Personal Creed on Scripture

Personal Creed on Scripture (100 points)
One page, single-spaced, concise statement ofwhat you believe the Bible teaches
about Scripture – i. e., articulate the basics ofa biblically-based doctrine of
Scripture (the doctrine ofRevelation).
Note carefully: This is not to be a summary of your beliefs about doctrines other
than the doctrine of Scripture. Nor is it to express a personal creed or belief
statement about all of life (e.g., “I believe in God . . .”). The sole focus of this creed
or belief statement is the doctrine of Scripture (unit III of this course).
If you’re wondering what the doctrine of Scripture or revelation involves, consult
Grudem, chapters 2-8 (required reading for the class). The topics you’ll want to
address are exactly those topics discussed by Grudem and in class lectures. For
example: the nature and meaning of “revelation” (the doctrine of revelation, not
the Book of Revelation – the last book in the New Testament!); what the “word of
God” means and refers to; the authority, inerrancy, clarity, sufficiency of Scripture,
etc. You will be writing similar personal creeds or belief statements about other
Christian doctrines (Christology, Eschatology, etc.) in other theology courses at
Biola.
Here are afew more thoughtsfrom “Guidelinesfor Reading Grudem, ”found on page
131 of your coursepack:
The kinds of questions you need to answer, based upon Scripture (cite key
passages – list, but don’t quote), in your Personal Creed include:
Your understanding of what it means that God has revealed himself to us, and
why he has done so.
Your understanding of general and special revelation and how they relate.
The authority of Scripture – what it means, how far it extends, what its
implications are for us, how God ’s words relate to human words in the Bible.
What constitutes the canon of Scripture and why?
What you understand and hold concerning the inerrancy, clarity, necessity,
and sufficiency of Scripture.
You must be very brief, so you’ll need to distill and make every shot count. (This is
not just a paraphrase of Grudem or me, or what you think you “should” write – the
point is to get you to dig into Scripture and theology for yourself, in order to figure
out what you believe and why).

From Dr. Thoennes’ description of a personal creed:

A good creed is well written and must include: 1) The creed must represent your
beliefs, not merely a paraphrase ofGrudem or what you think you should write. Your
grade will not be affected by your personal beliefs. You may use Grudem and the
course notes to point you to the key issues and biblicalpassages relevant to them.
However, you should then write yg‘ beliefs, in your words. This assignment is a
great opportunity to work through your beliefs on central issues ofthe Christian
faith and clearly articulate them. 2) A good creed addresses the important issuesfor
each doctrine. Because it is your creed does not mean you may write about whatever
you want. These are your beliefs, but relative to a Christian perspective. Therefore
showing an understanding ofthe central issuesfor each doctrine in light ofthe
biblical, historic Christianfaith is essential. While your grade will not be affected by
your personal beliefs regarding these central issues, it will be affected ifthe key
doctrinal issues are not addressed. 3) A good creed gives sufficient biblical basisfor
statements made. You should actually read the passages cited and decidefor yourself
if they support the doctrine being discussed.

To cite a passage without knowing itfrom memory or reading itfirst is considered
plagiarism. It is also considered plagiarism you use a creed or grade checklist from
a creed written by someone who has had this class before to write your own. I do
encourage you to work on your creeds with those in your cohort group.

You will be given a model personal creed (“Assignment Descriptions” folder) on
Christology (the doctrine of the person, nature, and work of Jesus). Note carefully:
the model is simply meant to show you how to write a personal creed, what a
personal creed or belief statement looks like. The creed you are to write in this
course is not about Christology; it is about Scripture.

So your creed should look similar in form to the supplied creed on Christology:
assertions that summarize what you think the Bible teaches on specific subjects
that are relevant to Scripture, God speaking, general and special revelation, etc.
Like the model, these statements should list (in parentheses) the biblical
references they are summarizing. Roughly, each paragraph should cover one
general aspect of the doctrine (e.g., the idea of revelation: how does Scripture
indicate that God speaks, and where does the Bible fit in to that?). The sentences
in that paragraph should all relate to and unpack more specific aspects of that idea
(e.g., general revelation, special revelation).

Do not plagiarize. In addition to being careful to avoid other plagiarism-related
activities (e.g., copying from websites), note this very specific instruction here: Do
not ask another student, either in your class or another section (this semester or a
previous semester) to send you an electronic copy of their paper – for any reason,
even if you do not plan to plagiarize from it. Likewise, do not send your paper to
any other student, for any reason. It is fine for you to advise and help each other in
personal discussion, but you may not send each other copies of papers.

If you plagiarize from another student’s paper, the SafeAssign software will catch
it, and you will face the harsh penalties outlined in your syllabus and on
Blackboard. Some students in the past have actually-mistal<enly-submitted the
paper someone else had loaned them. Note carefully that if you do this, or if in any
other way I discover that you have borrowed someone else’s creed or loaned yours
to someone else, even you or they did not in fact copy it, I will consider you to
have plagiarized the assignment and you will face the same penalties.