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Good uses for Doctrinal Statements

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Doctrinal Statements are good

Despite how hard I have been on doctrinal statements in recent posts, I do think there are several good uses for them. Here are three:

Doctrinal Statements provide a guiding hermeneutic.

In some ways, doctrinal statements are a summary of the doctrinal conclusions that Christians of the past have drawn from Scripture. They tell us what various groups have thought were key ideas from the Bible. In such a way, they can provide a guide for us in our own study. If we believe that the Holy Spirit has helped guide Christians of the past to know and understand the truth of Scripture, then doctrinal statements can help us in our own understanding and interpretation of Scripture.

For example, most doctrinal statements include the idea that Jesus is fully human and fully divine. Therefore, we must be extremely cautious about any teaching to the contrary, for nearly all Christians throughout church history have held to this belief. Similarly, other points from doctrinal statements often represent key teachings from Scripture and can help guide our own study into Scripture, keeping us within the doctrinal boundaries of Christians from the past (See The Shape of Sola Scriptura for more on this idea).
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Gutting the Gospel

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Loving and serving others is central to the Gospel

Some churches try to increase the impact of doctrinal statements on people’s lives by requiring their teenagers and potential members to memorize the doctrinal statement, or at least read it as part of every Sunday church service. The usual result of this practice, however, is that while a doctrinal statement can be memorized and recited, it rarely leads to real life change. The words can be faithfully spoken while the mind wanders to problems at work, what Mrs. Pilsnick is wearing in church today, and who is going to win the NFL game.

A better practice than memorizing and reciting the creeds might be taking people out into the community to love and serve others. In this way, they will truly learn about the truth of Scripture, the significance of death and resurrection, the importance of sanctification and holiness, and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. A better practice than catechism and creedal recitation might be service in a community housing project or clearing trash from underneath the bridge where homeless people sleep.

Even among those who can memorize and recite the creed, does it really make that much difference in their lives? Have they really understood the gospel? If one believes all the right things, and can sign on the dotted line of the best doctrinal statements that the church has ever written, but their life is full of hatred, greed, and selfishness, I would argue that while they may have eternal life, and while they may believe some good truths from the gospel, they really have not understood the most essential parts of the gospel.

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Getting the Gospel Wrong

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What is the Gospel?One of the primary problems with doctrinal statements is what they do to the gospel. Usually, we believe that creeds and confessions protect the gospel, defending it against heresy, keeping at bay those who teach a false gospel, and leading people toward central truths of gospel, such as God’s holiness, our sinfulness, and the person and work of Jesus Christ.

What is the Gospel?

If the gospel was nothing more than a set of propositions to believe, or a series of doctrines to defend, then I would agree that creeds and confessions do a good job protecting gospel. The problem is that while the gospel does contain doctrine, the gospel is not primarily about doctrine. The gospel is not simply about what we must believe. The gospel is way more than a set of Christian ideas.

When understood from Scripture, the gospel is closer to a way of life than a set of ideas. Yes, it contains ideas, but the real good news in the gospel is that the ideas of the gospel will lead to a whole new way of living and thinking and acting. The gospel contains a new worldview which changes how we think about others and how we view life. The gospel not only contains ideas to believe, but also items to do.

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How to Kill the Church

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How to Kill the Church

Despite the fact that Christians create creeds to protect the church, creeds and confessions often have the opposite result. Creeds kill the church. They are a bullet to the brain of church creativity and unity.crea

Creeds Kill Creativity in the Church

We kill the creativity and liberty of others by scaring them into conforming to our creeds and doctrinal statements. Some of the best exegetical and theological work that has ever been done in the history of the church was done in the early centuries of the church before there were all the creeds and confessions to rein people in. Origen, for example, may have been one of the most creative Bible scholars the church has ever seen, and he came up with some great interpretations of Biblical texts. But he also came up with outlandish ideas, which were later condemned as heresy by the church. As a result, people barely study Origen, because they are afraid of being outcast for reading and studying a “heretic.”

