Many Christians today have loss the art of defending the Faith because they have no foundational teaching in their background. In fact, this generation has so much negativity to church life that foundational teachings mixed with crazy traditions have polluted their thinking and weakened the Faith. The main cause is not from the misreading of scripture, but the misinterpretation and misapplication of biblical truths.
The Christian faith is doctrinal and centers on real, objective truth. This truth must be vigorously defended (Titus 1:9). If this is part of the calling of church leadership, we must, admit that there are, at the least, ethical requirements for those who would lead the church. The mandate then becomes whether those who lead us into doctrinal revelation should be charismatically elevated by divine comprehension or simply by human will. In a spiritual climate such as our own, it is important to ask, and answer biblically, these issues.
What is Christian doctrine?
It simply means the systematic teaching about God and His relationship to man. When we speak of "the Faith," we are speaking of the body of truths contained in 1st century apostolic teaching that became what we call scripture. The person and work of Christ is central to any doctrinal study and all other doctrinal truths must have a foundation based on this premise. What we believe effects how we worship and what we worship effects how we practice our faith.
Is doctrine important?
As important as unity is, the pages of Scripture are very clear that doctrine is very important. In fact, true unity, although it certainly does not imply uniformity at every minor point, is unity in the truth; not unity on viewpoints, but unity on the collective harmony of biblical truth. Unity is founded upon a sharing of sound doctrine (Eph 4:3; 13).
Some would object that the Bible contains all the doctrine necessary for salvation, and that further explanations or standards are unnecessary. Although we would agree with the first statement, yet the second does not follow from it. When all is said the Bible is self-sufficient and complete. All that is necessary for life and godliness are disclosed within its pages. However, every pseudo-Christian cult and sect claims to be teaching the Bible. We cannot accept a teaching simply because the one who holds it claims to speak for Scripture.
Who determines what is sound and what is false?
The Early Church's dilemma was fanning the tide of false teachers claiming their interpretation of the Faith. Finally, they decided that truth must have a measuring rod. One that was historically consistent with apostolic tradition. So, in the quest to decide what was orthodox it had to suppress free speech. The mandate was to weed out acceptable writings and teachings from false claims on the faith. This became known as the "Canon", or the rule of Faith, that we now term, "Christian Writings."
Who then is qualified to teach "doctrine?"
Those who have been supernaturally called, elected, and appointed by God through authority and works of righteousness. Not those who merely claim titles, but those who have been approved by the Holy Spirit.
The canon has stood against every effort to corrupt and distort it. Somehow, along the way, we forgot to monitor those who were the keepers of the flame. So the Protestant Reformation was birthed out of corruption, greed, and abuse among the leadership of the Church.
Once suspicion had been introduced, it led to opening up every door for inspection. The cry came for self-interpretation, instead of trusting those who were trained to defend the faith though educational and historical tradition. Under the new order, everyone become their own personal theologian. Opinions ruled over sound logical teaching. Entertainment has prevailed over sound statements of truth; and revelational knowledge has taken prominence over revealed truth.
The greatest teaching of Jesus was not to show who was politically or religiously accurate, but to show love in spite of social conflict; to show love where even unity cannot be glued together historically; to express love even in hostile environments in the home, society, and even in the church.
So, yes, men will fail us, even wrong ideology will lead us astray, but the one enduring quality that will never fail is "love" (I Cor 13:8-10).
Discerning Manifested Glory
