I’m also reading Calvin Stapert’s book: A New Song for an Old World: Musical Thought in the Early Church (Eerdmans, 2007). You can read a review of it here. Here is a summary of what Stapert says about Clement of Alexandria’s perspective on music:

Clement affirms music that he describes as sober, pure, decorous, modest, temperate, grave, and soothing, over against music he describes as licentious, voluptuous, frenzied, frantic, inebriating, titillating, scurrilous, turbulent, immodest, and meretricious. p. 54

In the wake of the siege of Rome by the barbarians in 410 A.D., Augustine defended Christianity against the accusation that Christianity had weaken the Roman Empire thereby making it vulnerable to the attack. Thus, came The City of God.

Hinting at the truth of passages like Acts 18:10 and Jude 3-4, Augustine wrote the following:

But (the City of Christ) must remember that, in the ranks of its enemies, lie hid fellow citizens to be, and that it is well to bear with them as enemies until we can reach them in their profession of faith. In like manner, the City of God itself, so long as it is a wayfarer on earth, harbors within its ranks a number of those who, though externally associated in the common bond of the sacraments, will not be associated in the eternal felicity of the saints…

There is little reason to abandon hope of reclaiming some of these (godless) persons, for among our most notorious adversaries are men destined to be friends, however little they know it. On earth, these two cities are linked and fused together, only to be separated at the Last Judgment. (Augustine, City of God, abridged [Garden City, NY: Image Books, 1958), 63-64.

Is there any better call to evangelism?

In 1949, Billy Graham started his famous evangelistic crusades in Los Angeles, a.k.a “The Canvas Cathedral Crusade”.  Near the end of the crusade “America’s most famous sermon - ’Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God’ - was preached by America’s most famous preacher.”  Thanks to the Jonathan Edwards Center at Yale University, you can now hear audio clips of that sermon. 

Something.

Brad asked me to say something about confessions of faith and there I have said it. I do work with a collection that includes extensive holdings of Baptist history, and that fact frankly makes me reluctant to say much in this public venue. Baptists have fought over this question in the distant past and the not so distant past, so one should approach this topic with some fear and trembling. Because of all the fussing, I am very inclined only to follow historical Baptist documents - the New Hampshire first, and secondly the Abstract of Principles. Both have stood the test of time and summarize doctrines that have been important in the life of Baptists. I like what we have done in sythesizing the two into a new document with slight modifications for our situation. Remember, I’m the guy who wears bow ties that I tie myself. I live in a 111 year old house. New is generally not a good thing for me. I did look at some statements from newer churches, and I just don’t like them. In some cases, they would just do better adopting the Apostles’ or Nicean Creeds. I also don’t like leaving Baptist out of the name of the church as some of them do, but before this becomes a rant against innovation, I will sign off. Peace out.

I wasn’t an elder a year ago when Greg, Keith, Aaron, and Bruce where thinking through Greg’s question. But here’s how I would begin. (Let me paint with broad strokes.)

First, I would assess the current landscape. I would do a cursory reading of contemporary confessions for both like-minded and not so like-minded churches, particularly within Baptist circles. This gives me a good idea of what conservative evangelicals and Baptists of today find essential for church membership. I want to know how 3ABC would be in conformity and contrast with the larger evangelical world. (To be honest, in the little bit that I did this I can say it is relatively bleak. Churches seem to give comparatively more time and thought into “purpose” or “mission” statements than doctrine. At least that’s the way it is on paper.)

Second, I would gather historically Baptist confessions and begin a similar process as mentioned prior. This again helps me gauge where, upon first my first inclination, I think 3ABC would likely conform or contrast Baptists that preceeded us.

Thus far I haven’t answered your question. I’ve only said where I would begin. Let me use a different word picture to answer – the church “doors.” Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant Christians for all centuries can affirm the Nicene Creed. So we aren’t going to leave the doors that open. I can fast forward through church history to Baptist history and probably up to a certain point. I don’t have to examine every creed or confession because I start with the fact I’m Baptist. That alone excludes tons of people. Now here’s where I have to oil the hinges and start swinging the doors every so slowly. Through conversations and study I have to determine exactly how closed they will be among baptistic Christians. This is also where I re-evaluate where Baptists may have gotten things wrong or were too closed.

Hopefully that’s a helpful start and partially answers your question. I don’t think you want us to sift through every article and say who’s “in” and who’s “out.” Related to this question, why not write one from scratch?

Keith very helpfully showed how confessions have a negative and positive role. They function negatively by saying who’s “out” and postively by saying who’s “in.” I’m re-reading through “Authority: Where to Go for Truth” in Our Legacy: The History of Christian Doctrine by John D. Hannah. I want to give a simple example of how confessions said who’s “out” and who’s “in.”

During the canonization of scripture, Protestants and the Roman Catholic Church came to a strong disagreement on whether or not authority resided in tradition. Protestants very clearly said that authority did not reside in pastors, scholars, and councils unless that which was taught was in strict conformity with the Word of God. Thus, authority for the Reformers resided solely in the Bible. They stated this in one of the first Protestant confessions - The Gallican Confession of Faith (1559). It states:

Whence it follows that no authority, whether of antiquity, or custom, or numbers, or human wisdom, or judgments, or proclamations, or edicts, or decrees, or councils, or visions, or miracles, should be opposed to these Holy Scriptures, but, on the contrary, all things should be regulated, and reformed according to them (Article V, quoted from Our Legacy, 55).

To affirm such an article in the mid-sixteenth century was to clearly state that you were “in” with the Reformers and “out” with the Catholics. In the early twenty-first century, our proposed SoF functions that exact same way.

With now seven elders one would think that cyber-dust wouldn’t build up on this blog. Well, as Greg has pointed out, we are working through a Statement of Faith and if readers could see our inboxes, they would notice that our writing efforts have been spent elsewhere. But here we are.

What I’m going to say is taken primarily from Carl Trueman’s recent article at reformation21.com. So none of this is original. The two extremes are, first, what Greg mentioned - our only “creed” is the Bible. Some Christians emphasize the sufficiency of Scripture to the point of denying the need for confessions. Confessions are viewed as “an illegitimate attempt to supplement scripture or to narrow the Christian faith in doctrinal or cultural ways beyond the limits set by scripture itself.” Others regard confessions so highly that the Bible becomes of “secondary importance.” I can say that 3ABC has not fallen into either one of those camps. And yes the Bible is clear enough! We don’t have confessions or creeds because there is a lack of clarity. (I’ll let someone else tackle the perspicuity of Scripture. Midnight is too late for me.)

Confessions are the “consensus declarations of the church.” The use of confessions and creeds is important because they unite Christians throughout all ages. I don’t simply mean confessions unite Christians only in the present or what was then the “present.” Confessions unite Christians from the present to the past. This is why we begin our proposed SoF with the Nicene Creed. We at 3ABC are in consensus with what Christians for nearly two thousand years have affirmed.

One of my church history professors once said, something to the effect, that the most arrogant and naive assumption is that the present is always the best; that progressiveness of today always trumps yesterday’s achievements. I think he was spot on!