Thursday, January 06, 2005
Doctrine matters
I was raised a Christian all my life and attended a Presbyterian Church in the Bay Area California when I was growing up and spent all those years walking with the LORD through all the in’s and out’s up’s and down’s all Christians deal with. But never have been as alive in my faith as I have been in these last few years of my life.
First and foremost, God decided to save me. I attribute my faith and salvation to God. The beginning and end of every desire I have to know Him comes from Him, and is returned to Him. Secondly, it’s my joy to follow God and choose to do so willingly...but I spent the first three decades of my life feeling my way through a religious fog, instead of becoming informed about what a Christian is. For years my faith was emotionally driven, because I was never taught that knowing doctrine mattered much. Everything I was taught was an appeal to the heart, not the mind. So I, like many others I observe today, just floated around the perplexing topics of religion -- just happy to repeat cliché’s like “God is love” and “All things work together for good” and “God forgives me”...not knowing or caring if Christianity got any deeper than that, or specific, or intellectually real. It seemed irreconcilable that a Bible with so much teeth in the pages could be preached as if it were a fluffy bunny. Now don’t get me wrong, I like fluffy bunnies...but lets be honest, fur balls don’t save souls. So how did I get from fluff to stuff? Knowing doctrine my friend.
What is doctrine? It’s a body of unchanging and specific principles. The Bible is specific in identifying God, the fall, sin, the law, salvation, and Christ. The Bible isn’t a nebulous book that speaks in secret code leaving every truth up to individual interpretation, as much as those who pollute its message would say in their own defense. Therefore we should understand these specifics, specifically. And that’s exactly what I’ve been doing these last few years: getting to know my religion, the fruit of which is the excitement I now have for this truth as an older man.
So I’ve been compiling a history of the Jews starting with Abraham, and have a long document that identifies every significant event in chronological order, and for those who glaze over the Old Testament thinking it doesn’t apply, let me tell you the fruit is there and it’s dynamite to discover - it just requires a bit more work to get to. So that’s where the search begins, and ends...the Bible. No compromises. The Word of God stands in its own merit, and is 100% trustworthy in all essential matters of saving knowledge and faith. I can say that from a heart-felt, faith based perspective, and an academic intellectual perspective, because both have now been employed in my search for truth. But let me tell you a secret, what really makes a huge difference is getting a summary of Biblical doctrine, and that’s where Confessions come in.
Before I turned 30 I never even heard of a Confession or Catechism, but I have just completed the reading of five famous Confessions that specify what early Reformation Christians believed. Please resist the temptation to read books like “the Purpose Driven Life” at least until you’ve gotten to know the specifics in Christian theology. I have rendered the below items as PDF's for people to download, print, and read:
The Belgic Confession (1561)
The Heidelberg Catechism (1563)
The Canons of Dordt (1619)
Westminster Confession (1646)
Westminster Shorter Catechism (1648)
My legal disclaimer: there are some problems with a few of the articles in some of these texts, and the most credible confession I have read is actually the London Baptist Confession of 1689, that you can download as a PDF. When in doubt while reading these doctrines, go back to the Bible and there you can rest in confidence.
So what’s the point? The point is this vitality I describes has everything to do with unlocking the crippled intellect our religious culture spends little time cultivating. We are to worship the LORD our God with our heart, soul, mind, and strength. If you involve the mind in your search, you bring everything below it along the way.
[Thx RazorsKiss and Crusty for the Link!]
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I devote the work of this Web Log to the true living LORD God, and to His Son, Jesus Christ.
May the blessing of God's hand be upon it that it might be a light in a dark place.
First and foremost, God decided to save me. I attribute my faith and salvation to God. The beginning and end of every desire I have to know Him comes from Him, and is returned to Him. Secondly, it’s my joy to follow God and choose to do so willingly...but I spent the first three decades of my life feeling my way through a religious fog, instead of becoming informed about what a Christian is. For years my faith was emotionally driven, because I was never taught that knowing doctrine mattered much. Everything I was taught was an appeal to the heart, not the mind. So I, like many others I observe today, just floated around the perplexing topics of religion -- just happy to repeat cliché’s like “God is love” and “All things work together for good” and “God forgives me”...not knowing or caring if Christianity got any deeper than that, or specific, or intellectually real. It seemed irreconcilable that a Bible with so much teeth in the pages could be preached as if it were a fluffy bunny. Now don’t get me wrong, I like fluffy bunnies...but lets be honest, fur balls don’t save souls. So how did I get from fluff to stuff? Knowing doctrine my friend.
What is doctrine? It’s a body of unchanging and specific principles. The Bible is specific in identifying God, the fall, sin, the law, salvation, and Christ. The Bible isn’t a nebulous book that speaks in secret code leaving every truth up to individual interpretation, as much as those who pollute its message would say in their own defense. Therefore we should understand these specifics, specifically. And that’s exactly what I’ve been doing these last few years: getting to know my religion, the fruit of which is the excitement I now have for this truth as an older man.
So I’ve been compiling a history of the Jews starting with Abraham, and have a long document that identifies every significant event in chronological order, and for those who glaze over the Old Testament thinking it doesn’t apply, let me tell you the fruit is there and it’s dynamite to discover - it just requires a bit more work to get to. So that’s where the search begins, and ends...the Bible. No compromises. The Word of God stands in its own merit, and is 100% trustworthy in all essential matters of saving knowledge and faith. I can say that from a heart-felt, faith based perspective, and an academic intellectual perspective, because both have now been employed in my search for truth. But let me tell you a secret, what really makes a huge difference is getting a summary of Biblical doctrine, and that’s where Confessions come in.
Before I turned 30 I never even heard of a Confession or Catechism, but I have just completed the reading of five famous Confessions that specify what early Reformation Christians believed. Please resist the temptation to read books like “the Purpose Driven Life” at least until you’ve gotten to know the specifics in Christian theology. I have rendered the below items as PDF's for people to download, print, and read:
The Belgic Confession (1561)
The Heidelberg Catechism (1563)
The Canons of Dordt (1619)
Westminster Confession (1646)
Westminster Shorter Catechism (1648)
My legal disclaimer: there are some problems with a few of the articles in some of these texts, and the most credible confession I have read is actually the London Baptist Confession of 1689, that you can download as a PDF. When in doubt while reading these doctrines, go back to the Bible and there you can rest in confidence.
So what’s the point? The point is this vitality I describes has everything to do with unlocking the crippled intellect our religious culture spends little time cultivating. We are to worship the LORD our God with our heart, soul, mind, and strength. If you involve the mind in your search, you bring everything below it along the way.
[Thx RazorsKiss and Crusty for the Link!]
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