OP: Doctrine bears Repeating

[nebula]

Doctrine Bears Repeating

Evangelicals need to brush up on basic Christian teachings.

Charles Colson with Anne Morse | posted 3/24/2009 10:16AM

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The most obvious thing to be said about Christianity is that it rests on historic facts: the Creation, the Incarnation, and the Resurrection. Since our doctrines are truth claims, they cannot be mere symbolism. This is important to remember as we celebrate the Resurrection, which is often clouded by the pageantry of Easter.

It is obvious to me that doctrine matters. Some years ago, I visited Sri Lanka, just after Anglican Bishop David Jenkins was reported to have dismissed the Resurrection as a "conjuring trick with bones." (It was later revealed that he had been misquoted.) Our ministry leader, who escorted me through the country's prisons, told me the news had cost many conversions, because Buddhists and Hindus used it to convince people that Christianity is based on a mere trick.

Clearly, when we stop taking seriously the historical truths of the church, we undermine our witness, often with far-reaching consequences. For example, Muslim student groups today proselytize with pamphlets asserting that Christians worship three Gods: Father, Mother, and Son. Where did they get that idea? From seventh-century Egyptian Christians who gave up on the Bible and embraced this heresy.

Last June, a Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life survey found rampant doctrinal ignorance among American Christians. Fifty-seven percent of evangelicals believed people who follow religions other than their own can enjoy eternal life. The results were so unexpected that Pew repeated the survey, asking more specific questions. The answers were virtually unchanged. Astonishingly, about half believed that everyone, atheists included, was going to end up in heaven. Heaven for the godless? That's the old heresy of universalism.

Indifference to the truths of the gospel is seen in many other spheres, such as among those who champion "deeds, not creeds" (I do the deeds of prison ministry because I believe the creeds), and in endless discussions about new ways to "understand" or "do" theology. Some embrace another old heresy, that doctrines must be extracted from inward experience

[OneLight]

Nice piece! Thanks for posting it. It is sad when we worry about offend another person and not God. Christians owe everything to Him and we should be forthcoming with the truth, in love.

[Smalcald]

But that is the point of a Creedal Church to have doctrinal truth that people must believe if they wish to be called Christians.

To me the move to a non-Creedal, priesthood of the believer

[O'Dannyboy]

We should not be afraid to speak the truth. If people are offended then that is a personal problem. All that we can tell them is that it is never too late and through Christ alone will our sins be forgiven.

[Smalcald]

Its hard to speak the truth when no two Christians agree on what Truth is.

Sorry for being this way today, I guesss I am just frustrated today with all of the disagreements etc.

[Guest]

Some years ago, I visited Athens and mounted the slippery rock called Mars Hill. At the top, I stood where I imagined Paul had confronted the Areopagus, the wise men of the cultural center of the world. Paul challenged them by referring to their own literature and false altars, and then boldly proclaimed the gospel, concluding that God had raised Jesus from the dead.

It's the same message I preach in prisons today. I think it's far more exhilarating to stand on a belief that has survived 2,000 years of persecution than to flit from one fad to another.

Thanks for posting this piece.

That last line above really makes a good point. Teach God's Truth! God will see to it that everything else falls into line.

[EricH]

I agree. I think heresy will become a growing issue

[Smalcald]

I agree. I think heresy will become a growing issue

What do you think the best way to stop heresy is? To me we must define heresy first, meaning we have to define what beliefs are non-Christian, meaning we need rock solid statements of faith about what Christians believe and those who do not believe those core truths, those statements are not Christians and are not saved in their current status.

To me it is the only way; we must define what are the fundamental Christian beliefs that if deviated from we have heresy.

[Smalcald]

Yeah I know what you mean foc.

But there are two sorts of arguments. The first is around how as Christians we are to live, what is Christ teaching us to do? The second though is about who Christ is and what our faith means, what are the essentials of the faith. We are going to disagree about the first and I think this is okay to a point. But the second there cannot be disagreement on.

Did Christ rise from the dead physically? Who is Christ? What is the Trinity? Was Christ born of a Virgin? Did Christ come to forgive our sins? Did His sacrifice forgive our sins?

If we can't agree on those, then we cannot have fellowship and we are simply lost. Having faith in Christ is meaningless if we don't know who Christ is or what faith is. We might as well be Muslims, they believe in Christ also. The first Christians worked on these very issues and came up with the ecumenical Creeds, for me they are the starting point, why re-invent the wheel? Those Creeds stopped heresy from taking over in the beginning and it is time to return to their literal meaning today (maybe not all of the Creeds but at least the Apostles and Nicene Creeds).

I find the concept that each Christian has the ability make up their own doctrine to be really problematic.