TRIAD TREASURES

By: Ed Dingess, Th.M.

Does Doctrine Still Matter?

This article represents excerpts from the book, “The Coming Evangelical Crisis.” Contributors include R. Kent Hughes, John MacArthur Jr., R.C. Sproul, Michael S. Horton, Albert Mohler, Jr., and John H. Armstrong as the General Editor. The general theme of the book is to deal with current challenges to the authority of Scripture and the Gospel.
Does theology still matter? Is doctrine a dead issue in the general church. Is doctrine a dead issue in our church. After all, I am writing this article to members and families here at Triad Baptist Church. What goes through your mind when you think of doctrine or theology? If we were to announce a study of the Nature and Person of Christ, what would be your initial response? Or, if your only option on Wednesday nights was an expositional study of Ephesians, how excited would you be to get here each Wednesday, or would you even bother coming at all? What does your reaction to these questions say about your relationship with Christ? Many people think that their feelings regarding such matters are altogether unrelated to their relationship with Christ. To some people, coming to a church service and “feeling” good during the music portion of the service is actually the sum of their relationship with Christ. This is unfortunate.
“Although most of today’s professing evangelicals would acknowledge that theology, in some sense of the word, does matter, a recent survey in Christianity Today revealed that this is more lip service than anything else. According to this survey, theology, in any sense of the word, is really not all that important to the very people to whom it should matter most: those in the pew and in the pulpit. Both groups listed theological knowledge as last in terms of pastoral priorities. The same lack of reflection evident in the pew also appeared in the priorities of pastors. They considered relational skills the top priority, followed by management abilities, communication skills, and then spirituality. Wells’s assertion that the Christian ministry is being redefined in terms of the CEO and the psychologist, whose task it is to engineer good relations and warm feelings, is manifestly ratified by this survey.” I wonder what people would say if they were asked a similar question about the pilot of the airplane they are about to board. What if you knew the pilot considered the study of aviation to be a low priority for him? Would you still board the plane? After all, the pilot may have excellent personal relation skills.
It is my unflinching position that the primary reason for this liberal shift in churches is due mostly to the church forgetting that her primary purpose, above every other purpose, is to glorify God. Pastors and deacons have abandoned the idea that they are first and foremost responsible to direct the church in a manner that is consistent with the biblical mandate to keep the wolves out and keep the sheep in and growing spiritually. Wolves are no longer that bad and growth is no longer really that important. However, for some reason, what is important is that the sheep remain in the church. As long as people are coming and the church is growing, the deacons and pastors, as well as the rest of the church seem to think that God is actually doing something and that numerical growth equals God’s blessing and approval. Numerical growth is only good if the church is experiencing spiritual growth as well. Armstrong adds one more piece of disturbing information. I include it because I think that we, here in our church are sometimes guilty of this error. Armstrong writes, “The thing that disturbed me about the accompanying Christianity Today article, however, was the way it interpreted the data gleaned from this survey. Because seminary professors put a high priority on theological knowledge, they were considered out of touch with reality and did not have a “good understanding of the local needs of local churches or the culture.” The article concluded with this supposedly ominous remark: “Something’s got to happen. The church is not going to wait. If seminaries don’t wake up and come along, they will be left in the dust.” Now this is what we can safely call, “the tail wagging the dog.” In essence, this article is telling seminaries to stop focusing so much time on doctrine, theology, philosophy, and history. We demand that you send us teachers and pastors who will teach the things that we deem important. This method of teaching people or “ministering” to people today is called, “ministering to their felt needs.” Of course Paul called it itching ears. The question that I have is; “who determines what their felt needs are?” Is this article asserting that the uninformed are the ones to tell the leadership what they should be offering as far as what is being taught in the church? I think this is precisely what many believe. This is not leading believers into the deeper walk with God that they so desperately need. It is marketing 101. Find out what they want and give it to them. The church is not a corporation, the pastor is not the CEO and the deacon board