From
the very beginning, the Christian church has regarded sound doctrine to be of utmost importance and of primary concern to every believer.
Throughout
the ages, the church has always battled against invasion by the attitudes and
mindsets of the world. This has not changed. The modern church faces an
overwhelming increase in both the intensity and the prolific strategies by
which this infiltration contaminates the body.
We
live in a time which is unsurpassed in the amount of knowledge available to us.
Information is literally ‘on call’ because of resources like the
internet, and other fast developing media technologies. Additionally, the
choices we have at our disposal today are so numerous as to often render us
confused as to which of them is best. It is not surprising therefore that we
lean naturally towards the ‘suitable’ option rather than the
‘relevant’ or ‘applicable’ option.
Today,
more than at any other time in the past, we have a multitude of people and
ministries and movements emerging in the church. How are we to determine their
soundness or legitimacy? Oratorical skills, charisma and impressive ministry
portfolios seem to be the criteria used to substantiate the validity and
genuineness of ministry today - and well that may be, from the world’s
standards. But oratorical skills, charisma, and impressive portfolios are not
in themselves appropriate
credentials for those who undertake the awesome responsibility of handling the
word of God. It is obvious that the world is in the church more than the church
is in the world. Like the world, we have become more interested in information than in transformation; in acquiring
rather than being; in pleasing man rather than pleasing God and in seeking the praises
and acclamations of man rather than the approval of God. We are in dire need of
getting back to the teachings of Scripture; we need sound doctrine.
Many modern churches have no time
for doctrinal teaching or preaching. They have turned to oratory, ethics,
social and political gospels. They rely on charisma and the ability to keep the
crowd suitably interested. They prefer entertaining, rather than
‘correcting, rebuking and encouraging-with great patience and careful
instruction’. To the extent that ministries have become
‘professional’, we see the inevitable results of peddling of the
word of god for profit. The ‘professional’ preacher now commands a
large purse for his ‘message’ and a crowd that befits his stature
and prowess. And when he does bring his message, rest assured it will not in
any way be controversial, lest he turn away any who have come to listen to him.
That makes sense! Million dollar ministries do not come from turning people
away! They must give them what they like – that’s what ‘consumerism’
is all about! The modern church has become so consumer oriented in using the
marketing strategies of the world; it is hardly different from a business with
a religious flavour.
The professional preacher of the modern
church has developed the ability to always be ‘relevant’. Now,
relevance is both good and important, so don’t get me wrong! But the
relevance I refer to here is the type that licenses a person to adapt the word
of god to the current cultural disposition, the ‘flavour of the
year’, to coin a phrase! It modifies God’s word to suit the
listener’s taste buds. There is no place now for dogmatism. Obviously, to
be dogmatic about what the bible says on any particular issue is to brew a
recipe for disaster to one’s popularity. Essential teaching about hell and
sin and eternal punishment (for example) are too harsh, too dogmatic, and too
negative. So dogmatism goes, and relativism takes its place. It tastes sweeter.
Everything is now
‘relative’. In other words, from a moral and ethical standpoint, right and wrong are no longer absolute values but are dependent upon, and
measured by, our prevailing circumstances, or emotions or individual
preferences. Therefore, what is right (or wrong) for one person is not
necessarily right (or wrong) for another person. Further, what is right (or
wrong) for one person at any particular time or in any particular circumstance,
may not be exactly so for that same person at another time or in another
circumstance! This new way of thinking gives us license to do what we feel to be right.
So now, feelings and opinions are
‘in’ and rules are ‘definitely out’. We can do whatever
we want to do, provided we feel good
about it; or conversely, we can refrain from doing what we ought to do because we don’t feel good about it.
