tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2458185836486141916.post4298353087497120157..comments2024-03-27T15:57:45.646+11:00Comments on Set Apart In Christ: Salvation Army Doctrines - Time for changeAdamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11729367092929790809noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2458185836486141916.post-81298661642922746812020-05-28T22:08:50.832+10:002020-05-28T22:08:50.832+10:00Get rid of these doctrines or change them to somet...Get rid of these doctrines or change them to something good. Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05490955815144188031noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2458185836486141916.post-26227648041837220972013-06-28T10:43:24.287+10:002013-06-28T10:43:24.287+10:00My profile is anonymous, but I'm not. I'm...My profile is anonymous, but I'm not. I'm Fred Rasmussen, a Major about to retire in 2014 from the Western Territory USA.<br />About 28 years ago we embarked on a research project and plea to IHQ (via Corps Cadets, DHQ, THQ, NHQ and then to IHQ Doctrine Council) to modify the First Doctrine to change "they only constitute.." to "they alone constitute..." to provide clarity and exclusive authority to the role of scripture as authoritative for our faith and practice. <br />Our proposal was agreed-to up to and including the General, even the Doctrine Council asked her (Eva Burroughs at that time) if they could change the doctrines. She was told by legal counsel - and she in turn told me directly on a visit to Pasadena - that any wording change to the doctrines would require a complete re-establishment of The Salvation Army in all English law references, and corporation "deed polls" (which I think is the British equivalency of articles of incorporation.)<br />This was because the first slate of written doctrines - as formed by Booth and company in those early days of the movement - were included as part of the foundational documents filed with the government... and any modification to them would have to be accompanied by a "re-boot" of the whole TSA articles structure. Accordingly, it was recommended to her that vigorous teaching was far simpler than legally re-setting every time a doctrine needed "help".<br />So here we are then with admittedly flawed or weak wording of the doctrinal form... yet(as you point out) they serve to point us to the greater abiding Truth found in Christ and God's Word.<br />I believe - after many years of pounding my head against the proverbial stones of organizational rocks resistant to change - that energetic parallel teaching, as your efforts suggest, is probably the only way to get the message through. <br />I have chosen to fight the good fight for the hearts and minds of men and women by preaching, teaching and helping them establish relationships that will ultimately lead them to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. I then trust the Holy Spirit to overcome the inefficacies of our printed words formed in the urgency era of evangelical zeal and not careful theologic exactitude. I believe He can and does lead us to the Truths He wants us to embrace. And thus I avoid the countless hours of discussing theological minutae; and instead focus those efforts on the lives of the people I can affect. I wish you well in what will become YOUR Army after I retire. I just trust that you spend as much time with your congregation of living people as you obviously spend with your digital research and scholarly endeavours. In our zeal to accomplish something lasting in the span of our ministry, we can often overlook the opportunities that are right in front of us in the lives of the people God has already led our way.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2458185836486141916.post-29876992095650403792009-08-31T17:01:12.400+10:002009-08-31T17:01:12.400+10:00If we are forced to exegete them in order to then ...If we are forced to exegete them in order to then be pointed to the Truth, then that is evidence enough for me that work need to be done in order to update them. <br /><br /><br />Shouldn't this always be the case? Any 'text' requires interpretation, and in fact, relies on interpretation to function as text.<br /><br />My other concern, and I touched on this on FB, is that we have used our doctrines as an end point, not a starting point. Theology, as I understand it (not very well - I am a bible guy after all) is dynamic; it starts at a point and moves, ceaselessly, relentlessly forward towards new statements, new interpretations. These too are imperfect, but they form a new base from which we launch. Anyway, Janice is much better than me on this, so I will leave it to her.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2458185836486141916.post-81123433150953100802009-08-31T11:27:28.805+10:002009-08-31T11:27:28.805+10:00Speaking as a non-Salvationist, your suggested rev...Speaking as a non-Salvationist, your suggested revisions sound good to me and do not seem to strike at anything distinctively Salvationist. In fact your revisions would surely only strengthen and make more orthodox and Wesleyan an already good, though like all such statements somewhat flawed, confession of faith. You don't need me to tell you that such changes are long term projects, especially where the statement is fenced about with all kinds of legal and constitutional protections. As I think you know I've been part of revision to my own denominational statement of faith which began with my signature and two others on a proposed revision (the dropping of a single sentence)and eventually led to a change to the globally authoritative "Articles of Religion." That was a 10 year journey, but it has to start somewhere. Now if we can only revise that statement on entire sanctification...Glen O'Brienhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00131451459050975926noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2458185836486141916.post-86836647324822310772009-08-30T22:50:29.651+10:002009-08-30T22:50:29.651+10:00Definitely some well constructed arguments there m...Definitely some well constructed arguments there mate - and there are many others yet to be spoken in this forum. Keep running with it, because you are onto something, however I wonder if in spite of such solid theological and practical insights you will get very far with it. Would be happy to be proven otherwise. <br /><br />ShellUnknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10571113338759398224noreply@blogger.com