Before I go any further with this I should state that these are personal thoughts and though I call myself an Anglican, they do not represent the position of my church. They were first written down during Lent of 1988 in an attempt to clarify my personal beleifs.

3. The authority of the Creeds derives from the fact that they are regarded as stating and defining rightly certain central beliefs which are found, explicitly or implicitly, in the Scriptures, and had always been part of the living rule of faith in the Church. Note that Scripture is still of special : authority when dealing with the creeds. As Anglicans say, "Show us that there is anything ‘clearly set forth in Holy Scripture that we do not teach and we will teach it. Show us that anything in our teaching or practice is clearly contrary to Holy Scripture and we will abandon it." This applies equally to the Creeds and the teachings of the Church. The danger of creeds, dogmas, rituals or even sacred scriptures is that people consider them as the reality itself rather than a means toan end. They are only signs of God’s reality – the means by which we come to know Him. To see these creeds, etc. as anything more than mere signs (i.e. they have to be believed fully for salvation) is to elevate them beyond signs and to ignore the biblical injunction against all forms of idolatry: the putting of anything or anyone in the place of God.

4. The starting point for the Christian and Jewish understanding of man is the recognition that man is created after the image of God. This idea views God and man joined with one another through a mysterious connection. It is this special relationship between God and man that accounts for God, at all times (and to all peoples) sending messengers or prophets to preach the unity of God and to warn men of the Judgement. From the beginning of human history, there were divinely chosen and guided individuals who appeared to awaken humanity to God and who were endowed with vast wisdom and with divine revelations. I believe Christ was such a special chosen one who became filled with compassion for humanity, abhorred evil and purified his mind renouncing material pursuits in favour of the pursuit of the highest goodness and began to encourage others to live above the ordinary level of living that consists in satisfying the base urges at the expense of one’s duty to God as well as to others. I believe that Christ’s soul was purified by His suffering of all those feelings and desires and attitudes that separated it from God and that He was, as the Letter to the Hebrews states, made perfect. Though Buddha, Mohammed, etc. were also divine messengers or prophets, they are not equal to Christ as only Christ was made perfect and became one with God and died for our sins and was raised from the dead. I believe Jesus Christ is God’s ultimate revelation!