A rowdy bunch Picture this: It's the early 20143s, and America's Christian leaders -- most of whom were Protestant Reformation-types -- had banned religious celebrations of Christmas as unscriptural and paganish.
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His early memoirs find a balance between outrage and subtle irony—those angry, understated phrases: "an unscriptural institution"; "the thoughtful know the rest"—in describing the wrenching effects of slavery on the human soul.
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In his first two memoirs, he writes bluntly about forced sexual relations between slave and master, and what perverse family relations they produced, including the fact that rape was turning the black slave population half white: If the lineal descendants of Ham are only to be enslaved, according to the scriptures, slavery in this country will soon become an unscriptural institution; for thousands are ushered into the world, annually, who—like myself—owe their existence to white fathers and, most frequently, to their masters, and masters' sons.
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They disapproved of all lotteries and games of chance. The accumulation of wealth they held to be unscriptural and improper.
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It is an attack on the unscriptural claims of the clergy, who are charged with teaching the need of giving endowments rather than plain morality and religion.
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Lee, Witness. Watchman Nee: A Seer of the Divine Revelation in the Present Age. Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry (1991). Through Watchman Nee's teaching Lee began to believe that denominationalism was unscriptural.
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He referred to Sedgwick's ideas as "unscriptural and anti- Christian," "scripture-defying", "revelation-subverting," and "baseless speculations and self-contradictions," which were "impious and infidel". While he became increasingly Evangelical with age, he strongly supported advances in geology against conservative churchmen. At the September 1844 British Association for the Advancement of Science meeting at York he achieved national celebrity for his reply defending modern geology against an attack by the Dean of York, the Reverend William Cockburn, who described it as unscriptural.
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Primitive Baptists reject the idea of Sunday School, viewing it as unscriptural and interfering with the right of parents to give religious instruction to their children. Instead, children are expected to attend at least part of the church service.
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Parham denounced these views as unscriptural. Parham also preached against the racial mixing of the revival. Seymour responded by recanting an earlier acknowledgement of Parham's authority and declaring the Holy Ghost to be the mission's only leader. Parham became the most far- reaching challenge to Seymour's leadership.
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It is important to remember that it is "a doctrine of the real presence" but one which "relates the presence primarily to the worthy receiver rather than to the elements of bread and wine". Receptionism rules out the practice of Eucharistic adoration, a practice that in any case most Protestants reject as unscriptural.
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Jehovah's Witnesses believe God is the Creator and Supreme Being.; Witnesses reject the Trinity doctrine, which they consider unscriptural. They view God as the Father, an invisible spirit "person" separate from the Son, Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit is described as God's "active force", rather than the third part of the Trinity.
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In 1830, Faussett attacked Henry Hart Milman's History of the Jews (1829) in a sermon Jewish History Vindicated from the Unscriptural View of it Displayed in the History of the Jews. The Alliance of Church and State Explained and Vindicated (1834) protested against the power of non-Anglicans to legislate for the Church of England.
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A Manual of the Paulician Church of Armenia. Page xxxv Frederick Cornwallis Conybeare "The context implies that the Paulicians of Khnus had objected as against those who deified Jesus that a circumcised man could not be God. ... The word Trinity is nowhere used, and was almost certainly rejected as being unscriptural." In dualistic theology, there are two principles, two kingdoms.
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As a Presbyterian minister, Baillie was critical of Congregationalism and targeted Cotton in his writings. He considered congregationalism to be "unscriptural and unworkable," and thought Cotton's opinions and conduct to be "shaky." Cotton's response to Baillie was The Way of Congregational Churches Cleared published in 1648. This work brings out more personal views of Cotton, particularly in regards to the Antinomian Controversy.
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It was renamed the Creation Science Movement (CSM) in 1980, under the chairmanship of David Rosevear, who holds a Ph.D. in organometallic chemistry from the University of Bristol. By the mid-1980s the CSM had formally incorporated flood geology into its "Deed of Trust" (which all officers had to sign) and condemned gap creationism and day-age creationism as unscriptural.
