs.112
Posted: Tue Sep 25 19:31:11 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 27-Sep-84 05:24:59 EDT
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Organization: U of Maryland, Computer Science Dept., College Park, MD
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[John Nelson]

>  I agree with you here [on the existence of christians before the NT],
> except that the only record of what you will call "the essential
> doctrines" of being a Christian were communicated to us through that
> book.

What about the teachings of the Church?  I don't mean the RC church,
either; I mean all the writings and teachings of the Churchs throughout
christian history.  The Episcopal Church, for one, recognizes the
Apostle's Creed and the Nicene Creed as being equal in merit to the
scriptures.  It seems to me that this is how fundamentalism got its
start, with the notion that any man could, in total isolation, read the Bible
and be able to interpret it absolutely correctly.

> No flames, sorry... but I can't agree with you entirely here [concerning
> my three principles].  There are other tenets to observe....

I suppose I should have listed the two great commandments as numbers 4
and 5 on my list.  Beyond this, Jesus said to the lawyer that the remainder
of the law is derivable from this.  The write of the Acts of the Apostles
seems to subscribe to the view that the Holy Spirit will provide guidance,
as does Paul, although to a lesser extent.  In practice, this view would
mean that the members of the church (or elders, or bishops, if you prefer)
sit down and work out the meaning and substance of the law.  And in fact,
this is what they did, with reference to the Jewish scriptures and what
sayings of Jesus were remembered.

I don't believe in original sin.  I'm not really sure what I believe in
(i.e. I don't have an answer to the "what happens to little babies that
die?" question).  I'm reasonably sure that most people have a reasonably
lengthy list of transgressions by the age of 13, which is sufficient for
me at this time.

Charley Wingate