Similarly today, Pastors and professors who develop a fresh way of understanding a biblical text are often afraid to share it with others, due to the theological backlash they are sure to receive. Bible College and Seminary students want to graduate, and so they also are discouraged from researching in new directions, and challenging the status quo in the understanding of some biblical texts. The doctrinal statement of the school restrains their desire to learn, study, and think for themselves.
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Christian Jihad

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Even though we modern, civilized Christians typically do not kill and murder those with whom we disagree, there is an area of our lives today where we still put others to death for the sake of our religion. We still do kill others over theology.

I am thinking more about the Jihad that Christians have declared upon Muslims.

“No, No! It is they who have declared Jihad upon America!”

Well, Jihad means “Holy War.” It is a war which has a just and righteous cause. It is a war that God not only tells you to fight, but also fights for your cause and your side.

And many Christians do believe these things about American’s wars. We don’t call it Jihad, but we do call it a “Just War,” a war with a righteous cause, a war in which God fights on our side.

There is really not that much difference between “Jihad” and “Just War.”

It is as Sam from GraceGround likes to say, killing others in the name of God, “doesn’t look like Jesus.” Do we really imagine that God goes out with us to kill other people? Do we really imagine that He helps our bullets fly accurately, and our bombs drop in the right spot to bring a bloody end to the lives of others?

To ask the question is to answer it.

Don’t misunderstand. I’m not a pacifist.

I do think that national leaders have the responsibility to defend and protect the nation and its citizens against threats. I think the United States should do everything it can to protect all of us who live here against the sort of thing that happened on 9-11.

War on Islam

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The Daily Writing Routine of C. S. Lewis

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Writing Routine of CS Lewis

C. S. Lewis lived before computers, cell-phones, TVs, and blogs. Also, for most of his life, he was unmarried. Having said that, all of us who strive to write can learn something from C. S. Lewis about his ideal daily writing routine as a full-time author.

The following comes from chapter 9 of his autobiography: Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life.

I would choose always to breakfast at exactly eight and to be at my desk by nine, there to read or write till one. If a cup of good tea or coffee could be brought me about eleven, so much the better.

As step or two out of doors for a pint of beer would not do quite so well; for a man does not want to drink alone and if you meet a friend in the taproom the break is likely to be extended beyond its ten minutes.

At one precisely lunch should be on the table; and by two at the latest I would be on the road. Not, except at rare intervals, with a friend. Walking and talking are two very great pleasures, but it is a mistake to combine them. Our own noise blots out the sounds and silences of the outdoor world; and talking leads almost inevitably to smoking, and then farewell to nature as far as one of our senses is concerned. The only friend to walk with is one who so exactly shares your taste for each mood of the countryside that a glance, a halt, or at most a nudge, is enough to assure us that the pleasure is shared.

The return from the walk, and the arrival of tea, should be exactly coincident, and not later than a quarter past four. Tea should be taken in solitude, …for eating and reading are two pleasures that combine admirably. Of course not all books are suitable for mealtime reading. It would be a kind of blasphemy to read poetry at table. What one wants is a gossipy, formless book which can be opened anywhere…

At five a man should be at work again, and at it till seven. Then, at the evening meal and after, comes the time for talk, or, failing that, for lighter reading; and unless you are making a night of it with your cronies there is no reason why you should ever be in bed later than eleven.

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How Christians Kill Others

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How Christians kill othersIn years past, Christians often killed those whom they disagreed theologically.

Today, while we rarely cut off their heads, we may cut them off from their friends by telling people to stay away from them. We may not burn people at the stake, but we might do what we can to get them fired from their job. We may not arrest and imprison them, but we might bind them in chains of guilt and fear when we slander their name around town, preach against them from the pulpit, and tear them down in Bible studies.

When the people get kicked out of our fellowships, or finally leave because they are so frustrated, we quote a verse like 1 John 2:19, “They went out from us, but they were not of us, for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us,” so that all of us can feel better about treating someone so wickedly, for their departure simply proved that they were “false teachers,” of the “spirit of the antichrist.”

