Amending the ETS Doctrinal Statement

There is an effort underway to amend the doctrinal basis for membership in the Evangelical Theological Society. Dr. Ray Van Neste (Union University) and Dr. Denny Burk (Criswell College) are heading up the effort and plan to introduce the amendment at the 2007 Annual Meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society in San Diego, California.

The current doctrinal basis is infamous for its brevity:

The Bible alone, and the Bible in its entirety, is the Word of God written and is therefore inerrant in the autographs. God is a Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, each an uncreated person, one in essence, equal in power and glory.

The problems with such a broad statement became apparent (again) in Francis Beckwith’s recent reversion to Roman Catholicism, who, although he resigned, was convinced that in good conscience he could have continued to be a member.

Neste and Burk are proposing that the ETS merge its statement with the statement of belief used by the U.K.’s Universities and Colleges Christian Fellowship (UCCF), which is also the doctrinal basis for the U.K.’s Tyndale Fellowship.

Here are the first two of eleven points in the proposed statement:

1. The Bible alone, and the Bible in its entirety, is the Word of God written and is therefore inerrant in the autographs. This written word of God consists of the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments and is the supreme authority in all matters of belief and behavior.
2. God is a Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, each an uncreated person, one in essence, equal in power and glory.

The italicized text is the current ETS doctrinal basis. The second point is unchanged. The added statement to the first point would eliminate Roman Catholics, whose definition of the written word of God would encompass more than the the 66 books accepted by Protestants.

Find out more at the AmendETS site and blog.

HT: Andy Naselli

Other responses:

• R. Scott Clark: Amend the ETS Statement? Why?

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