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Discussion Forum : Articles and Sermons : 95 Theses for the Twenty-First Century Church

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pilgrim777
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Joined: 2011/9/30
Posts: 1211


 95 Theses for the Twenty-First Century Church

Challenging the contemporary Church to a reaffirmation of its historic beliefs and a reexamination of its ecclesial
practices and exhortations.

It has been almost 500 years since Martin Luther posted his ninety‐five theses on the door of the castle church in Wittenberg on October 31, 1517. Two months prior to that posting, on September 4, 1517, Luther had written, and sent to the Augustinian monastery in Erfurt, ninety‐seven theses against scholastic theology. He was stonewalled – there was no reaction or response to his statements. In October of 1517 Martin Luther wrote his list of ninety‐five theses against indulgences. This time he collaborated with his friend Lucas Cranach (the elder), a painter and printer living in Wittenberg.

The ninety‐five theses were reportedly posted on the door of the castle church in Wittenberg, but more importantly they utilized the relatively new communication medium of movable type and printing, whereby printed copies of the ninety‐five theses were distributed to major churches and universities throughout the region, and even as far as Rome. Utilizing the methodological means of contemporary
technological media, the ninety‐five theses made a major impact on the entire church and changed the course of Western history.

In formulating this list of ninety‐five theses for the twenty‐first century church, and utilizing the latest of technological tools for their distribution and dissemination, we could wish that these theses might have as great an impact. Our objective is to challenge the contemporary institutional church to reconsider some of its teaching and practice. These thesis statements are not intended to be just another critical complaint against the contemporary church, but they are published as a positive declaration of the Christian gospel of Jesus Christ, with accompanying correctives that might be addressed.

Some will object to this challenge of the ecclesiastical status quo, thinking that in critiquing the thought and practice of the church we are casting doubts about Christianity or even denigrating the gospel of Jesus Christ. Not so! Earlier in the year 1517, prior to his posting his original ninety‐five theses on the Wittenberg Castle Church door, Martin Luther stated in one of his sermons, “Where Christ is, there He will always go against the flow.” This is a most insightful and significant statement. The living Lord Jesus Christ is not content with the status‐quo of “business as usual,” and will always counter the routine of religion in order to assure a dynamic and spontaneous expression of His ever unique and novel work in Christian individuals and in His church.

The theses enumerated below contain both theological and methodological statements, addressing both the teaching and the practice of the Christian community. Several of the initial statements are reiterations of the historic creedal assertions of theChurch, which must be maintained and reaffirmed.

Several of the subsequent theological theses challenge the interpretations of some of the subsidiary tenets of Christian thought. Following the theological considerations, attention is turned to the praxis of the
Christian life and various practices in the ecclesiastical
communities. Many of the ministry methods employed in the contemporary church are abominably misrepresentative of the gospel of Jesus Christ and need to be challenged and reconsidered.

What response might we expect? A “new reformation” will not be an adequate response or reaction. To attempt to rebuild upon the present crumbling religious superstructure by re‐forming existing policies and ideological systems is to invite disaster. The situation requires a complete restoration of the grace dynamic of the gospel of Jesus Christ, whereby the “old wineskins” (Matthew 9:17) of the religious status‐quo are discarded and the “new wine” of the living Lord Jesus is allowed to fill Christian individuals and the collective expression of the Church.

These ninety‐five theses for the twenty‐first century Church are written with the sincere desire that the reality of the living Lord Jesus and the genuine manifestation of His life in His Body, the Church, might be allowed full expression by the power of God’s Spirit.
May the Church of Jesus Christ cease to “quench the Spirit” (I Thess. 5:19) and “grieve the Spirit” (Ephesians
4:30), as God continues to “fill with His Spirit” (Eph.
5:18) and fully reveals Himself within His new creation
unto His own glory (II Peter 1:3).

Preface
Jesus explained that the gates of hell/hades shall not ultimately prevail against His church (Matthew 16:18) and the Christian faith. That does not mean that distortion and misrepresentation do not pervade and infect the temporal expression of the ecclesia. Our prefatory premise is that this present situation of the church should be addressed and corrected, and to that end we do hereby set forth this series of theses to be considered by God’s people.

We respect the historic expressions of the Christian faith from previous generations. The timehonored statements of the Apostles’ Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the Athanasian Creed should not be jettisoned, but retained as valid expressions of Christian orthodoxy, whereby we “contend for the faith once and for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 1:3). These present theses do not contradict or deny the scripturally documented ecclesiastical consensus of the past.