This is how we treat people who disagree with us. We may not actually kill people, but we do kill friendships, families, marriages, careers, and sometimes even people’s future relationship with God. When people get treated so poorly by those who claim to be acting in God’s best interests, some people end up wanting nothing to do with God, and often live much of the lives apart from Him. God alone is the judge of other people, but I sometimes wonder where He will lay the blame when people reject Him because “God’s people” rejected them.
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Herman Cain – 999 or 666?

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Herman Cain 999 or 666We Christians are wacko.

A few weeks ago, when I first heard about Herman Cain’s 999 plan, my first thought was, “I wonder how long before we see some churches and Christians decrying Herman Cain for being the Antichrist?”

Well, it was only a few days later in the New Hampshire Presidential debate, that Michelle Bachmann said, “When you take the 9-9-9 plan and you turn it upside won, the devil is in the details.” She was implying, of course, that when you turn 999 upside down, you end up with 666.

And now, if you search Google for “Cain 666”, such statements are all over the internet, including ideas that this plan will turn into some sort of restriction on buying and selling, and everything else that the Book of Revelation says about the Mark of the Beast.

So, that is partly why I am excited to be reading Richard Bauckham’s book, The Theology of the Book of Revelation.

I read the first two chapters this weekend. Supposedly the book is a defense of Preterism, which is the idea that most of the book of Revelation is about historical events that happened around the time of writing in the first century AD. This is not how I have ever thought or taught about the book of Revelation, but if that is what Bauckham’s book is about, so far, I don’t have much to disagree with.

Does that make me a preterist? We’ll see.

One thing is for sure: we need some sanity when it comes to discussing Revelation. I am tried of hearing doomsday prophecies, and having everybody from George Soros to Herman Cain being labeled “the antichrist.” From what I have read so far, it appears that Bauckham’s book may help people move toward a more sane reading Revelation.
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Son of God Orphanage Closed

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Son of God Orphanage in Haiti
In this photo taken Oct. 19, 2011, orphans are seen at the Son of God's orphanage in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The orphanage, whose director was accused by U.S. missionaries of not feeding children and selling donated goods, was closed Friday in a rare crackdown by Haitian authorities. Police officers and child welfare officials sealed off the unpaved street in front of the Son of God orphanage and the children who lived there were loaded into a UNICEF bus and taken to new homes. Photo: Dieu Nalio Chery / AP

If you signed the petition for CNN to report on the Son of God Orphanage in Haiti, I want to thank you.

Tom Davis announced that Haiti has closed the Son of God orphanage for child neglect.

Here is the story:

CARREFOUR, Haiti (AP) — Haitian authorities have closed an orphanage outside the capital following complaints of neglect and abuse from U.S. missionaries working in the troubled country.

Officials with a Haitian child welfare agency say the Son of God orphanage has been closed permanently. Child welfare official Diem Pierre says the children will be taken by UNICEF to other group homes.

The closure was an unusually strong move in a country where child welfare laws are rarely enforced.

Pierre says inspectors found that children at the home were living in unsanitary conditions and were malnourished.

A group of U.S. missionaries who have been complaining about the home for months welcomed Friday’s action.

Thank you for signing the petition. Your voice was heard.

When Killing was Okay

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Calvin and ServetusHow do we explain this horrendous behavior of past Christians? The most popular way is to say that Christians of the past were influenced by their culture, and so were not at fault.

Just take one famous and contested example: the execution of Servetus by being burned at the stake. The primary accusation against Servetus was that he denied infant baptism and the classical conception of Trinity. There are numerous historical details surrounding his arrest, trial, and execution, but the main point is how modern Reformed historians explain these events. Here is one popular explanation from a well-known website and author:

The main facts therefore may now be summarized thus:

  1. That Servetus was guilty of blasphemy, of a kind and degree which is still punishable here in England by imprisonment.
  2. That his sentence was in accordance with the spirit of the age.
  3. That he had been sentenced to the same punishment by the Inquisition at Vienne.
  4. That the sentence was pronounced by the Councils of Geneva, Calvin having no power either to condemn or to save him.
  5. That Calvin and others visited the unhappy man in his last hours, treated him with much kindness, and did all they could to have the sentence mitigated.

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