But this new approach still leaves
us with one nagging problem to deal with, the
problem of sin. In order to be comfortable with this new approach, we must
remove the seriousness of sin itself by making it seem less offensive. How
better to do this than by replacing traditional biblical names for various sins
with ones which are less incriminating or condemning? So, what the bible calls
‘adultery’, which is illicit relationship outside the legal bounds
of marriage, we now call
‘wife swapping’ or ‘co-habiting’; homosexuality is no
longer a sin - it is simply ‘a same sex preference’ or
‘sexual orientation’; what the bible calls
‘fornication’ is rendered harmlessly as ‘sleeping together’;
‘husband’ and ‘wife’ which are God’s terms for
those who might engage in legitimate sexual union between the sexes, have given
place to the acceptable term of ‘partners’ (and this, regardless of
sex!)
We have even gone further. We have invented
a new and unbiblical way to deal with the guilt of sin - by simply replacing
biblical concepts of the seriousness of sin and its consequences with the
harmless, non-judgmental, and comfortable idea of ‘error’. The
tragedy of course is that this sad state of affairs has come about through
wrong doctrine; the teaching that a sinful, unrepentant lifestyle is okay
because we are now ‘under grace’. Nothing can be further from
the truth. That’s unsound doctrine, pure and simple. What a sad state
to be in!
We live in an age of relativism, in
which the need for absolutes seems outdated and no longer necessary. But it is
vital for the Christian to know that God only has absolutes. God, and his
Word (which comprises his truth and his laws), are eternal and are absolute.
Listen to Paul’s warning in
the second half of the verse in 2Timothy 4:3: “they will gather around
them teachers to teach what their itching ears want to hear”. Pay close
attention to what he warns will happen: the listeners will lead their teachers!
People choose what they want to hear, and raise to prominence only those who
will deliver accordingly. That’s exactly what happens in the world of
fame and stardom. But it’s the wrong way around for the church. We must stop giving the people what they want and get back to giving them what
they need. We need teachers who
will teach sound doctrine.
But there are many in the church who
just will not accept sound biblical teaching. Perhaps you have come across such
people. Teachings about sin, hell, holiness, and dying to self are distasteful
to them, and set off alarm bells that send them helter-skelter in search of a
more comfortable, less threatening environment. To avoid losing such people,
some resourceful church leaders, following the pattern of the world, have
developed a failsafe strategy. They have appropriated more of the precious
pulpit time to storytelling, to jokes and illustrations and less to the
exposition of the word. As a
result, instead of the meat of the word, the sheep’s principal diet now
consists more of humorous anecdotes and ‘feel-good’ illustrations
or pronouncements to boost the ego. Sideshows have also become an essential
part of the worship service in modern churches; music, drama, and hype more and
more encroach upon precious time that should be used for personal
self-examination and meditation on the word. The sermon itself is skillfully
adapted to lull the audience into a sense of complacency and well being.
Don’t get me wrong - I’m not saying that the preacher does not use
Bible verses in his story sermons. But even though he might use them
abundantly, they do nothing more than simply
add content to a message that is not
scripturally sound in the first place.
No doubt, the message takes on a ‘spiritual flavour’ because of
their use; but the result is that the whole substance of the original message
of the scripture has changed. And so the listeners are lulled into a false
sense of security, and they end up accepting humanistic values disguised as
biblical truth. Rather than being challenged to change they go away feeling
content with where they are. If they came under any sort of conviction, you can
be sure it had nothing to do with the word of God transforming them.
Last, but not least, is the ever-present
danger of upsetting those important people who have graced the assembly with
their presence at the worship service, despite their busy social schedules! And
so for fear of losing them, the preacher tailors his sermon to be as brief as
possible, no more than, say fifteen or twenty minutes long. The dispensing of
the word of God now plays a minority role in a service in which other aspects
might well contribute over an hour’s entertainment to satisfy the
worshipper! Do you get the drift?
What has caused leaders to fall into
this trap? Without doubt, it is due to their ‘taking after’ the
pattern of the world. They have come to believe that we need the newest ideas
and methods if we are to advance in our spirituality. They are convinced that
‘the old is out, and the new is in’; that what worked yesterday
cannot possibly work today. Tradition must go. They believe we need something
different, something fresh for our times, and that this involves keeping pace
with the trends, and the culture of our time.
