Scot McKnight’s post No Creed But the Bible is of particular interest to those of us who have a background in the Restoration Movement. In this post, McKnight reviews Carl Trueman’s book The Creedal Imperative where Trueman sets out to show that approach really isn’t possible or helpful. McKnight draws the distinction that we all may not have written creeds but we all do have theologies through which we view things. McKnight does think creeds are helpful and necessary. In the Restoration movement, the common teaching and old popular slogan (author unknown) was “No creed but Christ, no book but the Bible, no law but love, no name but the divine.” Now, I may be off on this one but my impression was that the early Restoration leaders were pushing back against a highly denominationalized Christianity where they felt creeds were actually taking the place of scripture in some instances. I doubt men like Alexander Campbell and Barton Stone would reject the theological content of The Apostles’ Creed
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Anyone who tries to say that we in the Non-instrumental wing of the Stone-Campbell Movement have no creed but Christ is either woefully unaware of our history or willfully whistling in the dark to perpetuate a myth. Anyone who has been in our fellowship in an active way knows the creed -with its many elements that “cannot be broken” or questioned without dire consequences to the questioner.
We have creeds that we call slogans.
And some of our “creed” goes beyond slogans to rules regulating worship discovered only by creative interpretation of biblical silences….
If my Restoration History cl asses are being remembered correctly, Barton W. Stone wasn’t a fan of the orthodox doctrine of the Trinity. He was more of a modalist than a trinitarian (I think).
I hadn’t thought about that. I guess the trinity would really be problematic in the Apostle’s creed. It does mention all three at times but doesn’t explicitly endorse trinitarian theology. At least if I am remembering it right 🙂
I think he makes some solid points.
And I think that over the years we have been disingenuous with the application of our own slogans (or creed-less creeds, or whatever they are). I think we get the sentiment right most of the time. I just think the way we put it into practice is sometimes flawed.
Which I think leaves us open for some of the criticism that is levied here.
We have contradictory slogans – https://mattdabbs.wordpress.com/2011/12/09/two-contradictory-church-of-christ-principles/