is not the board of directors. This is a worldly way to manage the church. Contrary to popular belief, the number one skill of the pastor and the SS teacher should be, must be their knowledge of Scripture, also known as their doctrinal knowledge. Many would disagree with this view. People who disagree with this view will attempt to do so and some of them are so short-sighted that they actually appeal to Scripture to make their case. But this only demonstrates my point to be a valid one. Any appeal to Scripture necessarily lands on my side of the argument because it assumes the truthfulness of my view in order to try and demonstrate that my view is false. If the appeal is not made to Scripture, then to what do we appeal to argue that doctrinal training and theological teaching in our churches is no longer relevant. Think about what I am saying. When was the last time you heard a sermon dedicated entirely to a great doctrine of the Scripture? What is Dispensationalism? What is Covenant Theology? What is Eschatology? When was the last time you were taught the doctrine of soteriology? One of the most fundamental of all doctrines in Scripture is the doctrine of predestination. It is taught explicitly in Scripture and yet it is never preached about nor taught on. But Paul taught about it on numerous occasions. Why is it that we do not teach on such a subject, and why is it that so many people think that it is so controversial? It is because pastors and teachers have made a deliberate decision not to teach this truth of Scripture because people may not understand it. And why won’t people understand it? They won’t understand it because pastors and teachers have deliberately decided not to teach about the doctrine of the sovereignty of God. People get bits and pieces here and there. But this is just enough to confuse them and to ease the conscience of leaders because they can say that they taught on the subject. But this is simply lip service as well. It is time for Christians to get some guts and be the called-out, Spirit-filled people Christ has called them to be. Doctrine is important. If we understand God’s holiness, we can then understand His grace. If we understand God’s holiness, we understand that God can take whomever He pleases whenever He pleases. And then we can understand just how dangerous it is for us to turn our anger against Him or to dare to question His plan.
Another poll said that in terms of salvation, 84% of evangelicals believe that God helps those who help themselves. This is semi-pelagianism, a heresy condemned in the 5th century of the church. How does this fit with the Scripture which teaches that while we were yet helpless Christ died for us? Or how does it comport with the idea that we are dead in our trespasses and sins? How can a dead person help himself? Evangelicals think that because they have had an experience with God, they do not need to gain any particular knowledge of God. The argument is circular and many pastors do little to stem the tide and actually do much to fan the flames. The reasoning is something like this. The purpose of the word of God is to bring me into relationship with Christ, to experience God in my life. I have experienced God and have a relationship with Christ and everything else is just not really necessary. These people think that they can have a relationship with God, absent a hunger for the knowledge of the truth which He has revealed. What pastors do not realize is that the lack of such a hunger indicates the individual indeed has not at all experienced God, and in all likelihood has not yet encountered Christ in conversion. Now many will say that you worship the Bible in place of God. Others will say that you love theology more than you love God. The purpose of theology is to inform us of who God is and how we can know and love Him. Without theology, you cannot know and love God. The route to loving and knowing God runs through the center of theology. It is unavoidable. Sure there are people who simply love the intellectual pursuit. Let this not be said of us. And I do think this problem is so minor that it is hardly worth mentioning.
The church has forgotten its primary purpose. The primary purpose of the church is to glorify God by presenting herself to Christ without spot and wrinkle. She is to proclaim the gospel though the foolishness of preaching because this is God’s plan. The church is not to be run like a corporation and seek numerical growth through marketing. The church is not an entertainment center and must not use things like music and drama to make people feel better about coming. The church is the bride of Christ, called out of the world, to shine her light into a cold, dead, dark world through godly living and biblical preaching. This is the primary purpose of the church. If it is the primary purpose of the church to glorify God, then theology must inform us how this is to accomplished. Otherwise not only are we ignorant concerning how we might glorify God, we don’t even know if we should even bother ourselves with such an undertaking. Besides, without theology, how do we define God in the first place?