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These apostles were believed capable of imparting spiritual gifts through the laying on of hands.Patterson and Rybarczyk 2007, pp. 159–160. There were prominent participants of the early Pentecostal revivals, such as Stanley Frodsham and Lewi Pethrus, who endorsed the movement citing similarities to early Pentecostalism. However, Pentecostal denominations were critical of the movement and condemned many of its practices as unscriptural.
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Witness Lee was critical of Christendom as a system while stressing the need to accept all believers based on what he taught was the common faith (Tit. 1:4, Jude 3). Witness Lee taught that certain practices in Christendom were unscriptural, such as the use of denominating names and the clergy-laity system. Nevertheless, he often emphasized the need for oneness among all Christians.
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He studied theology in Bremen, Groningen and Leiden, and taught theology, mathematics, and Hebrew at Herborn (1651–53), Duisburg (1653–55), Nijmegen (1655–1671) and Leiden (1671–1687). Starting from his 1653 publication Dissertationes Duæ he defended a non-literal interpretation of the Bible texts that were quoted by Voetius to prove the unscriptural nature of Descartes' Copernican beliefs, and tried to reconcile philosophy and theology.
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The Watch Tower Society teaches a combination of gap creationism and day-age creationism. It dismisses Young Earth creationism as "unscriptural and unbelievable",The Watchtower, April 1, 1986, pp. 12-13 and states that Jehovah's Witnesses "are not creationists" on the basis that they do not believe the earth was created in six literal days.Awake!, May 8, 1997, p. 12The Watchtower, September 1, 1986, p.
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The religious festival of Christmas was introduced to New Zealand by Christian missionaries in the early 19th century. In the mid 19th century observance of the holiday varied along sectarian grounds. English and Irish settlers, who were typically Anglicans and Catholics respectively, brought their own Christmas traditions. Scottish settlers did not widely celebrate Christmas as the Scottish Presbyterian church never placed much emphasis on the Christmas festival, on the grounds that it was unscriptural.
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The "orthodox" or evangelicals, as they came to be known, were united around the omnipotence of God, the necessity of conversion, a converted church membership, and the literal truth of the Bible. They were actively involved in evangelism and expansion through voluntary societies. By the 19th century, the liberals had evolved into Unitarians. Not only did they deny the doctrine of the Trinity as unscriptural, they believed the Bible should be interpreted rationally, not in a literal manner.
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In November 1881, conservative Brethren led by the Miami River Valley group met and formally split from the Church of the Brethren to form the Old German Baptist Brethren. They held their first annual meeting in 1882. At the same time, Henry Holsinger, a leader of the progressives in the church, published writings that some Brethren considered slanderous, anti-Jesus, and unscriptural and schismatic. As a result, he was dis-fellowshipped from the 1882 annual meeting of the Brethren.
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Open Brethren assemblies function as networks of like-minded independent local churches. Exclusive Brethren generally feel an obligation to recognize and adhere to the disciplinary actions of other associated assemblies. Conversely, Open assemblies aware of that disciplining would not automatically feel a binding obligation to support it, treating each case on its own merit. Reasons for being put under discipline by both the Open and Exclusive Brethren include disseminating gross Scriptural or doctrinal error or being involved in unscriptural behavior.
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Grebel saw this as an issue of obeying God rather than men, and, with others, could not conscientiously continue in that which they had condemned as unscriptural. These young radicals felt betrayed by Zwingli, while Zwingli looked on them as irresponsible. About 15 men broke with Zwingli, and, while taking no specific action at that time, they regularly met together for prayer, fellowship and Bible study. During this time of waiting for direction from God, they sought religious connections outside of Zürich.
