the gospel), and following dynamic leaders who boastfully minimize the importance of sound doctrines, are exposed as dangerous developments by a consideration of what the church has historically believed—or not believed.18 Again, McGrath offers wise council: Tradition is like a filter, which allows us to identify suspect teachings immediately. To protest that “We have never believed this before!” is not necessarily to deny the correctness of the teaching in question. But it is to raise a fundamental
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