But the consequence of adopting this worldview is that we must constantly
have change or we begin to feel uneasy. No wonder we are tirelessly looking
for ‘new and exciting stuff’. We vigorously pursue new books, new
seminars, new faith meetings, new teachings, new principles, and new systems
for growth. We eagerly wait to listen to new speakers and see new signs,
wonders, and miracles. And all this, because we are led to believe that it is
these new and diversified and ever changing
experiences which contribute most to our spiritual welfare and development!
But the truth is that the word of God,
properly expounded, is all that we need. We need nothing in addition to it.
The word of God is completely able to transform us. We don’t need new methods or
systems. We do not need any new revelation. All that we need is already in
God’s written word. Now, I’m sure that this truth is a terrible
blow to the numerous ministries around today that feed off the self-interests
of the gullible and the ignorant, untaught members in the church.
You see, the gospel message is
extremely simple and straightforward, and the key to understanding the word of
God is obedience, pure and simple.
The true Church has survived to this present today, despite intense opposition
and heresy, only because it is “built on the foundations of the apostles
and prophets, with Christ as the cornerstone”. And God has ensured that
it will survive until Christ returns
by appointing faithful servants, throughout the generations, to proclaim his
word with integrity. The blood of the martyrs is ample evidence of that truth.
So, what need at this time is
to get back to basics; to teach and preach what is already in the word of God,
without deviation from it. That is sound doctrine!
Now, the inevitable
question: “But is doctrine really necessary?”
The best place to go for this answer
is to the Bible itself. ‘Disciple making’ is accomplished by
something called teaching. We
acknowledge this program of 'discipling' as “the great commission,
recorded at the end of Matthew’s gospel.
There
are two sources from which we can determine the tremendous importance of
doctrine: (1) the use of the word itself in the NT, and (2) the views of four
important characters in the NT regarding it.
(1) We can
get an idea of the tremendous importance of teaching
from the numerous references to it in the New Testament. In Matthews gospel
alone the word teach occurs 20 times
and Jesus is called teacher about 10 times. If we look at the whole NT, the two
nouns for teaching or doctrine occur over 50 times, while the
verb form to teach occurs over 90
times. The word teacher(s) occurs
about 58 times. In addition there are a few other related words (like instruction, for instance). In all,
there are well over 200 references in the NT alone to teachers teaching
doctrines. In comparison, even the well known and perhaps most used Christian
terms like ‘born-again’ and
‘regeneration’ occur in less than 20 verses! Surely this
evidence is overwhelmingly conclusive of the importance that the bible places
on teaching or (doctrine).
(2) The views of 4 important characters in
the NT regarding ‘doctrine’:
Firstly, Christ:
- The
central imperative of Christ’s Great Commission is the command to teach (Matthew 28:18-20).
Secondly, Luke:
- Luke’s gospel begins with these words
many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been
fulfilled among us, just as they were
handed down to us by those who from
the first were eyewitnesses and servants in the word. Therefore, since I
myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, it seemed
good also to me to write an orderly account, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the certainty of the
things you have been taught” (emphasis mine).
Thirdly, Paul:
- Paul’s
express command to Timothy to teach sound doctrine:
“I charge thee therefore
before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead
at his appearing and at his kingdom; Preach the word; be instant
in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and
doctrine. For the time
will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after
their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and
they shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned unto
fables” (2 Tim.4:2-4 KJV). This was Paul’s charge to the young
Timothy. He was to teach and preach the word without watering it down, or
compromising it, so as to show himself a ‘workman approved of God,
rightly dividing the word’. The method was simply ‘teach it exactly
like it was taught to you’. This command to preach and teach precisely what is in accord with God’s
word remains the imperative for every Christian today. It is even more so
for those who profess to be leaders, whether pastors, teachers or evangelists,
elders or Sunday school teachers! Take note of the specific charge: Timothy was
charged with teaching not just any doctrine that suited his fancy or was tailor
made to suit the occasion or the audience, but sound doctrine!