We invite all who call themselves “Christians” to consider and discuss the following theses. May such discussion be conducted in “the love (Romans 15:30) and unity (Ephesians 4:3) of the Spirit” that “we might all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13). “Come, let us reason together” (Isaiah 1:18).

by James Fowler

 2012/1/6 11:01Profile
pilgrim777
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Joined: 2011/9/30
Posts: 1211


 Thesis 1-10

Thesis #1
Trinitarian monotheism is the distinctive and indispensable Christian concept of God. In contrast to the monadic monotheism of Judaism and Islam, the Christian faith recognizes God as essentially one Being who eternally exists in three persons – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – a tri‐unity identified as the divine Trinity. This is not to be construed as a polytheistic tri‐theism, or as a monadic modalism wherein the three divine Persons are but modes of manifestation or role‐function.

Thesis #2
Consideration of God must commence with His divine character of righteousness, goodness, mercy, love, etc. What/Who God is, only God is. The singularity of His holiness separates Him from all that is not Him. Who He
is is not determined by what He does, rather, He does what He does because He is Who He is. His action is always in absolute consistency with the character of His Being, and His Being is implicit within and always expressed by His
every action.

Thesis #3
The divine Son of God, the Word, became flesh (John 1:14) in the historic incarnation, voluntarily emptying Himself (Philippians 2:7) of any prerogative of divine function in order to function as a human bondservant in the likeness of sinful humanity (Romans 8:3). Fully God and fully man in the unity of one Person, the God‐man served as “the one mediator between God and man” (I Tim. 2:5), reconciling
receptive humanity to God (II Corinthians 5:19).

Thesis #4
Functioning not of divine initiative, but allowing God the Father to function in and through His humanity (John 14:10), Jesus was “obedient unto death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:8). By crucifixion Jesus “paid the
price” (I Cor. 6:20; 7:23) of the death consequence of humanity’s sin. As a sinless sacrifice, dying as the representative substitute for all mankind, He “could not be held in death’s power” (Acts 2:24), and rose triumphant over death in the resurrection.

Thesis #5
The divine Holy Spirit, consubstantial with the Father and the Son, and the expressive spiration of both Father and Son, was “poured out” (Acts 2:17,18) in availability to all mankind on Pentecost. The “Spirit of God” (I Cor. 3:16), the “Spirit of Christ” (Rom. 8:9), was thereby
available as the indwelling witness to the human spirit (Rom. 8:16), effecting spiritual regeneration (John 3:6) and energizing both the “fruit” (Gal. 5:22) and the “gifts of the Spirit” (I Cor. 12:1) in Christian lives.

Thesis #6
God alone has “free will” – the ability and freedom to Self‐determine His own action in accord with His own character, and the subsequent inherent power to Self‐implement the expression of such character in action. God created human beings as choosing creatures, granting them the freedom of choice and responsibility (response‐ability) to choose or
reject to be receptive to God’s power and action in their lives, accepting the consequences thereof.

Thesis #7
God is absolute in character, independent in operation, and auto‐generative in expression. God created human beings as dependent creatures, contingent upon a spiritsource
(God or Satan) to derive all character, and to energize all active expression of behavior. The response‐ability of all human beings is to make the necessary choices of
receptivity (faith) that allow for active spiritual expression. This is counter to all humanistic premises of self‐actualization and self‐potential.

Thesis #8
The triune living God is the creative source of all life. Life cannot be derived from non‐life. God created human beings in such a way that His divine life might dwell within humanity and provide the source of all life and
character. Jesus identified Himself as “the life” (John 14:6) that He came to make available to all humanity (John 10:10) by His own indwelling presence (I John 5:12,13) as the “lifegiving Spirit” (I Cor. 15:45), “the Lord, the
Spirit” (II Cor. 3:17,18).

Thesis #9
The infinite and eternal God is beyond the full comprehension and understanding of the finite knowledge of mankind. He ever remains an unknowable mystery (apophatic theology). On the other hand, God intends that humanity
might know Him, and has engaged in the Self revelation of Himself in natural creation, by the incarnation of His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the written record of the scriptures. God is knowable (kataphatic theology), not merely intellectually, but relationally.

Thesis #10
Lucifer (Isaiah 14:12) was an angelic spirit‐being, a choosing derivative creature designed to serve as a messenger to “bear God’s light” unto God’s glory. In selfish rebellion, desiring to be “like the Most High God” (Isaiah 14:14), he inexplicably chose to oppose God. In
so doing, he became Satan, the devil, the adversary, the fixed antithetical negative to God’s positive character, perverting that which is of God and “making crooked the straight ways of God” (Acts 13:10)

 2012/1/6 11:18Profile





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