welcome to the first module of t605 M Doctrine and polity and for this lecture I'm going to talk about Doctrine and doctrinal standards since this is same meod this Doctrine class we have to talk about Doctrine and so what is Doctrine anyway but when we're speaking of Doctrine in the Mad tradition we also mean doctrinal standards so what are doctrinal standards and so are in intention for this lecture then is to talk about Doctrine and doctrinal standards and this lecture is basically divided into three parts that is first we'll talk about Doctrine second doctrinal standards of the UMC and third doal standards of the GMC and so let's begin with Doctrine what is Doctrine anyway I know when we hear doine it carries with it some negative connotation for example Doctrine is sometimes seen as divisive and so sometimes we tend to run away from Doctrine or we tend to minimize the importance of Doctrine because we View Doctrine as something that divides but really if you're going to look at Doctrine Doctrine really unites and this is really Illustrated in the definition given by George a linbeck when he said Church doctrines are communally authoritative teachings regarding beliefs and practices that are considered essential to the Identity or welfare of the group in question so I highlighted a few parts here first part that I would like to highlight is that doctrines are communally authoritative teachings in other words there's this community of Believers and they agreed on what sort of teach teachings will be authoritative for the said Community of Faith get it or community of Believers so when we're talking about authoritative teachings authoritative teachings on what well regarding beliefs and practices that are considered what essential to the Identity or welfare of the group in question see that so we for example in a particular Faith Community they have certain beliefs and practices okay that are considered essential to their identity essential to their welfare and and so now this same Community of Faith needs to decide on what is authoritative teachings about this beliefs and practices okay so so as you can see there there's a community involved and this community has agreed uh on what it should be taught in that particular community and what is considered authoritative teaching in that community and hence that is Doctrine and so once this community of Believers decide on what is authoritative teachings with regard to their identity then as you can see Doctrine unites but if they do not agree on what is authoritative teachings that Define their beliefs and practices there will be what division and so that's why we need to understand that Doctrine is important it is not divisive It Is What It unites okay because we have to have some kind of Baseline we have to have some kind of definition about what we believe and there's where Doctrine comes into play okay and so so that's Doctrine now when speaking of Doctrine in the meist tradition as I've said we also mean doctrinal standards because we're not just talking about one set of of a confession of belief or a statement of belief like what is found in other traditions in methodism it's a collection of a number of documents or what we call standards got it and so when we're talking about the doal standards in the United meist Church well the best place to go or the only place you can find them in the book of discipline is in part three of the book of discipline and what you have on the screen is from the 2016 book of discipline wherein it's titled doctrinal standards and our theological task okay so here you will find a listing of the do standards and for the first standard the articles of religion of the Mist Church well you find that in paragraph 104 I label that section three are doal standards and general rules as you notice it also mentions about the general rules general rules are not classified as doctrinal standards get it so so what are this doctrinal standards well again as you can see here the first one is the articles of religion of the meist church and then moving on toh page 72 you find here the confession of faith of the Evangelical United Brethren Church and and this is basically the combined statement or confession of the United brethren in Christ which was the confession of faith of the United bre in Christ and then the articles of religion of the Evangelical Church well they merged in 1946 and they came up with a unified confession of Faith later on okay in 1963 hence you have the confession of Fai and so it's so if you compare this one from the articles of religion that was drafted by Wesley they're quite different even in terms of language okay the linguistic style is quite different actually there is an article that is part of our reading for this first module that was written by Jason beakers comparing the two okay and so if you want to find out more about the articles of religion and the confession of Faith there is a separate lecture that is found in this module explaining the history of both documents got it and then this brings us to the standard sermons of Wesley and the explanatory notes upon the New Testament and those are found in page 77 of the book of discipline and what you find here for example in the standard sermons of Wesley you don't find a summation or listing of this 53 sermons but instead you find a biographical note where you can find them and here it mentions that these sermons can be found in the critical edition of wesy sermons that is included in the works of John Wesley volumes 1 to4 where basically this is what is known as the bicentennial edition of The Works of John Wesley that was published by Abington press starting from 1984 to 1987 okay but that does not just contain the f 53 sermons there are other sermons in this collection by the way and then we move on to the explanatory notes upon the New Testament of course obviously you cannot put the explanatory notes upon the New Testament because this was John Wesley's commentary on the New Testament so there's no way they can put that there and so that's why you can also find here a biographical note and it tells us where we can get a copy of the explanatory notes upon the New Testament and in this time and age of the internet you don't even have to buy a copy of this you can just download This by a mere search via Google got it or search engine and so perhaps you're wondering about the sermons and the notes and how they came to be again there's a separate explanation in a separate lecture found in this module okay but again let