Articles of Faith - Part One
In the first place, there are those who question the need, or propriety of having articles of faith at all. “Why not just let the bible speak for us?” they ask. Now, that may sound very appealing to simplicity of thinking, but a moment’s reflection will show the insufficiency of such a solution. Most professed Christians also profess to believe the bible and contend that it is the source of their belief. Yet, what they believe is so divergent that, for one to simply say, “I believe what the bible teaches,” tells you absolutely nothing about WHAT they believe about any particular subject in the Bible. The important question is, what do you believe the bible to teach? What is the meaning of certain passages, verses, even words? To illustrate the point rather dramatically, where can you find a Primitive Baptist hat will tell you that John 3:16 can be taken at face value and expresses what he believes without any explanation at all? Now, just in case this may fall under the scrutiny of some Arminian, I will ask you a question: Who among you would be willing to take Romans 9:13, “…Jacob have I loved but Esau have I hated,” at face value without any explanation? The examples could be multiplied a hundredfold and will suffice to show that, before you can tell anything about what a person believes, biblically speaking, you must know something about what he thinks it teaches on some definitive subject. Therefore, in setting forth the distinguishing characteristics of the belief of any religious group, “Articles of Faith” serve a very useful purpose. Furthermore, they are a great help to anyone, or group, in studying the Bible on various subjects. Also, to test their faith by the bible itself, if they have the fortitude to do so!
Secondly, I believe it is in complete harmony with Apostolic precept and example to “…set forth in order a declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us,…” (Luke 1:1) Of course, this could be done by expounding the Holy Scriptures themselves on all points of one’s belief. But this would take so much time and/or space that few people would take the time to read, or listen, as the case might be. On the other hand, that would require a profundity that but very, very few men possess! The only alternative is to “set forth in order a declaration” in an abbreviated form. If you do this in the briefest way possible to be understood, what you have are “Articles of Faith” - you may call it whatever you please!
Many people are discouraged by lengthy articles. So, in order to encourage and invite attention to this subject, I am going to let this suffice for this time and try to have some more to say about it at a later date. Incidentally, I just made another point in favor of “Articles of Faith.”
- Elder Virgil F. Lowrance