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Little is known of the tenets of the Paulicians except for the reports of opponents and a few fragments of Sergius' letters they have preserved. Some argue that their system was dualistic, while others add that it was also adoptionist in nature. They might have also been nontrinitarian, as Conybeare, in his edition of the Paulician manual The Key of Truth, concluded that "The word Trinity is nowhere used, and was almost certainly rejected as being unscriptural."The Key of Truth.
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The "gap theory" acknowledges a vast age for the universe, including the Earth and solar system, while asserting that life was created recently in six 24-hour days by divine fiat. Genesis 1 is thus interpreted literally, with an indefinite "gap" of time inserted between the first two verses. (Some gap theorists insert a "primordial creation" and Lucifer's rebellion into the gap.) Young Earth Creationist organizations argue that the gap theory is unscriptural, unscientific, and not necessary, in its various forms.
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Jackson and his then friend Ben M. Bogard claimed that the Darwinian theory of evolution had contributed to the moral decline of the United States and caused discouraged persons to embrace atheism and Bolshevism. Accordingly, in 1926, Bogard and Jackson joined to pen Evolution: Unscientific and Unscriptural. Bogard and Jackson subsequently broke fellowship when C. A. Gilbert, the chairman of the Missionary Baptist Sunday School Committee, was blamed for a deficit. For a decade Bogard tried to remove Jackson's father-in-law as the committee chairman.
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Much of Hubmaier's work centered on the issue of baptism because of the polemical nature of the issue in distinguishing the emerging Anabaptist movement from Zwinglian or other magisterial reform movements. Hubmaier rejected the notion of infant baptism as unscriptural and was a proponent of believer's baptism, i.e. that baptism is an ordinance for those who respond to the gospel. The importance of this point in Hubmaier's theology is demonstrated by the fact that the first half of his catechism is reserved for clarification of the issue.
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In 1926, Bogard joined with Doss Nathan Jackson to write Evolution: Unscientific and Unscriptural, which claims that Darwin's's theory causes discouraged persons to turn to atheism and Bolshevism. Bogard and Jackson subsequently broke fellowship when Jackson's father-in-law, C. A. Gilbert, the chairman of the Missionary Baptist Sunday School Committee, was blamed for a deficit. For a decade Bogard tried to remove Gilbert as the committee chairman. In 1950, Jackson left the Missionary Baptist denomination and started the Baptist Missionary Association of America, formerly the North American Baptist Association.
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It was renamed the Creation Science Movement in 1980. By the mid 1980s it had become overwhelmingly YEC, formally incorporated flood geology into their 'Deed of Trust' (which all officers were required to sign), and condemned Gap and Day-Age Creationism as unscriptural. By the early 1990s it had closed down its foreign branches, but had increased its membership considerably.Numbers(2006) p356-360 The current chairman of the CSM is David Rosevear, who has a Ph.D. in organometallic chemistry from the University of Bristol, United Kingdom and was a senior lecturer in chemistry at Portsmouth University.
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The break with Rome gave Henry VIII power to administer the English Church, tax it, appoint its officials, and control its laws. It also gave him control over the church's doctrine and ritual. Despite reading Protestant books, such as Simon Fish's Supplication for the Beggars and Tyndale's The Obedience of a Christian Man, and seeking Protestant support for his annulment,: Borrowing from Luther, Tyndale argued that papal and clerical claims to independent power were unscriptural and that the king's "law is God's law". In 1531, Henry sought, through Robert Barnes, Luther's opinion on his annulment; the theologian did not approve.
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Members of the Pentecostal Church of God in Lejunior, Kentucky pray for a girl in 1946 While Pentecostals shared many basic assumptions with conservative Protestants, the earliest Pentecostals were rejected by Fundamentalist Christians who adhered to cessationism. In 1928, the World Christian Fundamentals Association labeled Pentecostalism "fanatical" and "unscriptural". By the early 1940s, this rejection of Pentecostals was giving way to a new cooperation between them and leaders of the "new evangelicalism", and American Pentecostals were involved in the founding of the 1942 National Association of Evangelicals.The New International Dictionary of Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements, s.v. "Evangelicalism".
