A Deeper Dive — Statement of Faith §XXIII
The expanded apologetic for §XXIII of the Statement of Faith — what most preachers teach on this subject, where the inherited reading falls short of scripture, and how the framework reads the same scripture faithfully.
The inherited Christian pulpit closes a confession of faith with a sinner’s prayer, an altar call, a gate the reader is asked to walk through to get saved by the close of the document. The closing is the conversion moment — the doctrinal exposition has prepared the reader, and the close converts him. The pulpit’s gospel runs the same way: here is what you need to know; here is what you need to do; here is the prayer to pray to seal the deal. The reader who finishes the confession without praying the prayer has not finished the encounter the pulpit was structuring. The closing is the call. The call is to the gate. The gate is the prayer. The prayer is the conversion.
Around this center, four secondary teachings cluster.
The remnant of the saved is preached with an implicit triumphalism — the saved have arrived, the saved are inside, the saved have received the gospel the unsaved are still being invited to. The pulpit’s tone toward the saved is congratulatory; the pulpit’s tone toward the unsaved is invitational; the implicit hierarchy is we are inside, you are outside, come inside. The fact that the saved themselves are inheritors of someone else’s wrong answers — that surely our fathers have inherited lies applies to the assembly that just wrote the document — is not part of the close. The close is come join us, not come walk this road, which we are also walking.
The assembly is preached as the gatekeeper of who is in and who is out. The pulpit’s confession of faith functions as the threshold over which the reader steps to be inside the body. The body’s authority to declare the reader saved or unsaved is implicit in the close. The pastor’s blessing, the body’s vote, the membership card, the baptismal certificate — these are the body’s instruments of declaration. The fact that Yahuah (God) gathers his own; the assembly does not appoint itself the gatekeeper at his door is foreign to the inherited pulpit, because the inherited pulpit has set itself at the door for centuries.
The close is preached with urgency — today is the day of salvation, do not put this off, you do not know if you will have tomorrow. The urgency is real at one register; scripture does say behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation (2 Corinthians 6:2). But the urgency in the inherited pulpit’s hands is often a pressure tactic — the reader is hurried into a decision, the prayer is prayed before the reader has tested the document, the conversion is recorded before the reader has read the verses he is converting on. The Berean posture (test the document, search the scriptures, see if the things are so) is set aside in favor of the conversion-by-the-end-of-the-meeting posture.
The reader’s response is preached as the sinner’s prayer. The pulpit’s come home is pray this prayer with me, and the prayer itself is treated as the salvific act. The fact that scripture nowhere prescribes a sinner’s prayer as the mechanism of salvation, that the apostles’ invitations were to repent and be baptized (Acts 2:38) and to believe on the Lord Yahusha (Jesus) Messiah (Christ) (Acts 16:31) without scripted prayer formulas, that the prayer-as-conversion-mechanism is a twentieth-century revival construction — none of this surfaces in the inherited reader’s frame. The prayer is preached as the door. The reader who has prayed the prayer is treated as inside. The reader who has not is treated as outside.
This is what the inherited reader was handed about closing a confession. Sinner’s prayer as the gate. Triumphalist tone toward the saved. Assembly as gatekeeper. Urgency as pressure. Prayer as conversion mechanism. The result is a close that pushes the reader into a transaction the assembly authorizes rather than inviting the reader onto a road the Father is walking him.
The reading collapses against scripture’s own posture toward the awakening reader, against the prophetic naming of the remnant as the humble who have nothing to boast in, against the apostles’ refusal to function as gatekeepers, and against the Father’s own naming of himself as the gatherer of his own sheep.
The remnant has nothing to boast in. Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith (Romans 3:27). That no flesh should glory in his presence (1 Corinthians 1:29). Eyes were opened by the Spirit, not by the reader’s cleverness. Names were written before creation (Revelation 13:8; 17:8), not by the reader’s walking aisles. The Father drew his sheep home; the sheep heard his voice; the gathering is the keeping of an oath he swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob long before any of us were on the earth. The triumphalist tone of the inherited pulpit toward the saved is the tone scripture refuses. Surely our fathers have inherited lies (Jeremiah 16:19) is the awakening confession, and the our of the verse keeps the assembly humble in the same breath in which it names the inheritance. The framework that names the four costumes as inheritors of lies must apply the same standard to itself.
