Phillip to a certain degree I agree with what you said. to another degree and in another way, I disagree with what you said. Instead of me saying what I disgree with you about, I want to take some quotes from Hetherington's book on the Westminster Assembly and let everyone read them. I think they are important.
Hetherington is online at
http://www.crta.org
They are from chatper 6:
The Christian Church, as a divine institution, [b:80e895da14]takes the Word of God alone,[/b:80e895da14] and the whole Word of God, as her [b:80e895da14]only[/b:80e895da14] rule of faith; but she [b:80e895da14]must[/b:80e895da14] also frame and promulgate a statement of what she [b:80e895da14]understands the Word of God to teach.[/b:80e895da14] This she does, not as arrogating any authority to suppress, change, or amend anything that God's Word teaches; [b:80e895da14]but in discharge of the various duties which she owes to God,[/b:80e895da14] to the world, and to those of her own communion.
Thus a Confession of Faith is [b:80e895da14]not[/b:80e895da14] the very voice of divine truth, but [b:80e895da14]the echo[/b:80e895da14] of that voice from souls that have heard its utterance, felt its power, and are answering to its call. And, since she has been [b:80e895da14]instituted for the purpose of teaching God's truth[/b:80e895da14] to an erring world, her [b:80e895da14]duty[/b:80e895da14] to the world requires that she should [b:80e895da14]leave it in no doubt respecting the manner in which she understands the message which she has to deliver.[/b:80e895da14] Without doing so, the Church would be no teacher, and the world might remain untaught, so far as she was concerned.
For when the message had been stated in God's own words, [b:80e895da14]every hearer must attempt[/b:80e895da14], according to the constitution of his own mind, to form [b:80e895da14]some conception of what these words mean[/b:80e895da14]; and his conceptions may be very vague and obscure, or even very erroneous, [b:80e895da14]unless some attempt be made to define, elucidate, and correct them. [/b:80e895da14]
Nor, indeed, could either the hearers or the teachers know that they [b:80e895da14]understood the truth alike[/b:80e895da14], without mutual [b:80e895da14]statements and explanations[/b:80e895da14] with regard to the meaning which they respectively believe it to convey.
Still further, the Church has a duty to discharge to those of its own communion. To them she [b:80e895da14]must produce a form of sound words,[/b:80e895da14] in order both to [b:80e895da14]promote[/b:80e895da14] and confirm their knowledge, and also to [b:80e895da14]guard[/b:80e895da14] them against the hazard of being led into errors; and, as they must be regarded as all agreed, with respect to the main outline of the truths which they believe, they are deeply interested in obtaining some security that those who are to become their teachers in future generations shall continue to teach the same divine and saving truths. The members of any Church must know each other's sentiments; must combine to hold them forth steadily and consistently to the notice of all around them, as witnesses for the same truths; and must do their utmost to secure that the [b:80e895da14]same truths[/b:80e895da14] shall be [b:80e895da14]taught by all their ministers, and to all candidates for admission.[/b:80e895da14]
For all these purposes the formation of a Creed, or Confession of Faith, is [b:80e895da14]imperatively necessary[/b:80e895da14]; and thus it appears that a Church [b:80e895da14]cannot adequately discharge its duty to God, to the world, and to its own members, without a Confession of Faith.[/b:80e895da14]
There [b:80e895da14]never[/b:80e895da14] has been a period in which the Christian Church has been without a Confession of Faith, though these Confessions have varied both in character and in extent.
The first and simplest Confession is that of Peter: "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." That of the Ethiopian treasurer is similar, and almost identical: "I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God." This Confession secured admission into the Church; but without this, admission could not have been obtained. It was not long till this simple and brief primitive Confession was [b:80e895da14]enlarged[/b:80e895da14]; at first, in order to meet the perverse notions of the Judaizing teachers, and next, to exclude those who were beginning to be tainted with the Gnostic heresies. It then [b:80e895da14]became necessary[/b:80e895da14], not only to confess that Jesus Christ was the Son of God, but also that Jesus Christ was come in the flesh, in order to prevent the admission, and to check the teaching, of those who held that Christ's human nature was a mere phantasm or appearance.
In like manner the rise of any heresy rendered it [b:80e895da14]necessary[/b:80e895da14], first, to test the novel tenet by the Word of God and by the decision of the Holy Spirit, and then to add to the existing Confession of Faith [b:80e895da14]a new article[/b:80e895da14], containing the deliverance of the Church respecting each successive heresy. Thus, in the [b:80e895da14]discharge of her duty to God, to the world, and to herself, the Church was constrained to enlarge the Confession of her Faith[/b:80e895da14].
But this unavoidable enlargement ought not to be censured as unnecessarily lengthened and minute; for, let it be observed, that it led to a [b:80e895da14]continually increasing clearness and precision in the testimony of what the Church believes[/b:80e895da14], and tended to the progressive development of sacred truth. Further, as the need of a Confession arises from the nature of the human mind, and the enlargement of the Confession was caused by the successive appearance and refutation of error, and as the human mind is still the same, and prone to the same erroneous notions, the Confession of Faith, which contains a refutation of past heresies, furnishes, at the same time, to all who understand it, a ready weapon wherewith to encounter any resuscitated heresy. The truth of this view will be most apparent to those who have most carefully studied the various Confessions of Faith framed by the Christian Church. And it must ever be regarded as a matter of no small importance by those who seek admission into any Church, that in its Confession they can obtain a full exhibition of the terms of communion to which they are required to consent.
[i:80e895da14]The existence of a Confession of Faith is ever a standing defense against the danger of any Church lapsing unawares into heresy.[/i:80e895da14] For although no Church ought to regard her Confession as a standard of faith, in any other than a subordinate sense, [b:80e895da14]still it is a standard of admitted faith[/b:80e895da14], which the Church may not lightly abandon, and a term of communion to its own members, till its articles are accused of being erroneous, and again brought to the final and supreme standard, the Word of God and the teaching of the Holy Spirit, sincerely, humbly, and earnestly sought in faith and prayer.
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This is where I think the church today is blowing it. solo Scriptura is nonsense. It always has been. The [i:80e895da14]Regula Fide[/i:80e895da14] has always existed, and will forever exist. Unless we have a Confession of faith, of some sort of united ideas, we can never discharge our duty to God becuase we would lapse into "My ideas" and "My interpretation" instead of the "The Interpretation" that the church may have commonly held.
So I agree with what you said, and disgree to an extent.
[quote:80e895da14]
We MUST esteem others as better than ourselves - not as stupid dolts who are poor milk drinking saps that God has chosen to leave behind while He moves others to solid truth, meat, maturity, and the seat on His right and left hands in the kingdom.
[/quote:80e895da14]
Problem here is when the "stupid dolts who are poor milk drinking saps" are propogating soemthing false, they do not want to chagne thier minds when confronted with making hard decisions about what they believe. It ends up, rightly as you are conveying, as [i:80e895da14]ad hominem[/i:80e895da14] arguments.
[quote:80e895da14]
And the difference between milk and meat has nothing to do with anything any mere man has ever written. It has everything to do with reading, memorizing, and meditating on the Word of God.
[/quote:80e895da14]
Rightly understood, yes. But then we go back to what Hetherington rightly said:
For all these purposes the formation of a Creed, or Confession of Faith, is [b:80e895da14]imperatively necessary[/b:80e895da14]; and thus it appears that a Church [b:80e895da14]cannot adequately discharge its duty to God, to the world, and to its own members, without a Confession of Faith.[/b:80e895da14]
I hope that is objectively making sense.