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In recent times, persuasion has tipped over into debates over conformity in certain areas of doctrine, discipline, worship and ethics. The most notable example has been the objection of many provinces of the communion (particularly in Africa and Asia) to the changing acceptance of LGBTQ+ individuals in the North American churches (e.g., by blessing same-sex unions and ordaining and consecrating same-sex relationships) and to the process by which changes were undertaken. (See Anglican realignment) Those who objected condemned these actions as unscriptural, unilateral, and without the agreement of the communion prior to these steps being taken.
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Originally a Roman Catholic, when Cronin moved to Dublin he sought membership with various dissenting churches in the area but was only admitted as a visitor.Rowdon, H.H., The Origins of the Brethren, 1825-1850, Pickering & Inglis, 1967, p. 37 He began meeting with other Christians including Anthony Norris Groves, John Gifford Bellet and John Nelson Darby, whose conviction that the ordination of clergy was unnecessary and unscriptural, as well as his dispensationalist and premillennialist theology which later became principal tenets of the Plymouth Brethren movement. He remained faithful to this movement all his life, but one of his last actions was to precipitate a split in the already fractured movement.
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They were also troubled by the light consequences for prophesying falsely (which is worthy of death according to Deuteronomy 13:1-10). Saying that the idea "modern prophets are on a 'learning curve'" is unscriptural, and likened the idea to those chastised by Jesus in Revelation 2:20 for tolerating the prophetess Jezebel. They ask if failed or false prophecy is to be tolerated how will Christians be able to discern the coming of the end times when "many false prophets will appear" (Matthew 24:11) and the coming of the Second Beast who is described as "the false prophet that wrought miracles" (Revelation 19:20).
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In 1530, he wrote The Practyse of Prelates, opposing Henry VIII's planned annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon in favour of Anne Boleyn, on the grounds that it was unscriptural and that it was a plot by Cardinal Wolsey to get Henry entangled in the papal courts of Pope Clement VII. The king's wrath was aimed at Tyndale. Henry asked Emperor Charles V to have the writer apprehended and returned to England under the terms of the Treaty of Cambrai; however, the emperor responded that formal evidence was required before extradition. Tyndale developed his case in An Answer unto Sir Thomas More's Dialogue.
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The Advent Message to the Daughters of Zion focused on female readers, and was first published in May 1844. The Advent Shield was a more academically orientated paper published in Boston and edited by Joshua Vaughan Himes, Sylvester Bliss, and Apollos Hale. Its announced purpose was to "defend the doctrine from the attacks of the enemies, to exhibit the unscriptural position of the opponents, and furnish the truth to those who were ready to receive it." While only three issues were produced: in May 1844, January 1845, and a final issue in April 1845; it was the largest of the Millerite papers, the first two issues each having 144 pages, and the final having 250.
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Therefore, his death was followed by a succession crisis in which various groups followed leaders with succession claims. Years later, the office of President was reorganized in many of the resulting Latter Day Saint denominations, the largest of which are The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- day Saints (LDS Church), the Community of Christ (formerly the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints), and The Church of Jesus Christ (Bickertonite). Some smaller denominations, such as the Church of Christ (Temple Lot), reject the office as an unscriptural creation.William A. Sheldon, "A Synopsis of Church of Christ Beliefs as compared to other Latter Day Saint churches" (Church of Christ, n.d.).
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The Temple Lot church affirms a founding date of April 6, 1830, in Fayette, New York, and claims to be the sole legitimate continuance of Smith's original Church of Christ. Hedrick later distanced himself from the title of "President", as he ultimately came to believe that this was an unscriptural office. At the time of its commencement in 1863, Hedrick retained the name of "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints" for his organization, reflecting his insistence that it was a continuation of Smith's church, which had adopted that name in 1838. This was soon shortened to "Church of Christ", however, as this had been the name under which Smith originally incorporated the church in 1830.
