Mainline The Nature Of Biblical Truth Black Mainline Question

The hallmark of the mainline churches would seemlingly be moderation. Only a few members or ministers in them would condemn the use of alcohol in moderation. Their theologies tend to be moderate and influenced, consciously or not, by the higher criticism. Most ministers and most members seem to be comfortable with modern-language translations of the Bible.

1 The nature of Biblical Truth

Most mainline traditions follow the traditional Christian belief in the triuneThis article concerns the holy Trinity of Christianity. For other uses of trinity see disambiguation. The Blessed Trinity is God, according to the doctrine of most branches of Christianity; the doctrine says that though God is one God, God exists in three nature of God, but do not necessarily require acceptance of everything either stated about JesusImages of Jesus in which a halo is used to represent divinity. 6 4 BCE to c. 29 33 CE) is the central figure in Christianity, in which context he is known as Jesus Christ (from the Hebrew Yehošua , and Greek Chi;ριστ&sigmaf Chris or claimed as having been said by him in the New TestamentThe New Testament sometimes called the Greek Scriptures is the name given to the part of the Christian Bible that was written after the birth of Jesus Christ. The term is a translation of the Latin Novum Testamentum which translates the Greek Η &Kappa, especially the statements to the effect that he represented the sole legitimate path to God. Few would suggest that either Testament was verbally and plenarily inspired, that is, the result of God through the Holy SpiritThe Holy Spirit, from the Christian viewpoint,has a distinct function in the Trinity which, while related to God's will, is not God's will personified. The Christian and Jewish views of the Holy Spirit vary greatly. In the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) the directly dictating his revealed word to human authors, as more conservative groups generally maintain. While many, perhaps most, members of mainline churches accept the Virgin BirthThis article refers to the virgin birth of Christ. For information on the biological phenomenon, please see parthenogenesis. The Virgin Birth is a key doctrine of the Christian faith, and is also held to be true by Muslims. The doctrine asserts that Jesus of Jesus, few would actually make such acceptance a requisite for membership or a position to which others must necessarily be bound. Ignorance concerning the precise circumstances surrounding the creaton of the Bible leads to a lot of speculation as to how the words in it should be interpreted. There is a general consensus that Scripture, while very important, must both be interpreted through the lens of the cultureThe word culture comes from the Latin root colere (to inhabit, to cultivate, or to honor). In general it refers to human activity; different definitions of culture reflect different theories for understanding, or criteria for valuing, human activity.s in which it was originally written, and examined, like everything else, using God-given reasonAlternate uses: Reason (program), Reason (magazine), Reason (Asimov In philosophy, reason (from Latin ratio by way of French raison is the faculty by means of which or the process through which human beings perform thought, especially abstract thought.. Some students of of mainline traditions (for example, John Spong ) have explicitly written of their belief that religious authorities throughout history rewrote and reinterpreted the text to account for cultural shifts. Others claim that this is Revisionist history, and denounce this deliberate reinterpretation as an attempt to rewrite the Bible according to what people want to hear. Despite their Post-modern disagreements as to the origins and exact meaning of the Bible, mainline traditions acknowledge truth eminating from the Bible but do not always agree as to the form that biblical truth must take.

2 Black mainline question

There is some discussion about whether historically black denominations sharing the beliefs stated above are truly "mainline" churches. Some argue that they are not, since blacks were tradtionally excluded from "mainline" society in the United States, and that is in fact why these denominations even exist. Many proponents of racial desegregation feel that these shared beliefs mean that traditionally black churches can indeed be "mainline" and that moderate black Protestant denominations are indeed part of this identity.

3 Use of the term mainline

The term "mainline" can be controversial in that it tends to be used with derision by more conservative critics, who see it as being synonymous with "liberal", which they also use pejoratively. These critics often point, with scarcely concealed glee, at the loss of membership in most of the "mainline" churches in recent decades.

The inclusion of a church in the "mainline" does not imply that the beliefs common to "mainline" churches are held in common by every member of these churches or even every member of their clergy. All of them allow a considerable theological lattitude, and each of them contains within it a Confessing Movement or "renewal movement" which is more conservative in tone. Another important fact is that not every church with a name similar to a mainline church should necessarily be deemed to be "mainline", although in most instances there are historical ties between such groups. For example, the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod and the Presbyterian Church in America are probably too conservative to be regarded as "mainline" in the sense contemplated here.

4 Denominations

Broadly speaking, the larger U.S. mainline churches are:

The United Methodist Church
The Episcopal Church
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
The United Church of Christ
The Presbyterian Church (USA)
The Church of the Brethren
The Disciples of Christ
The American Baptist Churches USA

Black denominations most likely to be identified as mainline are the larger Methodist ones, the African Methodist Episcopal Church, the AME Zion Church, and the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church.

The UMC, Episcopal Church, UCC, PCUSA, Disciples, AME Church, and AME Zion Church are all members of Churches Uniting in Christ, which is an effort to coordinate their works to prevent needless duplications of effort and animosity, and to view each other as valid Christians participating in the Universal Church's mission of spreading the message of the hope of salvation; many hope that this will serve as a prelude to a merged national "superdenomination" somewhat analgous to the United Church of Canada. Additionally, the ELCA is "partner in mission and dialogue" to this movement, albeit not as of 2004 a full member of it.

Protestantism

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