Beginning on Sunday August 31st, and continuing through the 2nd Sunday in Advent, December 7th, I will be preaching a series of sermon on “the Eight Essentials.”
Lots of people say, “Why have doctrine anyway? Why don’t we just go by the Bible?” That is well and good, but who will interpret the Bible for us? It is naive to think that everyone will read it alike. The Moravians of Zinzendorf’s day recognized as many as eight different ways to receive and interpret scripture, including the Reformed, Lutheran, Pietists, Pentecostal, Anglican, etc. They had the wisdom to see that devout Christians who agreed on the authority of scripture could still disagree on the interpretation of scripture. They were so guided by the principle of tolerance that they even designated different bishops to serve different constituencies.
At the same time the early Moravians recognized that there was “unity in diversity.” That is there are a number of major themes in the Bible, especially in the New Testament, especially as they concerned the person and work of Jesus Christ, about which virtually all Christians were in agreement. The Ancient Unity looking to Luke of Prague deemed the only essential to be “a heart relationship with the One God who revealed himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.” Of course, even so simple a confession is jam-packed and loaded with theology. Zinzendorf like Jesus and Paul before him was also a simplifier. Jesus summed up the law and the prophets in two commandments: 1) love God with heart, mind, and strength, and 2) love your neighbor as you love yourself. Twice, once in Romans 13:9 and again in Galatians 5:14, St. Paul sums up the law in a sentence, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” , Zinzendorf was a simplifier. He said that “all essential theology can be written down on one octavo (8”x 8”) sheet of paper.”
As the Unity matured, and faced struggles in society outside the church, especially the rise of pure humanism (as opposed to biblical humanism) and radical higher criticism (as opposed to historical critical inquiry), they named the essentials in two synods that took place near the middle of the 19th Century. This was wise. It helped the Moravian Church to avoid several internal crises, and, of course, the Fundamentalist/Modernists Controversies of the 1920’s and 1930’s. The Moravian Church has always belonged to the Magnificent Middle on Historic Mainline Christianity where the Risen and Present Christ is confessed as Lord, and the Holy Spirit is expected to be our teacher and guide.
Today, this our official statement of doctrine is contained in the Ground of the Unity, and the Eight Essentials no longer occupy the place of prominence they once did in our communion. At the same time, the Eight Essentials have retained a place of honor, for they not only reflect the faith of the vast majority of Moravians in every generation, they provide handy “pegs” for assisting Christians new and old in the interpretation of the New Testament. It is not that we read the essentials back into the New Testament, rather, it is plain that they can be read out of the New Testament. Indeed, the New Testament is thick with reference to the doctrines which the Eight Essentials summarize and proclaim. They provide a handy way of outlining our theology so that we can still get everything that is essential on one relatively small sheet of paper.
I will do my best to make these sermons relevant and contemporary. Since February, I have been squirreling away tid-bits to make them interesting.
I hope that you will join us.
Pastor Green
The Eight Essentials
1. The Universality of Sin and humankind’s inability to save itself from sin’s power. (Aug. 31)
2. The Love of God the Father for “the world.” (Sept. 21)
3. The Two Natures of Christ, Human and Divine. (Sept. 28)
4. The At-One-Ment between God and Man which God accomplishes in Christ. (Oct. 12)
5. The Holy Spirit and his gracious operations. (Oct. 19)
6. The Fruits of the Holy Spirit in the life of all believers. (Nov. 2)
7. The Fellowship of all believers with one another. (Nov. 23)
8. The Second Advent of the Lord in Glory: The Christ who appeared for the first time on the plane of human history in humility, visible only to the eyes of faith, must, of necessity, appear a second time, visible to faith and unbelief alike. (Dec. 7)