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But as time progressed, there was no return to what Cooney saw as the original simplicity within the movement, and he began publicly expressing himself with regards to what he saw as being unscriptural additions and growing organisation.Nichols 2006, p. 88. These included the growing hierarchy entailing a division of territory between senior workers, finances, annual conventions, the so-called "Living Witness" doctrine, the taking of denominational names during the first World War, and other matters. That Edward Cooney was free to preach wherever he felt led, and did not believe that he had to submit his messages to be approved by the regional Overseers became a situation the latter would no longer tolerate after having attempted to persuade him to operate within their new framework.
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One book discussing this phenomenon is an anonymous work called Assembly Life Experiences by "an old disciple", recording the story of a group of Christians who were converted in the 1859 revival in Scotland. Through reading only their Bibles they concluded that clericalism and denominationalism were unscriptural and subsequently met together to break bread and depend on God for gifting and leadership. During the Revival of 1859 which affected much of Northern Ireland and Scotland, “exercised” (stirred in spirit) evangelists, such as Alexander Marshall, Donald Ross and Donald Munro, crossed the Atlantic to preach the gospel, leading to numerous assemblies being planted in United States and Canada. Norman Crawford has documented this story in a chapter of his book Assembly Truth published by Gospel Tract Publications (Glasgow, 1994).
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The Superintendent of the Irish Church Missions has been highly critical of the direction of the global Anglican Church, in particular the Archbishop of Canterbury. According to a report in the ICM Magazine, ICM News: > Not only had these Anglican provinces ignored the pleas of the rest of the > Anglican Communion to cease pursuing this unscriptural agenda, but there had > been a manifest failure by the Anglican ‘instruments of unity’ (especially > the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Anglican Consultative Council, and the > Primates’ meeting) to discipline them for it. It appears from information available from ICM News that it is currently beginning to align itself with the Global Anglican Future Conference, which has come in for some criticism from many leading voices within Anglicanism, including the conservative former Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey.
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The Half-Way Covenant continued to be practiced by three-fourths of New England's churches into the 1700s, but opposition continued from those wanting a return to the strict admission standards as well as those who wanted the removal of all barriers to church membership. Northampton pastor Solomon Stoddard (1643–1729) attacked both the Half-Way practice and the more exclusive admission policy, writing that the doctrine of local church covenants "is wholly unscriptural, [it] is the reason that many among us are shut out of the church, to whom church privileges do belong." Stoddard still believed that New England was a Christian nation and that it had a national covenant with God. The existence of such a covenant, however, required all citizens to partake of the Lord's Supper.
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Her contention is that the New Age movement is not simply expressing a naive or unscriptural interest in metaphysics, but that it is an organized conspiracy to overthrow the United States and replace it with a Nazi-like regime. Cumbey is harshly critical of all religions other than Christianity and Judaism, and those who take an interest in them. In the wake of the attacks following the release of The Innocence of Muslims she suggested on her blog that the incident might have been a deliberate attempt by New Agers to set their enemies against one each other. > I have my own suspicions that this is an incited thing that is designed to > set the three Alice Bailey delineated fundamentalist target groups of Jews, > Christians, and Moslems off against each other.
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After unanimously approving a resolution to organize a national "Christian political union or party for the application of the Christ principle in state and nation." A second motion to name the organization United Christian Party so as "to conform to the development of the movement in Iowa" was approved by a vote of 20 to 5, with the names Christian Political Union and Christian Union Party drawing minority support. The convention approved a platform of a socially conservative bent, declaring: > We deprecate certain immoral laws which have grown out of the failure of our > nation to recognize [the principle that no law should contravene the Divine > law], notably such as require the desecration of the Christian Sabbath, > authorize unscriptural marriage and divorce, and license the manufacture and > sale of intoxicating liquors as a beverage.
