A Pilgrimage Of Faith, J.B. Toews, 1993

ely by leaders like William Bestvater. As the son of a min- ister and Bible school teacher, I received frequent admoni- tions from my father to view particular interpretations of es- chatology as possibilities but not accept them as dogma. For- ornately, many in our fellowship, particularly the younger the- ologians, are shying away from the predictive certainties of dispensational eschatology. There is no room to question the basic truths of Christian eschatology. The return of Christ, his ultimate triumph and the final judgment are beyond debate. Scripture is clear that God is sovereign and history will find its consummation and purpose in his plan. But preoccupation with the "how, when and where" of eschatology can deflect us from our God-given mission. Our task is not to fix the dates of the tribulation or the millennium or interpret the significance of every political event in the Middle East. Ours is to proclaim that the day of the Lord is coming. The issues facing us in all three of these areas-hermeneu- tics, ecclesiology, eschatology-are vital, and our responses will shape the theological identity of the church. Our re- sponse can either renew us and revitalize our mission from the biblical perspective, or can erode the trust of history that God has given us as one part of his church. The past and present pilgrimage of Mennonite Brethren 199 A PILGRIMAGE OF FAITH raises the question: Do we have a theological frame of refer- ence, an ethos, which continues to float aimlessly among vari- ous streams of theology and polity, borrowing where it is most convenient? Or is it time to refocus the basic theological tenets of Mennonite Brethren faith? The 1976 revised Confes- sion of Faith and the call for confessional integrity point to a recommitment that is fundamentally unchanged from that of the early Mennonite Brethren. It is best summarized under a five-fold declaration. 1. Commitment to the Holy Scriptures, 2. An emphasis on the new birth. 3. The church as an interdependent fellowship. 4 The church as a people in the world but not of the world, 5. The church as a missionary movement. After 125 years we again ask the question: Do we live what we profess to believe? The exhortation of Paul to the Corinthian church-"examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves" (2 Cor. 13:5)-is a call to the Mennonite Brethren in the final decade of the century. Rein- vigorating these five foundational areas could be a way to car- ry the ethos of the Mennonite Brethren Church into the fu- ture. Commitment