(continuation of last post)
The Assemblies of God’s
Statement of Fundamental Truths was written with much the same rationale.
It was first composed in 1916, two years after the AG was first established by a group of Pentecostal ministers. They were very reluctant to even create written confession of faith or creed in the early years, preferring to claim Scripture as their only confession or creed. Doctrinal controversies quickly put an end to that dream, however. The major controversies erupted over the doctrine of the Trinity (Truths 2 & 3) and initial evidence (see Truths 7 & 8). The language (though no essential doctrine or content) was given somewhat of a major revision in 1961. Still, even today we can see how formative these controversies were to the formation of the AG’s doctrinal identity. Around two pages out of six are dedicated to defending the biblical nature of the Trinity.
Given this history, we can safely assume that the Fundamental Truths were always meant to be an explanation of why certain widely held AG beliefs were biblical and therefore necessary to preserve the unity and fellowship of the AG. Scripture was not just a primary source from which these Fundamental Truths were identified and drawn. A need to identify
important matters of Scriptural truth and interpretation was the whole reason the Statement of Fundamental Truths was written to begin with.
So, with that being said, lets now look at the preamble to the Statement of Fundamental Truths both as it now exists today (and how it compares to the Southern Baptist BF&M) and as it was first written and approved at the 1916 General Council of the Assemblies of God. Today, the preamble reads:
The Bible is our all-sufficient rule for faith and practice. This Statement of Fundamental Truths is intended simply as a basis of fellowship among us (i.e., that we all speak the same thing, 1 Corinthians 1:10; Acts 2:42). The phraseology employed in this Statement is not inspired nor contended for, but the truth set forth is held to be essential to a full-gospel ministry. No claim is made that it covers all Biblical truth, only that it covers our need as to these fundamental doctrines.
Notice the similarity to the BF&M’s preamble. First, both preambles proclaim in almost identical language that Scripture is the “sole authority” or “all-sufficient rule” for faith and practice (see point 4 above). Second, both preambles take pains to point out that these confessions of faith represent merely a consensus of opinon among the subscribers. This is so that all within the fellowship can “speak the same thing” about “those articles of the Christian faith which are most surely held among us” (see point 1 above). Third, both preambles emphasize the incompleteness of such confessions of faith. Neither are inspired or infallible and neither were designed to be inspired or infallible. Both preambles state outright that these confessions are not “complete statements of our faith” (see point 2 above) or that it “covers all Biblical truth.” The statements were not designed to do this. (In the case of Fundamental Truths, the way it came into existence was much like the ancient creeds which were compiled in response to the threat of heresy). These statements as they now stand simply meets the needs of their respective denominations at this time, and both the AG and the SBC reserve the right to change these statements as new controversies and threats to the unity of the fellowship or the integrity to the Christian gospel arise.
Now that we’ve looked at the preamble to the Statement of Fundamental Truths as it exists today and have compared it to the BF&M preamble, I’d like to point out small but still interesting changes that were made to the original preamble, which I’ve reproduced below (emphasis added):
This Statement of Fundamental Truths is not intended as a creed for the Church**, nor as a basis of fellowship among Christians, but only as a basis of unity for the ministry alone (i.e., that we all speak the same thing, 1 Cor. 1:10; Acts 2:42). The human phraseology employed in such statement is not inspired nor contended for, but the truth set forth in such phraseology is held to be essential to a full Gospel ministry. No claim is made that it contains all truth in the Bible, only that it covers our present needs as to these fundamental matters.
First, the original preamble explicitly stated that the Statement of Fundamental Truths was not a creed. The revised preamble has removed this clause, which implicitly recognizes that such a statement does function as a creed, albeit a creed that begins by asserting the all-sufficiency of Scripture in faith and practice.
Second, the original preamble also explicitly stated that this document was not to be used as a “basis of fellowship among Christians” (meaning that it was not a test for determining authentic Christians or excluding other Christians with different beliefs). Originally, it was only to be used as a doctrinal standard for and among ordained ministers, so that both unity and orthodoxy would be guarded.
Third, the original preamble included the phrase “it covers our present needs as to these fundamental matters.” This would indicate that temporary or ad hoc nature of the statement, since it was in response to a series of specific theological disputes where clarity was needed. Later, however, the word “present” was removed, indicating that the AG was beginning to see this statement as more of a permanent and sub-ordinate and somewhat authoritative confession of the Pentecostal faith.