The assembly is not the gatekeeper. I am the door of the sheep (John 10:7). I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved (John 10:9). No man cometh unto the Father, but by me (John 14:6). The door is the Messiah (Christ). The doorkeeper is the Father. The assembly is not the door, and the assembly is not the doorkeeper; the assembly is one of many sheep being gathered, walking with other sheep, naming the road for the next sheep who is being drawn home. I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine (John 10:14). The Shepherd knows his sheep. The Shepherd calls them by name. The assembly does not declare anyone in or out by which prayer they have prayed or which document they have signed.
The apostles refused gatekeeper authority. Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as Yahuah (God) gave to every man? I have planted, Apollos watered; but Yahuah (God) gave the increase (1 Corinthians 3:5–6). The ministers plant and water. Yahuah (God) gives the increase. The increase is not the planter’s to give, and the increase is not the planter’s to declare. Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Messiah (Christ), and stewards of the mysteries of Yahuah (God) (1 Corinthians 4:1). Stewards, not gatekeepers. The apostle’s authority was to plant and water. The doorkeeping was always the Father’s.
The close of scripture’s prophets is invitation, not pressure. Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price (Isaiah 55:1). The invitation is open-handed. The voice is the Father’s, calling. The pressure tactics of the inherited revival are not in the prophet’s mouth. Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest (Matthew 11:28). The Messiah’s (Christ’s) call is open-handed. The reader is invited to come; the reader is not pressured into transaction.
The Berean posture is the apostolic-approved response, not the sinner’s prayer. These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so (Acts 17:11). The Bereans tested. The Bereans searched. The Bereans were named more noble for the testing. The inherited pulpit’s pray this prayer at the end of the meeting is the inverse — accept the document without testing it; accept the assembly’s reading without searching the scriptures; complete the transaction the assembly is offering. The framework refuses the inversion.
The Father’s own naming of himself is the gatherer of his sheep. I will seek that which was lost, and bring again that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick (Ezekiel 34:16). I will gather them out of all countries, whither I have driven them in mine anger, and in my fury, and in great wrath; and I will bring them again unto this place, and I will cause them to dwell safely (Jeremiah 32:37). The Father seeks. The Father gathers. The Father brings home. The assembly is one mouth on the road the Father is walking his sheep along; the assembly is not the gate, the gatekeeper, or the gatherer. The framework’s close holds this posture exactly.
The Father is not in a hurry. For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry (Hebrews 10:37). The longsuffering of our Lord is salvation (2 Peter 3:15). The Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) is not in a hurry; the Father is not in a hurry; the awakening that began in the reader’s life when he picked up this document was happening before he opened the page, and it will continue after he closes the page. The Father is patient toward the awakening. The framework is patient with him.
The framework reads the close of the confession as scripture wrote it — invitation rather than transaction, the Father gathering rather than the assembly declaring, the remnant humble rather than triumphant, the road open rather than the gate closed by a prayer the assembly authorizes.
The Statement of Faith ends where it began — at surely our fathers have inherited lies. The inheritance landed on us. We did not choose it; we were born into it. The Father is undoing it now. The assembly that wrote this document is one assembly being awakened from the same sleep the reader is being awakened from. We are not arrived. We are awakening. The verse applies to them. The verse applies to us.
The remnant has nothing to boast in. Eyes were opened by the Spirit, not by the assembly’s cleverness. Names were written before creation, not by anyone’s walking aisles. The Father drew his sheep home; the sheep heard his voice; the gathering is the keeping of an oath he swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob long before any of us were on the earth. Where is boasting then? It is excluded (Romans 3:27). The framework’s close carries the humility scripture commands. We are the found, not the elite. The Spirit found us. The Father is keeping the oath he swore.
