Great Beliefs of the Church 3/23/41
Scripture: Read John 14: 1-14.
There seem to be some people, perhaps many, and perhaps you know of some, who regard the Church as a negative institution, placing its members on record as opposing all sorts of things, demanding that one renounce whatever is enjoyable in order to achieve some mysterious sort of holiness. I take my stand directly opposite to that viewpoint. The church is against only those things that its people have found to be wrong in the light of their knowledge of the spirit of Christ. The genius of the Church of Christ has never been nearly so much in the things it opposed (though it has fought some mighty battles against great wrongs) as in the things it has stood for.
The genius of the church, that which has kept it alive and vital during the centuries, lies in its mighty, positive beliefs. Its positive affirmations and its positive actions have made it a force to be reckoned with, because it is these positive aspects that have exercised a transforming power over its members.
Any salesman, any professional man, any man or woman who has the slightest understanding of human nature knows that people can live and work with enthusiasm for that in which they have faith. The Church of Christ was founded and has grown on this principle. It requires of its members, first of all, an affirmation of their faith - a statement that they believe in the essentials that have been tested by millions of Christian people for hundreds of years.
A. First of all, the Church believes in God. A great creed, often repeated by many Christians, begins: “I believe” - “I believe in one God, the Father Almighty.”
The great affirmations concerning the Supreme Being date back to the beginning of the race. The first words of the Hebrew bible are these: “In the beginning, God../”
Others have believed in a Supreme being as well as the Hebrews and Christians.
1. Mohammedans - Allah
2. American Indians - The Great Spirit
3. Deities of every conceivable nature. Even some of the Buddhist sects have had to have a deity (Ameda)
Man has learned long ago that he is insufficient of himself and finds a better interpretation of his existence in light of a Greater Being - a Supreme Being.
1. The Church has believed in God as One. (evolution of ideas from polytheism to monotheism).
2. Church has believed in a God of fairness - exalted the idea of justice (Jewish conception).
3. But the Church has learned that Justice is not enough. Even more, the Almighty is a God of Love, of Mercy.
4. The Church, on the whole, believes in a personal God, meeting us.
The Church believes with all its might in God, and that He sustains this church and his people through age after age.
B. The Church believes in Jesus Christ.
1. In Jesus as a historic personality.
2. Jesus as the highest standard or ideal for human possibilities.
3. Jesus, so extraordinary as to be divine in some real sense.
4. Christ - enduring Spirit.
5. Jesus Christ, so great, so essential as to be a lasting friend, teacher, Lord, Savior in example and leadership in divine perfection.
The creeds are lengthy in their attempts to define what Jesus means. Whether they are accurate or not is not important; they are man’s inspired and earnest attempt, and therefore subject to revision by man as his experience matures. But the essential heart of them is that men and women of the Christian Church believe in Jesus!
C. The Church believes in Immortality of some sort.
(a creed goes so far as to say “resurrection of the body”.)
We believe at this point by “intimation of immortality.”
1. Vivid at the time of the death of loved ones - relatives or friends.
2. The faith has always been held among people of any degree of civilization (ancestor worship; reincarnation).
3. It bears fruit in Christian triumphs.
4. Scientific understanding that nothing is lost in chemical or physical change.
5. What more reasonable to believe, then, than that the human spirit, the soul, is also conserved and perpetuated and perfected in a continuous life? Beloved, faith in eternal life is one of the great beliefs of the Christian Church.
D. Superiority of the spirit over the physical - even over “ordinary” life values (limited only by our faith.)
[Forgiveness of sins; transforming power of faith;
Radical change]
E. A Practical (yet difficult) belief in the Universal Brotherhood of Man.
Difficulties:
National misunderstandings
differences of races
culture
language
social status
economic status
But we hold loyally to it as our ideal. It is a part of the faith of the church. It is a godly discipline of our souls. And it is a wonderful discovery to find the same genuineness, the same desire for the right in all sorts and conditions of men and women as in your own brother or sister. Our faith in political democracy has its roots in the Christian ideal of the Brotherhood of Man.
The Brotherhood of Man means (in a few practical directions):
1. Faith that ultimately man shall arrive at a state of cooperation and understanding that shall make wars unnecessary - even wrong.
2. Positive emphasis on active efforts to understand and deal generously with all people.
3. All of this means missions - the effort to present, persuasively, the gospel of our faith to others near and far.
(Shepherd et al.)
These, then, in broad strokes are some of the vital things in which the Church believes:
a. God
b. Jesus Christ
c. Immortality
d. Supremacy of Spirit
e. Brotherhood of Man
This faith has proven itself in the lives of countless people, in healing to their troubled lives, accomplishment of far greater achievements than men had dreamed possible, and in integration of personalities into whole beings. We who are members of this, or any church, are glad of the faith we expressed when we joined it. We have found comfort and peace and joy in its fellowship, its work, its worship. Are there others of you here today who would join in its faith and fellowship during this pre-Easter season? Think it over, talk to us about it. Come and see me.
Be a volunteer in the faith!
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Dates and places delivered:
Pilgrim Church, Honolulu, March 5, 1939 AM
Wisconsin Rapids, March 23, 1941