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3.3 Statements of Faith
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I believe Pentecostals guard against falling into either theological errors by keeping in the forefront of our minds what is fundamental and what is secondary. After reading our statements of faith, I would suggest separating dogma from doctrine, doctrine from personal preference, and personal preference from personal opinion. What makes us Pentecostal is that we believe that we can still be baptized in the Holy Spirit today. There are far too many divisions in the global church today. Let’s work at bridging some of the chasms by focussing on the fundamentals of our faith.
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The Pentecostals can guard against these two errors by stay true and steadfast to the word or God. We can navigate through these situations with open dialog and agree to disagree.
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I belive that the only way to avoid either of these error is to 1) seek God in these discussions, asking Him for guidence and wisdom 2) be open to other voices and criticism, we are not to live out our faith in an echo chamber, but we should allow space for other opinions 3) remain humble, we will never be 100% right. At any given moment likley 30% of our theology is wrong, but we just won’t know what 30%
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To safeguard against these two errors, I would suggest the following:
First, decide that every conversation flows through love, which looks like being quick to listen, slow to speak, patient, and kind in all of our communications. I would propose that most divisions, be they of the church or personal, do not follow this rule well.
Second, examine Scripture itself to see how fiercely a particular belief is defended; is it only discussed in one obscure verse in a single epistle? Or is it saturated throughout the gospels, and multiple letters from multiple authors?
Finally, examine church history; have there been times when a group of Jesus followers have believed this in the past? If so, what was the end result of that group? Are they still thriving today, or did their history end poorly and teach us not to follow their ways?
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