The assembly does not declare any reader’s lineage. We do not appoint ourselves the gatekeepers at the Father’s door. We do not hand the reader a sinner’s prayer to pray, a membership card to sign, or a document to walk through to be declared in. I am the door of the sheep (John 10:7). The door is the Messiah (Christ). The doorkeeper is the Father. The assembly is one of many sheep being gathered. The Shepherd knows the names of his sheep. The Shepherd calls them by their names. We do not call them by their names; he does.
The Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) does what the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) does, in his own time, by his own hand. Some readers will arrive at this document already walking the road; some will arrive at the first verse; some will arrive contesting every line. To each, the framework says the same thing scripture says — prove all things; hold fast that which is good (1 Thessalonians 5:21). Test the document. Test the verses cited. Test the framework against the Word with the reader’s own eyes. The reader who has finished this document is not where he started, even if he does not yet know what he is. The Father knows. He is not in a hurry, and neither is the reader.
What we ask is what scripture asks. Prove all things; hold fast that which is good (1 Thessalonians 5:21). Test this document. Test the verses we cited. Test the framework against the Word with your own eyes. Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters (Isaiah 55:1) — the door is open, and the door is the Father, and the Father is keeping his promise. Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest (Matthew 11:28). The Shepherd is calling.
The reader who has read this far is not where he started. The verses landed on a different soil than the soil he carried into the document. The Spirit was at work as the page was being turned. He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Yahusha (Jesus) Messiah (Christ) (Philippians 1:6). What he began in the reader as the document opened, he is bringing forward. The reader’s job is not to convert by the end of the meeting; the reader’s job is to walk the road with the Father at the Father’s pace.
The Father is gathering his own. I will seek that which was lost, and bring again that which was driven away (Ezekiel 34:16). The seeking is his work. The bringing is his work. The framework is one mouth on the road, naming the road for the next sheep the Father is drawing home. And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd (John 10:16). The Shepherd is bringing. The Shepherd’s voice is the call. The reader who hears it is hearing what the lost sheep of the house of Yashar’el (Israel) have been hearing across the centuries the Father has been gathering.
The Father is not in a hurry. For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry (Hebrews 10:37). The longsuffering of our Lord is salvation (2 Peter 3:15). The awakening that began before this document was opened will continue after this document is closed. The Spirit is not in a hurry. The framework is not either. The reader’s road is the Father’s road, walked at the Father’s pace.
Then shall we know, if we follow on to know Yahuah (God). Come, and let us return unto Yahuah (God): for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up. After two days will he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight. Then shall we know, if we follow on to know Yahuah (God) (Hosea 6:1–3). The following is the road. The knowing is the destination. The reader who has read this document is following on. The Father is healing what was torn. The Father is binding up what was smitten. The reader’s job is to keep walking. Then shall we know — not now, all at once, but as the road unfolds and the Father reveals what the road is for. The framework is one stop on the road. The Father is the destination.
Homecoming, not triumph. This Statement of Faith is the assembly’s witness. The assembly is the called. The Father is the caller. The reader who has finished the document is not at a gate; he is on a road, with the Shepherd’s voice ahead of him, and the assembly walking the same road behind. They shall come with weeping, and with supplications will I lead them: I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters in a straight way, wherein they shall not stumble: for I am a father to Yashar’el (Israel), and Ephraim is my firstborn (Jeremiah 31:9). The Father is leading. The reader is being led. The framework names the road. The Shepherd does the calling. The Father does the gathering. We are watching it happen. The reader is part of what we are watching.
The inherited pulpit closed its confession with a transaction the assembly authorized. The framework closes its confession with the Father’s own invitation, the Father’s own gathering, and the Father’s own pace. Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters. The door is open. The Father is calling. The Spirit is not in a hurry. The reader is not where he started, and the road is the Father’s, and the road is open.
Layer 3 expansion complete. The doorway closes back to the long form’s §I (Posture and Purpose), where the document opened, and to the entire confession the reader has now walked through. The road continues at Don’t Muzzle the Ox, the deeper-layer landing where the assembly’s labor is supported and the course as discipleship pathway is offered.
