Unity Through Doctrine
Since the inception of the early church, doctrine has been a huge focus of believers. Consider John’s warning to the church in 2 John verses 7 & 9: “Many deceivers have gone out into the world; they do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist… Anyone who does not remain in Christ’s teaching but goes beyond it does not have God. The one who remains in that teaching, this one has both the Father and the Son.” John refers to the ones who deny a fundamental teaching of Jesus, that he in fact came in the flesh, as deceivers and literal anti-Christians. These are strong charges, but they are important. Why? Because doctrine–what we believe to be the truth revealed in scripture–is important.
Doctrine is far too often seen as a wooden and cold set of principles that scholars and old folks spend too much time talking about. Here’s the deal though: doctrine should be important to all believers. Doctrine pulls together passages of scripture and illuminates biblical truth. Consider the doctrine of the atonement–God’s forgiveness of sin. As Kathleen Nielson points out, this doctrine pulls together passages from the Old Testament animal sacrifices all the way to the death of Christ on the cross, bearing our sins and suffering God’s wrath in our place. It weaves together the truth presented by God’s word into a short and comprehensible definition that provides clarity for all believers. This is how we as Christians can navigate incredibly rich teachings provided by God’s word effectively with each other, and with those whom we are evangelizing to.
What happens when we get doctrine wrong? Consider Martin Luther’s discovery of the doctrine of salvation: by grace through faith alone in a time when the Roman Catholic Church proclaimed salvation through Christ plus works. What became very evident to Luther is that that RCC had missed a key doctrine that the early believers clung to–that there is no means by which man can save himself, and that he must rely solely on the grace of God through faith in Christ Jesus for salvation. It sparked an entire reformation movement that drew a hard line in the sand of the truth revealed in God’s word, and the lie of the day. We as believers today face no different of a task than those that came before us who fought tooth and nail to defend proper doctrine.
Today, many lies are espoused by the surrounding culture. God is only love and no judgment, Hell is not real, America is God’s new Israel–the list could go on for days. So it is important that we as Christ followers know what we believe and why we believe it. As we gather around the core truths of God’s word, we see unity in the body of believers to carry out the mission he has bestowed upon the church: to love God, love people, and make disciples. Let us not forsake the good doctrine that God has been revealing to the church since the beginning.
Bro. Corey McKinney
