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Introduction to the Series
Today I want to start a series in these meetings, which will also be put on the Website, so that we can be more understanding of our faith.
I have called this series: ‘Understanding our Faith’.
This means that what we will be concentrating upon are doctrines.
I am passionate about these as well as exposing false doctrine.
And we all should have a natural curiosity about our faith.
It is the thing that disheartens me most when Christians do not understand what they believe and when some book comes out or there is a ‘new movement’ in the Church they cannot discern whether it is of God or now.
But doctrine is more than this it is about knowing God and everything else He has revealed.
Let me give a definition of doctrine and of theology which is a word that is similar:
Doctrine is teaching.
This is what I will be doing.
I will be giving my understanding of how theology has come together.
Doctrine is about knowing God and everything else He has revealed.
Theology is one of those funny words which is either exciting or boring or considered impossible for anyone except an academic.
This is not true.
Theology is made up of two Greek words which are ‘Theo’ which means ‘God’ and ‘logos’ which means words, thoughts and study.
Theology is the study, words and thoughts about God.
When we think about God then we are doing theology.
Theology does not stop at thinking but it must also be shared for such knowledge is too precious to keep to ourselves.
We are all theologians.
The discussion of doctrine is theology.
I will be teaching doctrine and then we can discuss it afterwards.
I think doctrine is absolutely essential.
It is incredibly important.
When we look at the New Testament letters, especially Paul’s, we find that the first three-quarters of his letters are made up of doctrine and then the last part is how to live the Christian life.
This is not just Paul.
John and Jude have something to say about doctrine:
People do not see the worth of doctrine but Jude thinks that we should certainly stand up and disagree with those who do not hold to right doctrine.
And there are those we should definitely reject if they do not bring right teaching.
We are not to be tolerant of the false, it’s just too dangerous and can affect the outcome of one or more’s eternal destiny.
The Bible says of itself in:
The early church believed doctrine enough to be fanatical about it:
Not everyone will understand doctrine.
We must also be people of faith:
Luther, for instance, only understood Scripture rightly after, in his own words, he was born again.
Only someone who trusts God and His Word can truly understand what God means.
Anselm of the 11th Century said:
“I believe in order that I may understand.”
As we trust God’s Word we then start to understand it.
We are not the critique of the Bible.
The Bible is the critique of us.
As we believe God’s Word the Spirit reveals more and more of Himself and other things:
This series will cover all the basics which are:
Understanding the Bible
Understanding God
Understanding Jesus
Understanding the Holy Spirit
Understanding angels
Understanding sin
Understanding Salvation
Understanding the Church
Understanding the Future (Last Things)
Unless we become established in our faith, the what, who and why we believe, then we will be those that Scripture says are thrown all over the place whenever we hear a new doctrine or teaching.
With that in mind we should know that doctrine does not only come from God.
The word doctrine appears 219 times in the New Testament alone.
However, alongside doctrine that comes from God there is also doctrine of men and doctrine of demons.
First, there are the
Doctrines of God
I will read a few verses which relate to the doctrine of God:
The issue with today’s Christians as it seems to have always been is our lack of understanding our faith as find in:
Here we find an outline of what are the first principles that we should know:
1. repentance from dead works
2. faith toward God,
3. doctrine of baptisms,
4. laying on of hands,
5. resurrection of the dead,
6. and eternal judgement
These are the infant school things.
And Scripture makes it plain that this is no place for a Christian to be or remain.
But don’t worry if you don’t yet know…we will cover all these in this series.
Second, there are the
Doctrines of Men
Wrong doctrine can be devastating:
Some men come with teaching deliberately trying to destroy our faith.
This would appear to be the case with The Churches in the Book of Revelation that were condemned for allowing some doctrines to take hold.
This verse is not about idols or sexual immorality but about greed.
Balaam sold the people of Israel, knowing how God would not bless a sinful people – and he did it for financial gain.
If the early Church did things for financial gain then it is true of the Church today.
And we don’t have to look far to see some of the excesses especially among TV-evangelists;
In Revelation 2 God explicitly says that he hates the doctrines that these people held.
Hates.
The doctrines of men leads us away from God.
The Bible talks of false apostles, false prophets, false teachers and many others who would bring false doctrine and warns us against them.
Thirdly and lastly, there are
Doctrines of demons
These men teach half-truths deliberately deceiving people away from the truth of God’s Word.
Let us not remember the first time a demon spoke it led to deception in the Garden of Eden.
Satan perverted God’s Word.
“Did God say?” he asked.
And Satan influences those that are his to pervert God’s Word.
We have an enemy who wants to bring us down.
It is clear that he is having his way with the world especially with the agendas of world leaders undermining all that is right and leading people into all perversion.
It is also the case that some well-known Christians are teaching things that they ought not to perverting and distorting God’s Word for their own end and for the devil’s domain.
Such people will surely be condemned with those they have deceived.
Scripture makes it clear that there is eternal punishment for them:
Conclusion
The only way we can be sure for ourselves about whether what is taught is of God is to know the Word of God in all its parts for ourselves.
You are to test my teaching and the teaching of others against this authority.
If it does not match – then it is to be rejected or at least questions to be raised in case there is a misunderstanding.
Doctrine can come from three sources: God, man or the devil.
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