Thought I would post my notes for the Essential Doctrine Class I start tonight... Doctrine Series Introduction “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Genesis 1:1 “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6 • The 2 verses listed above are just a couple of the many examples of both the simplicity of the Bible, and the complexity of it as well. • These 2 verses alone can bring great comfort to the believer, while at the same time they can equally cause a through-the-teeth disagreement with others, and even outright anger from the non-believer. • Think about this for a moment… In these 2 verses we find some of the most incredible doctrinal statements know to mankind! 1. God is The Creator! Not evolution…Not chance and random particles and primordial soup all coming together at some distant time way beyond our comprehension. No. The opening sentence of the Bible declares that above everything else you are going to read in this Book, know first that God created everything. 2. Jesus is the only way that anyone will get to heaven. He is not “a way”, but the only way. He is the only Truth. Not just His version, or “a truth”, but THE TRUTH. Our lives have been transformed by the power of God and we are now in His kingdom and He has placed a desire to know Him, and serve Him. Therefore, it is of great importance that we not just read the Bible and attempt to live by it, which is an adventure all by itself, but that we also truly understand both what it teaches and the implications of what it says. Turn to II TIMOTHY 3:10-17...(Read on your own) • The Apostle Paul is writing this letter to Timothy, a young man whom he had raised up in the faith, and had installed him as the pastor of the largest church in Asia Minor. • Timothy was being hammered from all sides by false teachers trying to creep into the church and teaching all kinds of weird stuff. • In fact, as we will cover in depth during the course of this study, most of the New Testament books were written just to lay down the proper doctrine and refute the false teachers. • So Paul warns Timothy of the false teachers, but notice how he does this…Read verses 14-17 again… • Friends, it is very important that you learn the foundations of the Word of God so that you can always rely on it when anything new or odd comes your way. • In fact, your foundation will help keep you safe in sound doctrine as you walk with the Lord over the course of your life. • Here is a question: Do you know how the government trains US Treasury Agents to spot counterfeit money? Most people would think they just go around collecting as much fake money so that they can examine it thoroughly. [PP] On the contrary…These agents spend months and months handling nothing but real currency. They touch it, they smell it, they memorize the watermarks and the threads and magnetic strip. They know the real deal before they get into the fake stuff. This is a great application to the study of Christian doctrine. We need to know the truth of what God has said so that we can more easily spot the errors of man. • Over the next several weeks we will be taking on a study of some of the most important subjects that the Bible has for us to learn. • We will not be able to cover every doctrine that has been formulated throughout the history of the Church, but we will dig into what are considered the most important for our basic understanding of God’s Word and plan for our lives. Let me put it this way; Here are some of the subjects we will be covering… The Trinity: God Is Revelation/The Bible: God Speaks The Creation: God Makes The Fall: God Judges The Incarnation: God Comes The Cross: God Dies The Resurrection: God Saves Worship: God Transforms These are what we would consider our core doctrines, or, “Closed-Fist” subjects. Let me explain… There are a lot of subjects that encompass the Christian faith. Subjects like the gifts of the Spirit and how to use them in the Church today; the order of Church government, i.e., elders that run the church, or a pastor that is the head; how to pray, what style of worship do we follow, the timing of the return of Jesus, the Rapture, etc. These are examples of “Open-Hand” issues. However, there are some doctrines that absolutely must be adhered to in order to be a Christian. These are not issues that we can disagree on and still maintain the faith and unity of Christ. These are “Closed-Fist” issues. Jude, the brother of James and Jesus wrote that…(Vs.3)[read on your own] Always remember that people died to make sure that you and I had the Truth available to us in the Word of God. Ok…now for some technical stuff. • The term “doctrine” simply means, “teaching or instruction”. Webster’s dictionary expands on this to say, “A position, or a body of principles in a branch of knowledge or a system of belief.” In the Christian context it is simply what we are taught to believe about what God says about Himself and His Word. • The Greek word used in the New Testament is didaskalia, (“de-da-ska-le-a”). It is used 45 times with 36 of those times referring directly to Christian beliefs and teaching. • As a side note, I would like to mention that during the course of our study we will have to mention the errors of other religions, groups, or organizations, in order to reveal the correct understanding of God’s Word on the subject at hand. I will attempt to do so with all love and sincerity, and not in a manner of condescension or arrogance. Please pray for me in this endeavor. • The following verse has been a great help to me when studying doctrine… 2 Timothy 2:24-26…[Read] • As we progress through the study together one basic principle will become very clear. • It will also become very apparent, and necessary as you will see, that Jesus Christ will be the center of everything! This is the most important lesson that we can walk away with from this entire series! Jesus Christ is the reason we live and breathe. God has declared that He is… 1. “The Hope and Anchor of our souls” Hebrews 6:19 [PP] 2. “The Author and Finisher of our faith” Hebrews 12:2 [PP] 3. Also “Our great God and Savior” according to Titus 2:13 [PP] Therefore, His doctrine should be of great help and comfort to us, since He is the one who gave it to us. • After all, when Jesus taught the people the Bible says that they were astonished by His doctrine…Matthew 22:33 • I hope and pray that we will all be astonished by His doctrine as we progress through this study in the coming weeks. • If you do not walk away from this class with a deeper understanding and relationship with Jesus by the end of it, then quite frankly, I will have failed in my task to lead you to Him.
Posted on: Wed, 05 Mar 2014 22:29:15 +0000
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