The oft spoken about and much anticipated poll results by Rodney Shaw have been published.
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First, He is to be congratulated for his valiant effort to measure the pulse of a divided fellowship. Albeit, he admittedly remarks in his analysis of the results that this unscientific anonymous web based poll of no more than 5 % of the constituency is 100% unscientific..... Of course, serious questions endure as to the reliability or validity of this sample but it does make for good forum fodder.
Unsurprisingly, close to 95%..agreed on the articles on Repentance, Water baptism, and the baptism of the Holy Ghost.
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These articles, borrowed almost verbatim from the PCI manual, are the same articles in which men who differed on what constituted the New Birth, like Goss, Norris, Gray, Scism, Gurley,.. Yadon, Urshan - ..agreed to at merger, in 1945.
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What is very troubling is Shaw's fallacious conclusion is that this present day consensus equates to overwhelming "agreement" on the New Birth"... First, none of the articles of faith of the UPCl mention the new birth, intentionally, because of varying views on the New Birth. Second, Shaw is able to make such a conclusion that the present-day ministers are in agreement on the New Birth based on the data from these specific article questions and survey questions is of serious consequence as to the reasoning behind this conclusion if there is no mention of the New Birth... Lastly, either Shaw is ignorant to the conflicting language of these articles on Repentance, Water Baptism, and Holy Ghost Baptism and the history of his organization regarding the New Birth or he is in possible violation of his affirmation statement by contending for a view that is not supported in the Fundamental Doctrine... Perhaps aligning his conclusion to the Fundamental Doctrine and stating there is agreement to the “full standard of biblical salvation” would be more accurate?..
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What is of more interest, I believe are the results on Holiness... Only 60% of those surveyed believe that Holiness statement should remain worded as is... This means some either would like to see more or less in this Holiness article... The numbers are close to half when one factors the age demographic of younger ministers from about 20-40 that are dissatisfied with the Holiness article..
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For more details visit:
http://rodneyshaw.wordpress.com/2009...esults-are-in/
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