I forgot one relatively major thing in the last post that is vital to understanding pretty much any Statement of Faith, and important to understanding the things that Campus Crusade for Christ has included in ours.
In a healthy representation of a person or groups faith there are three relatively distinct levels of belief or strength at which they hold a belief. Not everything is the same as far as importance, not everything is something that we should hold close to our heart.
Convictions
These are central beliefs which are crucial to salvation. These beliefs are the ones over which we break fellowship (if there is no repentance) and if it was a spiritual leader who held errant views we would be willing to publicly denounce. Also, these are the beliefs that it would be most necessary to choose death over denying them.
Examples of Conviction-Level beliefs: the Trinity, Jesus’ divinity and humanity, Christ’s death and the resurrection, salvation by grace through faith.
Persuasions
These are beliefs about which we are personally certain, but can still fellowship with other Christians who disagree since they are not matters central to the Gospel and/or the historic Christian faith. These may be issues over which local churches might amicably divide while still recognizing the other body as friends, co-workers and brothers & sisters in the faith.
Examples of Persuasion-Level beliefs: speaking in tongues, Calvinism/Arminianism, mode or method of Baptism, how the Trinity interacts within itself, model of Church government.
Opinions
These are beliefs, desires or even wishes which may not be clearly taught in Scripture or which may legitimately differ for various believers. These are beliefs that we should be able to discuss with an air of complete trust and light-heartedness.
Examples of Opinion-Level beliefs: the best Bible translation, musical worship style, age of the Earth or the method of creation, home schooling.
Why is this Important?
Holding beliefs too lightly can lead to a slippery slope where we don’t believe anything strongly. Our faith becomes a matter of convenience and something that we’re willing to give up at the first sign of resistance; it becomes a faith that is, at its core, false and dead.
Just as destructively, we can hold beliefs too tightly. This is the defining element of what would be called fundamentalists; the irony is that they are not actually focused on the fundamentals! When you are as a group or a person more focused on verbally excommunicating people because they believe that God created everything via a different method than you think or espousing your pet Bible translation above or more often than glorifying Christ those good things (the Bible and pondering the creation) become idols that draw us away from the God who created them.
It’s important to remember that these categories are not about how strongly you feel about them; they are categories of how central they are to our faith.
The Statement of Faith
You’ll notice as you look at the CCC Statement of Faith that it only covers conviction and persuasion level issues. The number of contentious issues that it does not address is pretty large: Church government, women’s ordination, modes of Baptism, the Lord’s supper, miraculous gifts, Christians & war, the creation model, age of the universe, end times prophecy, how will Christ return, Bible translations, etc. This is because staff, students and volunteers have the freedom to hold views that are not in the Statement of Faith as long as they are based on Scripture and not a distraction to our mission. This also allows us to accomplish the mission of bringing the Gospel to the heart of every student on every campus by partnering widely with anyone and everyone who agrees with the statement of faith – even if we disagree on other things which are not on it.
It’s all about bringing the Gospel to people. We lead them to join a church that also agrees with us on these 17 points, but we know that these churches will teach beyond this as well and we welcome that because we’re just a piece of the puzzle; Christ is the whole picture.
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