Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Doctrine Devaluation

John Armstrong is a Friend who I find can cut to the core of Issues. What is posted below is from His Blog. Pastor Phil Ressler has been teaching a series called "The Core". We need to figure out what we really believe. I'm tired of the constant devaluation of the core doctrines of the faith. John's post is a call to STOP. I say amen.

The Present Devaluation of Christian Doctrine

Christian doctrine has been devalued for the last one hundred plus years. Liberal teachers continue to devalue it by inverting the relationship between Scripture and secular thought. They allow secular insights to interpret the Scripture. Evangelicals devalue doctrine by treating it as something that has little or nothing to do with living faithfully. ("It is not practical and only divides us anyway!") I have heard evangelicals say, most of my life, "Doctrine divides us but love unites us!"

A good example of this devaluing process, at least on the liberal side, is what we presently see happening regarding sexual ethics. The seventh commandment is quite clear. If you read what Christians teachers have said about this commandment since the first century the response would have been very, very consistent. But now, less than one decade into the twenty-first century, there is a huge debate about same-sex marriage. There really shouldn’t even be a debate. This debate can only thrive in a context where the role of Scripture has been inverted.

The real problem in this modern debate is that we have lost our way with regard to the clarity of Holy Scripture and the Christian tradition. The authentic Christian belief—still sustained by Roman Catholic, Orthodox and confessional Protestants—is that Holy Scripture is in essence God testifying to himself via human witnesses and God-breathed writers. (There is wide room here for differing views of how to define inspiration.) This belief that Scripture is God-breathed is basic, fundamental. Without it we can make no sense of Christianity. If the words of Scripture are not written revelation then we can know nothing of God’s truth revealed to us in Jesus Christ. We are cast adrift to interpret the Bible as we see fit in each age. (This is not to deny that we can rethink how we understand certain things in Scripture. It does mean that we cannot remake the commandments of God to fit into our modern ethical practice.)
ApostlesCreed
The sum and substance of the church’s doctrine is found in the gospel itself. Our creator has become our redeemer through the incarnate Christ. But evangelicals have reduced this gospel to a few propositions; e.g., all have sinned, Jesus died and rose for sinners, believe on Jesus and you will be saved. This makes a valid point but the gospel includes much, much more. I would say, with many Christians down through the ages, that the Apostles’ Creed is a basic summary of the gospel. “The gospel,” says J. I. Packer, “is the full declaration of this gracious saving plan that God is fulfilling in and for his spoiled world, plus the full demonstration of the proper response—faith in Christ and repentance, good works, and love both Godward and manward, with gratitude and joyful hope.”

Intimately bound up with the gospel of Christ is the doctrine of the Trinity. The gospel saves us because, as J. I. Packer rightly notes: “the one tripersonal God, our God, operates as a team, all three persons within the divine unity working together in full conjunction with each other to carry through a single, huge, mind-blowing plan: namely, to establish a multi-billion strong community of redeemed human beings, each one an enormously complex entity in creational terms, within a fully reconstructed cosmos, with Jesus Christ the mediator at its center for all eternity.” I love those words: "a single, huge, mind-blowing plan."

The Anglican Prayer Book leads the worshiper to ask that God deliver us “from all false doctrine, heresy and schism.” Note all three: False doctrine, heresy and schism. They are uniquely related and we separate them to our own peril. Some Christians are concerned about false doctrine and heresy and care not at all about schism. The doctrine that establishes us in unity is the gospel and this gospel is intimately related to the Trinity. Without this framework Jesus is reduced to a cool plan of personal salvation. We cannot afford such reductionism since it will lead us further and further away from the doctrine of grace. Both liberals and evangelicals need this gospel and it will cost them something to make sure they regain it.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The Apostles' and Nicene Creeds have a statement of faith, "I believe in the holy catholic church, the communon of saints' (sanctam ecclesiam catholicam, sanctorum communionem), and "'I believe in the one holy catholic and apostolic church" (et unam, sanctam, catholicam et apostolicam ecclesiam). 'I believe", that is, 'I have faith...in...".. and "faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen". I do not SEE the faith of the other person; God does. I can only hear his confession of faith in Christ, and see the fruit of it in the life that person lives
( though tainted with the old Adam). "Only the Lord knows those that are His". The total number known by the Lord, we confess in the Creed, is "the holy Christian Church", the "fellowship, communion, of saints, holy ones". It is that invisible body (invisible to man) which is the "Church" ( "the one holy catholic apostolic church"). The person who, by the power of the Holy Spirit, through the Gospel of Christ (Son of God, crucified, dead, risen for the sins of the world), comes to faith in Him, is counted among the "holy catholic church, the communion of saints". That person may be in a visible church, a group, denomination, in a prison, in the desert, on the battlefield, in noon Bible study, wherever, and having repented and trusted in Christ as Savior and Lord (through the power of the Holy Spirit) he/she is numbered with the Body of Christ.
It is a shame indeed that many of the visible groups, called churches, do not teach and preach the true Gospel of Christ, watering down the doctrines of Scripture, thus leaving many within those groups devoid of saving faith, and thus they fail to make the group truly "apostolic". "Apostolic" has two meanings: following the apostles' teaching, and being 'apostolic", i.e., being the "sent ones", failing to reach out locally and abroad with the saving Gospel of Christ. "apostolic" comes from
the Greek "apostello", which means, 'to send".
(.. .. I know, you're saying, 'enough already'!)
I pray the churches and groups, who call themselves "Christian", continue in, or get back to, a commitment to teach and preach and live the true Gospel as brought to us by the Spirit through the Word. ,,.. H.

Gene said...

Harold, you are a blessing to me. I hope you might take time to share on John's blog as well. You would be a welcome addition. Click on the link. And comment away. Good men there.