[Note
too Paul’s many references to teaching /instruction etc. in the other
Pastoral Epistles]
Fourthly, Jude:
- In his letter Jude exhorts believers to
defend their faith. “I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for
the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints” (Verse 3). The
word ‘faith, here refers to the body of truth held by believers
everywhere.
A
He goes on to say: “Haziness of doctrine has always
been the mark of the liberal. When the Holy Scriptures are rejected as the
final authority on religious belief, something must be found to take their
place. Historically that something has been either reason or sentiment: if
sentiment, it has been humanism. Sometimes there has been an admixture of the
two, as may be seen in liberal churches today. These will not quite give up the
Bible, neither will they quite believe it; the result is an unclear body of
beliefs more like a fog than a mountain, where anything may be true but nothing
may be trusted as being certainly true. We have gotten accustomed to the blurred
puffs of gray fog that pass for doctrine in modernistic churches and expect
nothing better, but it is a cause for real alarm that the fog has begun of late
to creep into many evangelical churches. From some previously unimpeachable
sources are now coming vague statements consisting of a milky admixture of
Scripture, science and human sentiment that is true to none of its ingredients
because each one works to cancel the others out. Certain of our evangelical
brethren appear to be laboring under the impression that they are advanced thinkers because
they are rethinking evolution and reevaluating various Bible doctrines or even
divine inspiration itself; but so far are they from being advanced thinkers
that they are merely timid followers of modernism -fifty years behind the
parade. Little by little, evangelical Christians these days are being
brainwashed. One
evidence is that increasing numbers of them are becoming
ashamed to be found unequivocally on the side of truth. They say they believe
but their beliefs have been so diluted as to be impossible of clear definition.
Moral power has always accompanied definitive beliefs. Great saints have always
been dogmatic. We need right now a return to a gentle dogmatism that smiles
while it stands stubborn and firm on the Word of God that liveth and abideth
forever”.
Conclusion:
Up to this point, we have simply dealt with doctrine in a
very general way. We have established that doctrine (or teaching) comprises the
content of our beliefs. But there is a distinction between
doctrine and sound doctrine. Any
teaching is doctrine, which is why we have false doctrines. But sound doctrine has rigid parameters. To
know the difference between sound and unsound doctrine, we must examine why sound doctrine is important.
There are 7
reasons (at least) why:
(1) Sound doctrine is necessary for establishing biblical truth and for refuting error
(2) Christian ministry cannot be
isolated from Christian theology.
(3) Sound doctrine is the
very heart of Christian faith.
(4) Sound doctrine is both relevant to and practical
for Christian living
(5) Sound doctrine allows no compromise.
(6) Sound doctrine is not
an option for one who belongs to Christ.
(7) Neglecting
sound doctrine brings grave danger.
Each of the above is examined in a separate study entitled
“Seven reasons why we need sound doctrine”.
One last word:
Scripture warns: “GUARD YOUR LIFE AND DOCTRINE”!
It is very important for Christians to know what they believe and why. But they
must also be open to correction. This is the essence of ‘growing up in
the faith’. If you have begun to feel a stirring in your soul by what I
have presented so far, let me challenge you with these questions: Are you
content with being a piece of driftwood, “carried away by all kinds of
strange teachings”? (As Hebrews: 13:9 says). Would you rather be like the
Bereans (Acts 17:11) who “examined the scriptures every day to see if
what Paul said was true”? Are you willing to examine the whole of scripture on any teaching,
rather than accept the few verses taken out of context to substantiate
erroneous or false teaching? If you have said “yes” to these last
two questions, are you willing to put that decision into action? Are you
willing to run the gauntlet for truth, to be a ‘defender of the
faith’? It will cost you everything!
God Bless you
© Preach The Word
- with Pastor Joseph Rodrigues - www.kerysso.org