 |  |
No.2.
What! No Membership?
pp. 141, 142
Most Christian organizations have both a statement of faith and a membership. It is
often the case that anyone wishing to join has to sign a statement agreeing with the
beliefs of the organization. There is no membership roll for either of the Berean Trusts.
Anyone can join the mailing list to receive The Berean Expositor and we hope that they
will search the Scriptures to see if the published expositions are in agreement with all that
the Bible teaches on the particular subjects under discussion.
But some will ask, have the Berean Trusts no statement of faith? After all a creed is
of value, allowing people to see, at a glance, the main doctrines of an organization. It
enables others to identify the organization's priorities. Both The Berean Forward
Movement Trust and The Berean Publishing Trust are registered charities which have to
report to the Charities Commission. As such each has to have a Trust Deed and
embodied in each deed are the following four basic tenets of faith:--
(1)
The full inspiration of the Scriptures (II Tim. 3: 16).
(2)
The Right Division of the Scriptures (II Tim. 2: 15).
(3)
The Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ (Matt. 16: 16; John 6: 69; 20: 28).
(4)
The all sufficiency of His One Sacrifice (Acts 4: 12; Heb. 10: 14).
From these it will be seen that the Berean Trusts are evangelical (teaching that
salvation is by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ's offering for sin on Calvary's
cross), and fundamental (teaching that the Bible is God's inspired Word). These are the
basics of the Trusts.
Now some claim that one purpose of a statement of faith and membership is to ensure
that the original aims and doctrines of the organization are not altered or ignored. In this
way, they claim, truth is preserved. Would to God that this was true! Without being
critical one has only to look at the Thirty-Nine Articles of the Church of England and ask
how many of its clergy and laity fully support all thirty-nine to realize that both a
statement of faith and a membership can be powerless. In fact the longer the statement
the sooner, and more likely, the organization will run into difficulties in maintaining it.
Thus the basic tenets of faith of the Berean Trusts were kept to a minimum, yet none are
imposed upon the readership or supporters. If this is the case, how are the tenets upheld?
The Trust deeds of both Berean Trusts state: