Arthur C. Cochrane’s third point, about the nature of a Confession of Faith ,in his book The Church’s Confession Under Hitler, would be nonesense without his first two points. The third point is:
“3. A Confession of Faith is a Confession of the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.” (Italics author’s) (185)
Cochrane explains in the negative that the Confession “is not the Confession of an individual theologian, of a party within the Church, or even of a particular denomination or group of denominations.” His positive statement on this has to do with what the Confession says. He writes. “It speaks for the whole Church to the whole Church.”
To go further, “The ecumenicity of a Confession is grounded in the fact that it undertakes to confess the One Lord and the one faith attested in Holy Scripture and given to the whole Church.”
He therefore brings back to the discussion the first two points.
“1. “The Barmen Declaration teaches first and foremost that a Confession of Faith is a written document drawn up by the Church which confesses Jesus Christ.” (Italics the author’s) and, “2. According to Barmen, a Confession of faith confesses Jesus Christ as he is attested for us in Holy Scripture.” (Italics the author’s)
The point here is that it is only the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church which confesses Jesus Christ as Lord and does so knowing Jesus Christ only from the Old and New Testaments. With that clarified it is possible to understand how and why Cochrane, a Reformed professor and theologian, can write, “… a Confession does not confess the ‘Reformed point of view,’ or Calvinism, Lutheranism, Methodism, or Barthianism. It will not even wish to represent ‘evangelicalism’ or ‘Protestantism,’ for that would be to confess an ecclesiastical tradition rather than Christ.” (186)
While some readers are now, of course thinking of “The Scots Confession,” or more probably “The Westminster Confession of Faith,” it should be noted they do confess above all, Jesus Christ as he is attested for us in Holy Scripture. And those two Confessions do confess that point as given to the whole Church. Cochrane will dwell more deeply on this issue in another point using the Lutheran Confession, the Formula of Concord.
But the most important part of this third point, the statement, “The ecumenicity of a Confession is grounded in the fact that it undertakes to confess the One Lord and the one faith attested in Holy Scripture and given to the whole Church,” has a challenging aspect for the troubled mainline Churches of today. That is, that when the Confessing Churches of Germany and the members of the Synod of Barmen offered the Declaration of Barmen to the Church of Germany they offered it as though they were the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church. As Cochrane writes:
“The Synod of Barmen made this claim [The ecumenicity of a Confession is grounded in the fact that it undertakes to confess the One Lord and the one faith attested in Holy Scripture and given to the whole Church.] when it dared to speak in the name of the German Evangelical Church and not merely in the name of an orthodox party opposing the ‘German Christians’ and when it declared that ‘we are bound together by the Confession of the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church.’ This one Christian Church, Article 3 states, is ‘the congregation of the brethren in which Jesus Christ acts presently as the Lord in word and sacrament through the Holy Spirit.’”
And here is the wisdom for today, “A Confession that did not assume the awful daring and risk involved in such a claim would prove only that it was not a genuine Confession.” Those who confess must gather into their statement the whole Church, must speak as though they are speaking for the whole Church. So above all, Jesus Christ as Lord, the confession of Him founded only on the Holy Scripture and the recognition that this is the Confession of the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church is risky but is the only true Confession of the Church.
“3. A Confession of Faith is a Confession of the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.” (Italics author’s) (185)
Cochrane explains in the negative that the Confession “is not the Confession of an individual theologian, of a party within the Church, or even of a particular denomination or group of denominations.” His positive statement on this has to do with what the Confession says. He writes. “It speaks for the whole Church to the whole Church.”
To go further, “The ecumenicity of a Confession is grounded in the fact that it undertakes to confess the One Lord and the one faith attested in Holy Scripture and given to the whole Church.”
He therefore brings back to the discussion the first two points.
“1. “The Barmen Declaration teaches first and foremost that a Confession of Faith is a written document drawn up by the Church which confesses Jesus Christ.” (Italics the author’s) and, “2. According to Barmen, a Confession of faith confesses Jesus Christ as he is attested for us in Holy Scripture.” (Italics the author’s)
The point here is that it is only the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church which confesses Jesus Christ as Lord and does so knowing Jesus Christ only from the Old and New Testaments. With that clarified it is possible to understand how and why Cochrane, a Reformed professor and theologian, can write, “… a Confession does not confess the ‘Reformed point of view,’ or Calvinism, Lutheranism, Methodism, or Barthianism. It will not even wish to represent ‘evangelicalism’ or ‘Protestantism,’ for that would be to confess an ecclesiastical tradition rather than Christ.” (186)
While some readers are now, of course thinking of “The Scots Confession,” or more probably “The Westminster Confession of Faith,” it should be noted they do confess above all, Jesus Christ as he is attested for us in Holy Scripture. And those two Confessions do confess that point as given to the whole Church. Cochrane will dwell more deeply on this issue in another point using the Lutheran Confession, the Formula of Concord.
But the most important part of this third point, the statement, “The ecumenicity of a Confession is grounded in the fact that it undertakes to confess the One Lord and the one faith attested in Holy Scripture and given to the whole Church,” has a challenging aspect for the troubled mainline Churches of today. That is, that when the Confessing Churches of Germany and the members of the Synod of Barmen offered the Declaration of Barmen to the Church of Germany they offered it as though they were the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church. As Cochrane writes:
“The Synod of Barmen made this claim [The ecumenicity of a Confession is grounded in the fact that it undertakes to confess the One Lord and the one faith attested in Holy Scripture and given to the whole Church.] when it dared to speak in the name of the German Evangelical Church and not merely in the name of an orthodox party opposing the ‘German Christians’ and when it declared that ‘we are bound together by the Confession of the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church.’ This one Christian Church, Article 3 states, is ‘the congregation of the brethren in which Jesus Christ acts presently as the Lord in word and sacrament through the Holy Spirit.’”
And here is the wisdom for today, “A Confession that did not assume the awful daring and risk involved in such a claim would prove only that it was not a genuine Confession.” Those who confess must gather into their statement the whole Church, must speak as though they are speaking for the whole Church. So above all, Jesus Christ as Lord, the confession of Him founded only on the Holy Scripture and the recognition that this is the Confession of the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church is risky but is the only true Confession of the Church.
2 comments:
Thanks for this Viola. I really enjoy your posts.
Thanks, Benjamin. Its always funny how we don't get many comments unless we write about the homosexual issues, but I reserve the right to not go there all the time!!
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