Following up to my post on the issues confronting the Episcopal church… the latest issue of Trinity (the diocesan newsletter) includes an excellent article written by Rev. Dr. Les Fairfield, professor emeritus at Trinity School for Ministry. Here’s a quick summary taken from his article:
“Classic Biblical and Anglican theology believes in a God who exists as a community of three Persons, who are nonetheless one God.
We believe that Jesus was and is the Second Person of the Trinity.
Finally we believe that Jesus personally affirmed the authority of the Old Testament Scriptures…
“Modernism… rejects all of these classic Biblical and Anglican affirmations. For Modernism, the word ‘god’ refers to an impersonal force that is wholly within the universe.
Modernism therefore rejects Jesus as the pre-existing Second Person of the Trinity. For Modernism, Jesus was simply a Palestinian sage…
Finally Modernism views the Bible as it does all the holy books amongst the world religions, namely as a human artifact.
As one Episcopal bishop recently put it, “The Church wrote the Bible, so the Church can re-write the Bible.”
“To sum it up, Modernism uses all the old familiar Christian words, but changes all the meanings. And it neglects to tell the laity.”
To read the complete article, click here and navigate to page 20.
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