me just say that they came about out through what is known as the model deed of 1763 when Wesley came up with a legal document defining who is allowed to preach in Methodist chapels or Methodist preaching houses because at that time they went through a number of controversies particularly the infiltration of calvinistic doctrines or teachings within methodism there were folks who were preaching calvinistic doctrines like predestination in M this chapel and so w said okay let me just come up with this model deed with this legal deed or legal document stating that no person shall preach in M's pulpits that will preach any teaching or doctrine that is contrary to the teachings of Mr John Wesley okay and particularly he specified there his sermons and notes and so I outlin that much more in detail in the lecture okay in that other lecture as found in the same module and so these are essentially the four doctrinal standards of the United Methodist Church now let's move on to the doctrinal standards of the global me church and this time well I can say that it's quite similar but there are additions and and so that's why this is categorized into three categories this standards first you have the normative documents and by the way when we're talking about this doent standards in the GMC you will find them in part one titled Doctrine in our transitional book of doctrines and discipline just take note our version of book of discipline in the global Methodist Church is titled transitional first because we are in transition although that about to change next week we're going to have General Conference and so the transitional word will be removed from it but then it also says doctrines and discipline book of doctrines and discipline because it is to acknowledge that is a book of Doctrine get it in addition to a book of discipline in the UMC book of discipline it's also a book of doctrines although it's not acknowledged in the title I hope that clarifies it and so in this part one doctrine of the transitional book of doctrines and discipline we find here a su of the doctrines of the global meist church and by the way I'm just so blessed to kind of note that I was part of the subcommittee that that work on this section or this part of our transitional book of doctrines and discipline so we were just a small subcommittee of four people who work on this is it four people yes four people and three of those people are from Asbury by the way and so now this brings us to the first category that is normative documents paragraph 105 so what are this normative documents by the way normative documents for our doctrinal standards okay to read it in full and here's a definition of this what are normative documents anyway well it says here the following summaries of the apostolic witness disclosed in scripture have been affirmed by many Christian communities and express Orthodox Christian teaching so basically this refers to what Orthodox Christian teaching okay what is considered Orthodox and so when we say Orthodox well don't be intimidated by that what we mean by that is right teaching or right Doctrine okay as defined by Christian tradition and so the word normative refers to the standards by which we judge true and false teaching and normative teaching is binding and obligatory so in other words they're non-negotiable because they've been set by the church as it developed from its early years and onwards got it and so these are binding and obligatory and it's establishes the proper boundaries for preaching and teaching in our denomination in other words says that the GMC is in line with Orthodox teaching okay it's in line with the historic Christian faith how or what our spiritual ancestors believe and taught from the early Christian church and onwards okay so we are in line with that and and then it finds those normative documents first the Apostles Creed and then the nyine Creed so that's why here under this category you find those two documents the Apostles Creed and the nying Creed the Apostles Creed according to this writing has been employed by the church throughout her rich history for doctrinal clarity and for the Lively confession of faith in preparation for the sacrament of baptism and so this Apostles Creed that has been around it precedes the Ning Creed it's been recited in the early church and here it is used in preparation for the sacrament of baptism as a lively confession of Faith okay so it has a liturgical function and so the Ning Creed on the other hand expresses belief of the Catholic that is the universal church and it's crucial for both catecheses and for the proper interpretation of scripture and so this nice in Creed can be used what it's used for catechism and for interpreting scripture and it's also professed within the context of worship around the world so as you can see if you go to page eight you find the Apostles Creed okay the Apostles Creed that we recite in our liturgy from time to time in the church and also here in the same page you find the N Creed ad 381 so actually to be much more accurate this is really the Ning constantinopolitan Creed why because this was the revision of the original Nan Creed of AD 325 remember in 325 the church had to deal with the Arian controversy arus who thought that Jesus is not God who questioned the Divinity of Jesus like a demigod or a lower stature with the father it's primarily a statement about who Jesus is his nature his character got it but then if you look at the Holy Spirit it just says we believe in the Holy Spirit or in the Holy Spirit and then nothing follows well that was corrected in 381 through the Council of Constantinople whereby if we go to page nine look at here see there's now a paragraph or or I guess a sentence describing who the holy spirit is see that that Holy Spirit is The Giver of Life see that and so that's why this Creed to be much more accurate must be referred to as the nyine constantinopolitan Creed cor it so but then in under this normative documents also added is the the definition of CH sedon of 451 ad and so here it's categorized sort of like an addition or additional documents for our doctrinal standards and it says here the following document though important for proper teaching about Jesus Christ does not enjoy the same broad acceptance as do both the apostles and the nying Creed it is not employed for example by the Oriental Orthodox Churches comprising the captic arm Syrian Ethiopian and arrian and the malankara Indian churches the definition of chaldon however has been affirmed by Roman