[sword-devel] Doctrinal Statement

[Troy A. Griffitts]

Wow,
	Lot's 'o email!  Here are some thoughts on a variety of subjects:

	o I use many API and utility functions that are not created by
Christian in the code currently.
	o I have not been against non-Christians contributing code directly to
the project and honestly haven't thought to ask.  If it's good code, I
use it.
	o Now thinking about it, I would probably still hold to this stance by
means of the verse: "... notwithstanding, every way, whether in
pretence, or in truth, Christ is preached" Phil 1:15-18
	o As far as a personal doctrinal statement, I would probably hold to
99% of the doctrinal statement produced by the Lausanne councel for
evengelistic ministries: 
		http://www.gospelcom.net/lcwe/statements/covenant.html
		The other 1% being not in disagreement, but merely agnostic on one or
two statements.

	o As far as content, I personally will not ship CDs that contain
material contrary to traditional orthodox Christianity.

	o I'm not sure if I'm against (but being an opensource project, could
probably do nothing about) people that want to use the software with
non-canonical, or even anti-Christian works.
	o I believe that research is a good thing and God will honor and
ultimately lead the inquisitor to His Truth-- THE Truth, bringing them
to a point of decision.
	o I'm not sure I would be against someone including a Book of Mormon
module, or a New World Translation modules, as any length of research
into these texts should produce their falicies.  Though I do understand
the point about misunderstanding that they might be accepted as orthodox
Christianity.  As stated before, my position is to not ship CDs that
include material contrary to orthodox Christianity.  When there is such
a module available, we can revisit the idea and see what people think. 
I personally think it might be fun to link some of our example bookmarks
on Mormonism back to their sources in Doctrine and Covenants, showing
professing Mormons what their church actually teaches.

	Comments? ;)

		-Troy.



darwin@ichristian.com wrote:
> 
> Gary Amirault writes:
> 
> > I'm not a Christadelphian, but have you ever considered the fact that
> > perhaps the largest "cult" going might be "mainstream Christianity?"
> > Mainstream Judaism thought they were right in the flow of God and were
> > rudely awakened in 70AD. Is a repeat performance possible?
> 
> The labels are not as important as doctrinal consistency.
> 
> I wouldn't expect a Jewish group to accept my view of theology, although
> they should.  And I refuse to knowingly accept theological or scriptural
> advice from persons who don't hold to the historic pillars of the Christian
> faith.
> 
> The past breaks with doctrine were not taken lightly.  The death, burial
> and resurrection of Christ was needed to break from Judaism, and the
> theological thinking of Luther, Calvin and others during the reformation
> era were not disguised as Roman Catholocism (at least not once Luther
> discovered he couldn't change the church from within).
> 
> The bottom line, in light of the past few messages, is that there should be
> a clear statement of the objectives of this project, and potentially a
> statement of faith.
> 
> I don't expect everyone on the project to be hard core Calvinists, but we
> should agree on the basics.  Unfortunately there are many that would claim
> to be Christians that add or detract from the truth, but if we at least
> stay away from some that claim that the Christian theology is flawed, then
> we could avoid inadvertantly leading others astray.
> 
> "Why can't we all just get along?" is great in the context of peace in the
> inner city, but theologically, it is the road to Hell.
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: owner-sword-devel@crosswire.org
> > [mailto:owner-sword-devel@crosswire.org]On Behalf Of Dan Bertles
> > Sent: Thursday, July 27, 2000 11:41 AM
> > To: Sword Development
> > Subject: [sword-devel] Doctrinal Statement
> >
> >
> > Troy,
> >
> > Is there a doctrinal statement and/or standard set up for those who
> > contribute to the Sword Project?  I always look at links mentioned on the
> > e-mail list.  One pointed directly to an orginization called the
> > "Christadelphians" which is definitely a cult.  I would be uncomfortable
> > having someone contribute texts, etc. from someone who doesn't hold to the
> > standard tenants of mainstream Christianity.
> >
> > Any thoughts on this?
> >
> > In Christ,
> >
> > Dan
> >
> 
> --
>    Darwin Gregory
> 
>    Jesus is the way, the truth and the life.
>    Evolution is a myth...