3.3 Statements of Faith

[Caleb]

Liberalism and fundamentalism in Theology have always been a problem in the church. Most of these problems I think exist at the root because of a lack of acknowledgement that we are all brothers and sisters in Christ and Jesus has died for all believers. I think Pentecostals can guard against this by simply having conversation with other believers and finding the common ground of dogma between them. as long as we hold the same dogmatic views, we should at least make an effort to fellowship with them.

[Micah]

I agree. Your emphasis on sanctification being an essential piece in avoiding unnecessary disunity makes me think of some of the key things to help prevent third-order beliefs from creating disunity: things like grace, humility, and a desire to learn. We need to recognize that we are not always right and that there is room for a lot of nuance within personal beliefs and preference. These dynamics must go both ways.

I think of issues that seem very insignificant, such as not wearing hats in services: two or three generations above me generally have much stronger convictions on this idea as a form of respect, yet that appears to be heavily culturally influenced. That being said, that is no reason to foster disrespect from the younger generations where that is less of a cultural factor, rather, both sides must honour each other and approach things like this with humility, recognizing the appropriate significance of the issue and adjusting behaviour accordingly.

[Kylie]

By first being aware of these errors and understanding why there is a first, second, third and fourth-order, Pentecostals can watch out for situations where they might slip into these errors. This course/lesson is one great way to bring such awareness and understanding, teaching believers what should be held as unchangeable and where we must agree to disagree from time to time, and be okay with it. Reading scripture and pressing into the Lord are also always great ways to guard from theological liberalism and unnecessary division for I do believe if we are close to Him the prideful heart and the spirit of disunity fall away and also the more we know God through prayer, scripture and the secret place the more likely our theology will be corrected.

[VICTOR]

This is what I call the “pendulum syndrome” where one has the tendency to either go on extreme left or extreme right. In anything, my personal rule of thumb is “balance.” I need to balance myself from being too theological (anything that doesn’t look like what I perceive to be biblical is wrong), or liberal (anything is ok). We are in error if we subscribe either one of these sides.

We can guard ourselves against falling into either of these error by going back to basics: be familiarized with your Bible; keep growing, keep learning, do research. And apply love (grace) in everything.