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Born at Southampton, England, Gother was educated a strict Presbyterian, but part at least of his mother's family were Catholics. Gother himself was converted to Catholicism as a boy and on 10 January 1668 entered the English College at Lisbon, a seminary for the formation of Catholic clergy. Ordained priest in 1676, he returned to England in 1681 to work on the mission in London, where at least from 1685 he began to devote time to writing works of religious controversy. At heart, Gother was something of an eirenicist, trying to present in clear language the tenets of the Christian faith as belonging to Catholicism, with a view to convincing Protestants that (at very least) Catholic doctrine was not a hotch-potch of unscriptural superstititions; and by often emphasizing prayer and spiritual experience.
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A 1931 talk was broadcast throughout North America, Australia and France, but his attacks on the clergy resulted in both the NBC and BBC radio networks banning his broadcasts. In 1928 Rutherford began to abolish the system of electing elders by congregational voting, dismissing them as "haughty" and "lazy", and finally asserting in 1932 that electing elders was unscriptural. He impressed on elders the need to obey the Society's "regulations", "instructions" and "directions" without complaint. Service directors, who reported back to Brooklyn, were appointed in each congregation and a weekly "service meeting" introduced to meeting programs. In 1933 Rutherford claimed that abolishing elective elders was a fulfillment of the prophecy of 2300 days at Daniel 8:13–14, and that God's sanctuary (the Watch Tower Society) was thereby cleansed.
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Additionally, a view of human salvation which defines it in terms of once-and-for-all acquittal has to deal with its relationship to subsequent actionsFiddes, Paul, Past Event and Present Salvation: The Story of the Atonement (1989) and the lives of those not born at the time of the Paschal Mystery.Wiles, Maurice The remaking of Christian Doctrine (SCM 1974) p. 65. Some, like Karl Barth, simply criticized the concept of satisfaction of God's wrath for being unscriptural.'...we must not make this [the concept of punishment] a main concept as in some of the older presentations of the doctrine of the atonement (especially those which follow Anselm of Canterbury), with in the sense that by His [Christ's] suffering our punishment we are spared from suffering it ourselves, or that in so doing He "satisfied" or offered satisfaction to the wrath of God.
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Prominent deceased associational lay members were honored at this meeting: James Joliff, John Carter, Samuel McClelland, James Chance, John Wright, Jeremiah Gilmore, William Craig, Asa Entrikin, Smuth Moore, W. R. Huey, J. R. Tolbert, and Isaac Andereck. At the annual meeting of 1878, the following resolution was passed: "Believing that the custom of electing pastors annually is unscriptural as well as a cause of much division in our churches, we recommend that such a practice be abolished, and that churches retain their pastors so long as they are useful." Twenty years between 1861 and 1881, the following churches joined the association: Center Church, Collins Station, Patoka, Bethlehem, Vandalia, Wisetown, Shobonier, Good Hope, Liberty, and First Baptist Salem. At the annual meeting in 1880, the association voted to reorganize itself as the Centralia Baptist Association because of recent additions of churches south of Centralia, Illinois.
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In the early 1900s, Associations of the Primitive Baptists in the state of Georgia began to exclude churches from their membership that utilized the organ in worship services. The churches that utilized instrumental music in worship began to be known as Progressive Primitive Baptists. These churches formed their own Associations and became the Progressive Primitive Baptist denomination. The minutes of the 1907 Echeconnee Association (in Central Georgia) record an exclusion of churches and include this resolution outlining the Association's stance:Minutes of the 1907 Echeconnee Association meeting at Salem Church, Crawford County, Georgia, September 13-15th 1907 > Resolution Whereas, the Primitive Baptists have been greatly disturbed by > the introduction of new and unscriptural practices in their worship, viz; > Instrumental music, secret orders and other things of like character; > therefore, be it Resolved, That we declare against these measures in our > churches together with all others that practice or affiliate with the same.
