Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Fourfold Gospel

Was the CMA Pentecostal or Baptist? I am getting confused They rejected the initial evidence doctrine, preferring instead the "Don't ask, don't tell" policy regarding tongues and glossolalia and yet they share with the Foursquare church the emphasis on what A.B. Simpson, CMA founder, calls the "Fourfold Gospel." Frederick H. Senft, in his Introduction to Simpson's "Fourfold Gospel," says: "This does not mean that the blessings of the Gospel are limited exclusively to four — Christ our Saviour, Christ our Sanctifier, Christ our Healer, and Christ our Coming Lord. In one sense it is a manifold Gospel with countless blessings and ever deeper and richer experiences of God's grace and love. 'But there are four messages in the Gospel,' says the author, 'which sum up in a very complete way the blessings which Christ has to offer us and which it is especially important that Christians should emphasize today.' These constitute four great pillars in the temple of truth." Ok, so, that's nice, but still, it goes confusing. That is why they are the elected denominational position paper writers and I am not.