blhowes
Puritan Board Professor
I was checking out a local church's website to try and get a feel for what they believe. Their statement of faith gave me some idea, but it was general (in comparison to the Westminster, 1689, etc). The pastor of the church graduated from Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, so I thought I'd take a look at their site to find out additional info.
I was just curious if anybody knew how this seminary compares to reformed seminaries some of you have attended or are attending, as to differences and similarities?
From their "What We Believe and Teach" page:
Not long after the great evangelical awakenings, the Evangelical Alliance, led by Thomas Chalmers in 1846, stated its faith in a cluster of nine affirmations: 1) the inspiration of the Bible; 2) the right and duty of private judgment in the interpretation of the Scriptures; 3) the Trinity; 4) human depravity; 5) the meditation of the divine Christ; 6) justification by faith; 7) conversion and sanctification by the Holy Spirit; 8) the return of Christ and judgment; 9) the ministry of the Word.
Still later, in 1910, five fundamentals were identified to distinguish evangelicals from the liberalism that threatened the church: 1) the miracles of Christ; 2) the virgin birth of Christ; 3) the satisfaction view of the atonement; 4) the verbal inspiration of the Scriptures; and 5) the bodily resurrection of Christ.
Following this evangelical pattern, the Fuller Statement of Faith includes ten central affirmations which we "hold to be essential" to our ministry: 1) the existence, perfection and triune nature of God; 2) the revelation of God in creation, history and in Jesus Christ; 3) the inspiration and authority of the Scriptures; 4) God's creation of the world and humankind, with humanity's rebellion and subsequent depravity; 5) the person and work of Jesus Christ, including his deity, virgin birth, true humanity, substitutionary death, bodily resurrection, and ascension to heaven; 6) the Holy Spirit's work in regeneration and justification; 7) growth in the knowledge of God and Christian obedience; 8) the church as the creation of the Holy Spirit; 9) the worship, mission and service of the church; 10) the return of Christ to raise the dead and to judge the world.
Any examination of the Fuller Statement will indicate how careful we have been to include all the basics of the historic faith, from God's creation of the world out of nothing to the separation of the wicked from God's presence in final judgment. No central doctrine of Scripture as highlighted in the Reformation and reemphasized in the great Evangelical Awakening has been omitted. Beyond that, our faculty and trustees "acknowledge the creeds of the early church and the confession of the Protestant communions to which they severally belong."
I was just curious if anybody knew how this seminary compares to reformed seminaries some of you have attended or are attending, as to differences and similarities?