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Heyward(1995) p177 Ross ties this literal view of a lengthy seventh day to the Creation account in which he describes the Hebrew word "yom" to have multiple translation possibilities, ranging from 24 hours, year, time, age, or eternity/always.Ross(1994) p46 Ross contends that at the end of each Genesis "day", with the exception of the seventh "day", the phrase, “…and there was evening and there was morning,” is used to put a terminus to each event.Ross(2004) p76 The omission of that phrase on the Seventh Day, is in harmony with the literal translation of Hebrews 4’s continuing Seventh Day.Ross(2004) p81 From a theological perspective, Robert Newman addresses a problem with this particular model of lengthy Genesis days, in that it puts physical plant and animal death before the fall of Man, which according to most Young Earth creationism is considered unscriptural.
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Smyth's theories on pyramid prophecy were then integrated into the works and prophecies of Charles Taze Russell (such as his Studies in the Scriptures), who founded the Bible Student movement (who adopted the name Jehovah's Witnesses in 1931, though Russell's successor, Joseph F. Rutherford, denounced pyramidology as unscriptural). Smyth's proposed dates for the Second Coming, first 1882 then many dates between 1892 and 1911, were failed predictions. The theories of Taylor and Smyth gained many eminent supporters and detractors in the field of Egyptology during the late 1800s, but by the end of the 19th century it had lost most of its mainstream scientific support. The greatest blow to the theory was dealt by the great Egyptogist William Matthew Flinders Petrie, who had initially been a supporter. When Petrie went to Egypt in 1880 to perform new measurements, he found that the pyramid was several feet smaller than previously believed.
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The Petition was careful not to challenge the royal supremacy in the Church of England, and called for a number of church reforms to remove ceremonies perceived as popish: The Millenary Petition was presented to James in Leicester so he couldn't discuss the terms with the Bishops. # The use of the sign of the cross in baptism (which Puritans saw as superstitious); # The rite of confirmation (which Puritans criticized because it was not found in the Bible); # The performance of baptism by midwives (which Puritans argued was based on a superstitious belief that infants who died without being baptized could not go to heaven); # The exchanging of rings during the marriage ceremony (again seen as unscriptural and superstitious); # The ceremonious bowing at the Name of Jesus during worship (again seen as superstitious); # The requirement that clergy wear surplice as it wasn't mentioned in the Bible; and # The custom of clergy living in the church building. The Petition argued that a preaching minister should be appointed to every parish (instead of one who simply read the service from the Book of Common Prayer).
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In developing its theological subordinate standards, the new church at first adopted eight Articles of Faith based on the Westminster Standards (1646–49). However, after differences arose within the church over the theology of dispensationalism, the church from 1928 has required all its officers to pledge their support to the Westminster Catechisms and, subsequently, the Westminster Confession of Faith, "without any reservations". Thus, the church upholds the doctrines of the Trinity, Jesus' sacrificial death and resurrection, sola scriptura, sola fide, double predestination (alongside freedom of choice), the covenant of works with Adam, that assurance of salvation is not a necessary consequence of faith, a regulative principle of worship, strict sabbatarianism, and that the Roman Catholic doctrine of Transubstantiation in the Mass is unscriptural and can be a cause of superstition or idolatry.Westminster Confession of Faith , Chapter XXIX, paragraph VI In common with some other Reformed churches, the EPC in its Code has amended three clauses in the Confession, namely, those concerning the Antichrist,The Evangelical Presbyterian, January–February 2009, p.
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Wenham had the distinction of being a conservative theologian, a defender of biblical inerrancy, and one who held to the position of "conditional immortality" – or the belief that the human soul is not by default eternal in nature; this belief goes hand in hand with the notion that sinners, once cast into hell, are at some point burned up and essentially no longer exist. (This doctrine is also frequently referred to as annihilationism.) In his book Facing Hell, An Autobiography 1913–1996, Wenham writes, "I believe that endless torment is a hideous and unscriptural doctrine which has been a terrible burden on the mind of the church for many centuries and a terrible blot on her presentation of the Gospel. I should indeed be happy, if before I die, I could help in sweeping it away." Facing Hell was published shortly after his death and is largely autobiographical, though also containing a paper Wenham published in regard to the doctrines of conditional immortality and the limited temporal nature of hell.
