Since He seems interested in us preserving doctrine (as the Holy Spirit helps the authors indicate throughout Scripture), it is something we should keep in mind.

I think the creeds come out of that time of loving and reflecting on God (loving Him with our all (heart/soul/mind/strength). It is part of, not separate from, loving God, loving others.

When we become comfortable and confident in our traditions, we may try to identify doctrinal points that we call heresy. We might do better to spend our time loving God and pursuing moral truth and righteousness.

so why should we expect:

“Only the Holy Spirit can determine that for sure, but for practical purposes we do have to make our best determination. If we see evidence of the fruits of the Spirit”

Why is that true? Is there a Holy Spirit? Doesn’t that come from part of the canon?

Perhaps He could not lead the church in core beliefs (guide us in truth), and we really can have over 1 billion individual determinations of what God is.

It is not a problem, then, that some pockets had an opposite view of God, and Jesus, than other groups, including the overall general consensus.

It’s then ok that some see Jesus as God, and some not. We can’t be sure God if thinks that is a problem or not.

Correct?

Our canon and traditions come from one direction; not all of the apostles are represented there. We have seen, especially since Martin Luther but even before that, that the Spirit does not operate within just one group.

But could they be considered “branches of the church”, or should they be considered apart from the church?

By the way, you probably aren’t suggesting that every sermon be scored that way, but I wonder if some folks occasionally do sit in the pews picking apart a sermon rather than seeking a blessing.

It reminds me of something I read in Jacob Neusner’s “Judaism In the Time of Christianity”. Neusner argues that Judaism is a religion where membership is determined by following some laws, whereas Christianity is a creedal religion. You authenticate yourself as a Christian by professing to believe a creed.

Obviously it’s not as black and white as Neusner states, since one can be expelled from the Christian community for breaking rules. It happened from the very beginning, and Jonathan Edwards (for example) used behavior as much as creed to expel people.

I’m very fascinated by the topic…

Let’s also keep in mind that much of the wording and theology used was already available in various “catachetical training” and baptismal questioning. The creedal/theological summaries had been developing since the NT era and continued until the council periods. It was not something that they had to completely start working on from scratch.

As Lisa indicated, this put a more “official” stamp on all that in the face of pockets of heresy.