The Evangelical Universalist Forum

I Believe

I believe in [one] God, the only uncreated, always existing with maximal power, knowledge of all possibilities, unlimited love, justice, and as three equal persons of one indivisible divine nature. [deleted “partnership”]

[new paragraph]
I believe God made all creation and revealed the three divine persons as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

I believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Christ remained fully divine while becoming fully human. He ministered teaching, prophecy, and miracles. He died on a cross for our salvation from sin, resurrected from the dead, ascended to the heavenly dimensions, and poured out the Holy Spirit while establishing the church of saints. He will return, judge the living and the dead, and fully establish his glorious kingdom on earth.

theoperspectives.blogspot.com/2011/02/i-believe.html

I like it a lot, Jim. With our conversations in the back of my mind I know where you’re going. But without those conversations I’d have a few questions

For clarity’s sake (I’ll put in CAPS what I’d add):

“I believe in ONE God…”

“…PERFECT IN POWER, KNOWLEDGE AND GOODNESS [or benevolence],” and even then “perfect” begs for an explanation. There are competing ideas of what constitutes perfect power or knowledge, etc. I’m not sure what “maximal power” is. Since I’m a libertarian, I think God has shared some of his “say-so” with us. So whatever absolute power (in terms of sheer muscle) God may have, he’s limited the ‘exercise’ of it to make room for us a freely determining creatures. I’d probably just aim at a general statement about God and then seek to express God’s relationship to creation in a separate paragraph. And once you say “perfect in benevolence” you’ve included all other virtues (justice, righteousness, etc.), so I wouldn’t need to list any of them per se.

“Partnership” scares me because it can mean so many different things.

I like the Christological piece.

Back later! Gotta run,

Tom

Great feedback, Tom.

I’m trying to strike a balance of instruction, inspiration, and avoidance of common philosophical traps.

You have a great idea with clearly implying monotheism in the first phrase. I’ll begin with “I believe in one God.” Also, my partnership model of the trinity is too complex for a statement like this, so I’ll scratch that.

I avoided the terms almighty and omnipotence because they get philosophical flack. For example, God cannot make an unbending stick that he cannot bend. Alternatively, maximal power is a theological term that means “most possible power” while avoiding the “almighty” philosophical trap. I like the alliteration of “perfect power” while perfect/flawless power might not be the most possible power, so I’ll stick with “maximal power” as vague as it might be to many people.

I like the instructional value in the phrase knowledge of all possibilities, so I’ll stick with that.

I agree that love implies justice, but that’s unclear to many people. Many people need to see the juxtaposition of “love” and “justice,” so I’ll stick with that.

I like your idea of using two paragraphs to separate the core original attributes of God from the the statement about God’s relationship to creation. That makes two one-sentence paragraphs, but that’s okay for a creed.

This edits to:

*I believe in one God, the only uncreated, always existing with maximal power, knowledge of all possibilities, unlimited love, justice, and as three equal persons of one indivisible divine nature.

I believe God made all creation and revealed the three divine persons as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

I believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Christ remained fully divine while becoming fully human. He ministered teaching, prophecy, and miracles. He died on a cross for our salvation from sin, resurrected from the dead, ascended to the heavenly dimensions, and poured out the Holy Spirit while establishing the church of saints. He will return, judge the living and the dead, and fully establish his glorious kingdom on earth.*

theoperspectives.blogspot.com/20 … lieve.html

Traditionalist who believe in inscrutable simple foreknowledge can also affirm this creed. But the more I think about it, I see inscrutable simple foreknowledge as less and less relevant, even if I could never absolutely disprove it.

I also avoid the traditionalist “eternal generation of the son,” which I strongly doubt. For example, I see the Bible teaching that the declaration of Christ’s Sonship relates to creation, the incarnation, and the resurrection.

I wanted to more clearly distinguish my doctrine from modalism and made at least two sentences for each paragraph. Here is my latest draft:

*I believe in one God, the only uncreated, always existing with maximal power, knowledge of all possibilities, unlimited love, justice, and as three distinct persons of one indivisible divine nature. The three divine persons eternally and equally share the same [indivisible] glory, honor, and ability.

I believe God made the substance of all creation. And God revealed the three divine persons as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

I believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Christ remained fully divine while becoming fully human. He ministered teaching, prophecy, and miracles. He died on a cross for our salvation from sin, resurrected from the dead, ascended to the heavenly dimensions, and poured out the Holy Spirit while establishing the church of saints. He will return, judge the living and the dead, and fully establish his glorious kingdom on earth.*

theoperspectives.blogspot.com/2011/02/i-believe.html