Catholicism Eastern Orthodoxy and by several Protestant theological tradition so this is an acknowledgement that this chalcedonian definition does not enjoy the same broad acceptance that is found with the apostles and nce and greed but nonetheless along with the Roman Catholic Church Church Eastern Orthodox church and several Protestant traditions we affirm as GMC the definition of chelidon okay so what was a stake in this Council of chaldon in 451 ad well it's the question about the nature of the Divinity of Jesus in relationship with this humanity and so this Council answered that controversy so this now brings us to the the second category that is the normative standards in paragraph 106 so what are this normative standards particularly it sets your normative standards for Wesleyan witness okay so the first one the first category deals with what our connection to Orthodox Christianity okay and the second one deals much more with our wesan witness okay what are the normative standards pertaining to our Wesleyan witness and so it says here as is the case in many Christian communities we recognize additional statements of faith that are consistent with the credal tradition of the church Universal but which also express our Church's particular emphasis and concerns as well as our theological Heritage of Faith this constitutive normative standards embody the faith once for all and trusted to the Saints according to Jude 3 and serve as a bul workk against false teaching providing the framework for the phrase of God in our teaching that is Orthodoxy again what is Orthodoxy right teaching right Doctrine the development of our Collective Theology and the launching point for our leing and service that is auto practice so when we say Auto practice what we mean is Right practice okay from the Greek word practice and orto meaning right so recognizing the complimentary streams of the Methodist and the Evangelical United Brethren Faith communities both the articles of religion and the confession of Faith Define the doctrinal boundaries of our church until such time as a combined articles of Faith may be approved by the church okay so basically under this normative standards are found what the articles of religion of the Methodist Church that is the same article the first article in the theal standards of the UMC and the confession of faith of the Evangelical United Brethren Church got it and I just would like to point out what's mentioned here as part of the subcommittee who work on this we also recognize that there's been some concern about how dated the articles of religion is particularly the one that was uh done by John Wesley in 1784 when he allowed the American Methodist to form their own church in 1784 so he came up with a Revis articles of religion that he adopted from the articles of religion of the Anglican church and he came up with 24 by the way we have 25 now okay but at that time he came up with 24 articles of religion and and so if you're going to look at the language it's very much 18th century and also it has in the language anti- anabaptist articles okay articles that are against anabaptism Roman Catholicism and so on and so forth and so it's a bit dated when compared to the confession of Faith which came out in 1963 and so we recognize that probably in the future these two documents will be combined okay but it is not within our purview now in this transition to do that combining so that's why we did not combine them so the normative standards are first the articles of religion as found in page 10 and it has a a short summary here with regards to its history again if you want to find out about this there's a lecture in the same module and then how about the confession of Faith see here in page 14 there's also a short history and by the way I'm the one who wrote this short history here okay by virtue of my background before I used to be the director of the EU Center in Dayton Ohio and so that's why I was asked to be the one in charge on working on this short history or summary of the confession of faith of the EU Church and so aside from the normative standards the third category would be the foundational Wesleyan standards or paragraph 107 so what are this foundational westle standards well this ones really pertain to the standards that were defined by Wesley himself okay I know the articles of religion was also defined by Wesley because he made that but this one were really created by Wesley for the Methodist movement during his time particularly in England at that time and so here it talks about this foundational westan standards it says representing the normative contributions and emphasis of methodism articulation of the Christian faith the westan standards have to one degree or another been broadly shared among the spiritual descendants of the 18th century evangelica renewa led by John and Charles wesy the standard teach us what it means to be Methodist and the teachings of our community should be consistent with them okay so basically these standards Define what Methodist Orthodoxy is okay again if you claim to be a Methodist and you want to be faithful to that identity then there's no way around this foundational wesan standards and what are they well they are standards number three and four in the UMC the standards okay and so they are what the standard sermons of John Wesley and here you find a brief history if you compare this from the one from the UMC there's no history there it's just a biographical note okay and also we added a list of the sermons of the 53 sermons initially was she came up with 44 and then he added nine later so making it to a total of 53 this was in 1771 but again the 44 sermons were really defined by Wesley in his model deed no one was allowed to preach in M's chapels or preaching houses that teach doctrine that are contrary to the teachings of Mr Wesley okay as found in the sermons or the standard sermons of Wesley and at that time there were only 44 in 1763 but then in 1771 he added nine okay hence we have 53 standard sermons and so yeah you find the history here and then finally under this foundational westan standards we also have the explanatory notes upon the New Testament and there's a very short history here but again because this explanatory notes is it's quite long as I said earlier uh you can always find this online and so there you go we have the doal standards of the GMC and if we're going to count them we have how many 1 2 3 four five six 7 seven doal standards in the GMC compared to the four doal standards in the UMC