This is in response to a recent comment that we need “some basics” when people question us about “why we are Anglicans”
Some “Bullets”…
We are Anglican because we believe :
Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. Jesus is the Savior through whom Salvation is found.
We believe in the Authority of Scripture . The Bible is the Word of God, written. The authors wrote under the inspiration and authority of the Holy Spirit.
We believe in Salvation (through Christ only) which means: Justification - being forgiven and made righteous (respectable, honest, upright) in God’s sight – and – Conversion - accepting Christ as our Savior by repentance (changing our sinful ways) and by our faith (professing Jesus as our Lord and Savior and, then, living our lives under His authority). Instead of a Gospel of repentance, some churches have adopted a gospel of acceptance.
We believe in the authority of the Church and remaining an active, willing, and obedient member of the worldwide Anglican Communion.
We follow Traditional and Orthodox Christian teachings on Scripture, the definition of Marriage, Authority, and Christ’s message and teachings. I state it this way because some other denominations have become “Revisionist” (doctrine can be revised, reviewed, reconsidered, modified and adjusted as culturally desired) and “Pluriform” (there are many ways to God) as stated by a recently retired Presiding Bishop of a mainstream, though declining, American church. (Christ did not say, I am one of the Ways…)
We make decisions based upon Scripture, Tradition and Reason (with Scripture always having primacy – which is how Richard Hooker originally designed the “process” in the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity in defense of the Anglican Church in 1593)
**Note that I have not mentioned, sex, gender, same-sex, blessing. It's not about sex, it's about authority.
In all, we must explain who we are, rather than who we are not, and do so in a loving and, above all, Christian manner.
Cass +
