Hi Tiglathpilesar - welcome to Traditional Theology!
"Active promotion of views contrary to Non-traditional Christians are welcome to post in fellowship or ask questions about traditional Christianity (no debate)."
You are going to have to make a lot of changes because the forum is full of threads that challenge the above. And, what is "traditional, historic theology; liturgical practices, doctrines, dogmatics; Holy Scripture as found in the various canons of the Church; Church History, etc. will be considered off topic."
I find that the liturgical practice of joyful, Jesus promoting, modern, multi instrumental praise to be traditional. Others believe it is satanic, so how are you going to work that one out?
The beauty of this forum, is the ability for us to discuss why we view something as Traditional, without condemning the others who disagree. If you use historic theology, confessions of faith, etc to help formulate your opinion on the above, then you can discuss it here.
"you may not debate issues or teach against traditional Christian theology"
You allow atheists to do that at will.
We do have the occasional visitor come in and teach contrary to traditional Christian theology, but we address those posters. This SoP will help clarify that further.
"Traditional Christians hold to the traditional beliefs and customs of the early church that Jesus Christ established and believe they should be acknowledged and used in the development of the Church today."
They don't. They are very adamantly against the gifts of the spirit even though the NT is full of teaching on the subject.
Again, this is a forum for exploration and not condemnation. The forum allows for people to state that their tradition believes this because of the following, but does not allow for posters to say that other Traditional Christians are not following the traditional beliefs and customs the early church practiced.
You could discuss your view here by saying something like: My tradition believes that we should practice the gifts of the spirit as practiced today by Charismatic churches (or whatever your tradition is), because...[insert your reasons for your traditional beliefs here]". You cannot say "You (or a group of traditional Christians, based on the definition in the SoP) are unbiblical for your beliefs because..."
EDIT: Anastasia is correct in her post below - we (Orthodox) do believe the gifts of the Holy Spirit are active today. Many Traditional Churches believe that, though they may not practice it in the same way as Charismatic or non-denomination churches. The theology behind it may also be different in certain areas.
Remember that in this subforum, scripture is not the only valid source text for supporting our views, though scripture is of supreme importance.
"Traditional Christians believe that the Church and associated Tradition - especially from the Apostolic / early Church - guide us even today."
They don't. They believe that what their denomination teaches has more authority than what the scripture teaches. That is why we have 43,000 denominations. The fact is, none of them believe the bible is the word of God. They believe their interpretation of the bible is the word of God.
See my previous comment.
"This is a place to explore within the defined topic not debate against it"
Exploration necessitates debate to clarify.
No, it requires respectful discussion, not debate. We explore eachother's traditional theology and we don't attack the other person's usage of it.