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The process of defining integral mission and the journey of its acceptance by significant numbers of Evangelicals has taken place over a period of just over 40 years. Its progress can be observed through a number of significant international Evangelical congresses. In 1966, the Congress on the World Mission of the Church, held in Wheaton, Illinois, brought together Evangelicals from 71 countries. The Wheaton Declaration confessed that “we [Evangelicals] are guilty of an unscriptural isolation from the world that too often keeps us from honestly facing and coping with its concerns” and the “failure [of the church] to apply scriptural principles to such problems as racism, war, population explosion, poverty, family disintegration, social revolution, and communism.” By contrast, that same year the World Congress on Evangelization in Berlin continued to emphasise a traditionally Evangelical conception of mission, as articulated by Billy Graham: “if the church went back to its main task of proclaiming the gospel and people converted to Christ, it would have a far greater impact on the social, moral and psychological needs of men than it could achieve through anything else it could possibly do.
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Gow stresses the fact that the older Unitarianism was professedly a Biblical Unitarianism. Its advocates rejected such doctrines as the Trinity and the Atonement not so much on the ground that they were unreasonable as on the ground that they were [unscriptural] "... and for a time, Unitarianism became the faith of many, if not most, of the leading citizens and thinkers of New England. As in England, it was a definitely Biblical Unitarianism."Henry Gow The Unitarians Methuen 1928 Alexander Elliott Peaston (1940) pinpoints 1862 as the year of change from "Biblical Unitarianism" to newer models in England,Peaston A. E. The Prayer book reform movement in the XVIIIth century 1940 Until the year 1862, the theology championed by Lindsey and Priestley, and perfected by Lindsey's biographer Belsham, had been a Biblical Unitarianism, deriving its inspiration and authority from the Holy ScripturesAlexander Elliott Peaston The Prayer book reform movement in the XVIIIth century 1940 "The Book of Common Prayer as revised by Lindsey immediately attracted those Presbyterians who had been anxious for a liturgy, and whose theology, under the influence of Priestley was becoming Biblical Unitarian." where formerly belief in miracles and the resurrection were dominant.
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Amongst them was 'Anti-Thelyphthora' by his first cousin, the poet William Cowper, which he published anonymously. A fictional account of this event can be read in The Winner of Sorrow, a 2005 novel about the poet by Brian Lynch. Nineteen attacks on Madan's treatise are catalogued by Falconer Madan in the Dictionary of National Biography.Among those, many of which were anonymous were: magazine articles by Samuel Badcock in the Monthly Review; ‘Polygamy Indefensible, two Sermons by John Smith of Nantwich,’ 1780; ‘Polygamy Unscriptural, or two Dialogues, by John Towers,’ 1780 (2nd edit. 1781); ‘Whispers for the Ear of the Author of “Thelyphthora,” by E. B. Greene,’ 1781; ‘A Scriptural Refutation of the Arguments for Polygamy,’ Thomas Haweis, 1781; ‘The Blessings of Polygamy displayed,’ and ‘The Cobler's Letter to the Author of Thelyphthora,’ 1781, both by Sir Richard Hill; ‘Remarks on Polygamy,’ 1781 by Thomas Wills (written at the request of Lady Huntingdon); ‘Anti-Thelyphthora, a Tale in Verse’ by William Cowper, 1781, &c.; ‘A Word to Mr. Madan’ by Henry Moore, 1781 (2nd edit. same year); ‘An Examination of Thelyphthora, by John Palmer,’ 1781; ‘Remarks on Thelyphthora by James Penn’ (1781); and ‘Thoughts on Polygamy’, by James Cookson, 1782. Dictionary of National Biography, Madan, Martin (1726–1790), author of ‘Thelyphthora,’, by Falconer Madan.
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