Believing Too Much And Believing Too Little

BELIEVING TOO MUCH AND BELIEVING TOO LITTLE

Subject FAITH

A writer was talking about the dramatic change that came about during the Reformation in terms of the content of our faith. Then he made this interesting aside: "The issue at the time of the Reformation, as the article I just quoted makes clear, was to prevent people from being required to believe too much. All the medieval teachings about purgatory, and indulgences, and works of supererogation, for example, were not based on Scripture and could not therefore be required. In our day the problem seems to be the other way around. We need to base our doctrine and Christology on the Scriptures lest we believe too little."

[Richard Reid, "The Necessity of a Biblical Christology," in Donald Armstrong, ed. Who Do You Say That I Am? Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1999, p. 271