What comes to mind when you hear the word “doctrine”? Does it sound boring or old-fashioned to you? Or perhaps you might think it can be a divisive topic among Christians.
However, I think our contemporary covenant community could use help is in the area of the knowledge of the Doctrines of the Church and how to apply those to our daily lives.
I believe that there is great value in knowing and understanding those doctrines of the Church that have held us together as God’s Covenant People for over 2 millennia.
As part of our Bible Teaching ministry, we want to contribute to the conversation and education around doctrine. We are providing regular posts that focus on a particular doctrine (for example the Trinity, Redemption, Atonement, etc.).
We are going to learn together by defining the doctrine, explaining the implications, and encouraging all of us with specific practical applications.
Knowledge Must Translate into Action.
Today’s Doctrine Talk
Previous Doctrine Talks
References
Dr. Albert Mohler who serves as president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (the flagship school of the Southern Baptist Convention and one of the largest seminaries in the world) speaks of this great need:
“The structure of Christian doctrine is rooted in the character of the Bible as the inerrant and infallible Word of God. As God’s revelation, the Bible establishes a structure for thought and conveys truth in doctrinal form. Doctrine is most clearly rooted in the propositional nature of biblical revelation.
The Bible sets forth a unified and comprehensive structure of Christian truth, and the church bears the responsibility to correlate these truths into a unified system of truth.”[1]
As John Calvin has stated: “Christianity is a doctrine not of the tongue, but of the life, and is not apprehended merely by the intellect and memory like other sciences, but it is revealed only when it possesses the whole soul and finds its seat and habitation in the innermost recesses of the heart.”
[1] R. Albert Mohler Jr., “Doctrine,” in Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary, ed. Chad Brand et al. (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2003), 436.