(This entry has been edited since it was posted.)

(The numbering refers to the FIEC "Basis of Faith".)

(See my Full Critique for more details, including the full text of the "Basis" and reasons for some doctrines that this Short Critique merely states.)

1. Does "sovereign will" mean that God originally and unchangeably ordained all that occurs? This implies that he intended man to fall. I reject such celebrating of sin. Or does it just mean that "God is King and should be obeyed"?

And if we agree that God did NOT intend the fall, what WAS his original plan? We cannot see it all, but clearly it involved uniting with created souls by becoming one of them. He foresaw that if we fell he would still fulfill this purpose, though not along the straight path he had shown us but along the devious path we would have chosen.

2. "Every writing inspired by God is profitable"? Yes. "Every word ... without error"? No. The Bible makes no such claim; it is a modern (Western) rationalisation.

3. (This Item is so key that I see no way further to abbreviate.)

"Equal dignity and worth" is the only attempt in this Basis to express God's law, the way of the good life. And it tells us little. I wonder how anyone thinks each word of "equal dignity and worth" affects their choices. If it is just another way to say "treat your neighbour as yourself", so far so good, but this says nothing of man's overall (unchanging) Task.

If "our greatest purpose" means "our ONE overall proper purpose, such that all other proper purposes are contained in it", let us make that clear. But if it implies that we may properly ALSO have other purposes, I deny it.

That one purpose (serving God) entails fulfilling the "Great Commission" by developing the world's resources. This involves these Realms of action:
{knowledge, action, expression, respect, conversation, altruism, commitment, decoration, reverence}
which provide the Natural Standards to be:
{accurate, efficacious, clear, just, genial, generous, loyal, stylish, sublime}
as we seek:
{truth, achievement, communication, justice, accord, benefit, fealty, beauty, transcendentality}.

The roles of "Worship" (reverence) and Love (agapE) make them suitable to represent life as a whole (as in Rom 12:1 and 1 Jn 4:16 respectively), but they are only metaphors which should not blind us to the range of other necessary activities.

4A. I refuse to insist on Christ's having no human father. I see no high significance in the fact.

4B. "Bearing God’s punishment?" Literally? I reject Penal Substitution and any other Appeasement theory. They are morally absurd.

7. Here one of the holy nation's functions (corporate reverence) is confused with its Task as a whole. (See under Item 3.)

"Administering of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper"? In the beginning these forms were convenient expressions of initial and ongoing membership, but I refuse to insist on them as the only valid forms of subscription and renewal.

9. If "eternal punishment" means "endless", I refuse to insist on that.