Solus Christus Christ Alone: and the Ambiguous Doctrinal Statement

Solus Christus Christ Alone:

and the Ambiguous Doctrinal Statement

            A while back, I was perusing through the job openings in my field.  As a practice, I check the qualifications and then the statement of faith of the institution to check my qualifications.  Generally, for one reason or another, I opt out of applying because I cannot affirm something in the statement of faith/doctrine.  

I came across one such statement that gave me a bit of a pause.  In fact, I am quite confused as to what exactly was intended by it.  Without naming the institution, I will simply quote the line below:

“WE BELIEVE that salvation comes through Jesus Christ alone; that salvation involves the redemption of the whole person and is offered freely to all who exercise faith in Jesus Christ.”

The first part before the semi–colon is the problem for me.  After the semi–colon, there is enough ambiguity for a Protestant, a Roman Catholic, or an Orthodox to affirm it.  However, “WE BELIEVE that salvation comes through Jesus Christ alone” is a problem.  It Coiuld mean several things:

1.      The Father and the Holy Spirit are not involved in the work of salvation. (I highly doubt this was the intended meaning.)

2.      The community of saints has nothing to do with salvation.  Therefore Church (or church) is optional and unnecessary.  (It is possible that his was intended, but doubtful.)

3.      There is not salvation apart from Christ.  (I sincerely hope this is what they meant.)

4.      Salvation comes through the merits of Christ and not the merits of any other individual.  (This is also probable even though it falls into the same difficulty that merit theology has.  See my earlier post here for a further discussion of merit.)

5.      Or this could be a poorly adapted use of the 20^th Century addition of Solo Christo (to all my fellow Latin nerds, the ablative case would be used to express the ablative of agent unless an active verb is used then we would use the nominative Solus Christus) Christ Alone to the earlier Solae (Solas) of the Protestant Reformation (Scripture Alone, Faith Alone, Grace Alone).  However, this application lacks the explanation that a priesthood in Apostolic Succession is not necessary for the validity of Sacraments.

The only of the above points I could affirm in good conscience would be point number three.  Point one is heresy.  Point two is an absurdity.  Point four relies upon an unhelpful and unbiblical manner of thinking.  Point five is again an absurdity (even most Baptists would argue that only a baptized person can baptize another person.  This requires a certain form of succession).

This leads to the moral of the post.  If you are going to require employees to affirm something make certain it not ambiguous and replete with unintended interpretations.