This season of storms, chaos, and crises offer unprecedented challenge and opportunity, both within and outside of the church. Maximizing the opportunities of this season – including Christianity once again becoming the source of meaning and purpose in people’s lives – requires we address the problems created by our doctrines. Furthermore, the challenges we face will be exacerbated if we do not.

Let me say it again for emphasis: Doctrines are generally necessary, good, and serve an important function in the formation of Christians and the function of the Body of Christ. The problems with doctrines lie in the priority we give them, our restricted focus on them, and our misuse of them. The well-intended but flawed applications of our doctrines have truly damaged the Body of Christ and unnecessarily thwarted Jesus Christ’s purpose in building His church.

In summary, doctrines create problems for the Body of Christ in the following ways.

1. They provide a ready substitute for faith, good works, truth, etc.
2. They are used for the wrong purposes (e.g., defining and protecting our fellowships, relating to God).
3. They unnecessarily divide the Body of Christ, delaying the Lord’s return.
4. They inhibit us from spiritual growth in the truth, discourage stewardship of the mysteries of God, and lead to an ignorance of wonder.
5. They encourage living from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, thereby trapping us in our heads and away from our hearts.

We flesh out each of these assertions in this series. As always, your comments, concerns, and questions are welcomed and appreciated. We are also available to speak on this topic.

In Part One, we argue that there are things doctrines simply cannot be (e.g., faith, truth, the will of God). In Part Two, we present the eternal purposes of God which doctrines simply cannot accomplish. Part Three exposes the most damaging problem with our doctrines: our divisive use of them. Part Four explores the detrimental effects caused by our restricted focus on our doctrines (see #4 above). Part Five explains the relationship between mankind choosing the knowledge of good and evil – to be like God (Genesis 3:5) – and our elevated prioritization and subsequent misuse of doctrines.

This sixth and final article in the series will speak transparently to the heart of the matter, suggest a transformational approach to digging our way out of this predicament, and offer specific solutions to each of the above listed problems.

The Heart of the Matter

If God does not intervene with an undeniable call to reformation, he will nevertheless intervene with inexplicable wrath and judgment. A. W. Tozer

We have not responded well to God stepping back and giving us the reins. We have wasted attention and energy in excuse-making, blame-shifting, and fault-finding; energy and attention that would have been better invested in humility, unity, and the pursuit of loving obedience. Doctrine may serve a purpose still, but it has too long been used to feed egos, build substitutionary kingdoms, control the masses, and divide the Body.

Furthermore, we have bound ourselves into a time box, failing to actively realize that each one of us will live far longer than the institutions and ideologies we give so much import and attention. We are eternal creatures, far more valuable, in the grand scheme of things, than the company we work for, the party we support, the denomination we belong to, and the doctrinal positions we hold. “The world is not our home” is a profound truth we must rescue from the trash heap of Christian clichés.  

As painful as it will be, we must resolutely cast off the world’s ways and thoughts. This includes our regrettable living from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, within our doctrinal boxes. If our doctrines are to do us any good, they must be submitted to the Tree of Life, Jesus Christ. To argue that they are while living against His desire for unity – the wife of the Lamb making herself ready – is proof of cognitive dissonance, deception, and/or delusion. The same can be said of our conformity with the world (Romans 12:2), our neglect of the brethren (Matthew 25: 40,45), and other certain evidences. We are lost and confused; and the temptation to double down on our doctrines is a real danger.

An obstinate outlook will effectually hinder God from revealing anything to us. If we have made up our minds about a doctrine, the light of God will come no more to us on that line, we cannot get it. This obtuse stage will end immediately [when] His resurrection life has its way with us. O. Chambers

Just how do we position ourselves so that the resurrection life of Jesus Christ has its way with us? Psalm 80 offers us both correction and encouragement:

O Lord God of hosts,
How long will You be angry
Against the prayer of Your people?
You have fed them with the bread of tears,
And given them tears to drink in great measure.
You have made us a strife to our neighbors,
And our enemies laugh among themselves. (vv. 4-6)

In this case, our neighbors are other fellowships and our enemies are those of the kingdom of God. In response, God has broken down the hedges, allowing the vineyard to be abused and burned:

Why have You broken down her hedges,
So that all who pass by the way pluck her fruit?
The boar out of the woods uproots it,
And the wild beast of the field devours it.

It is burned with fire, it is cut down;
They perish at the rebuke of Your countenance. (vv. 12-13, 16).

Repentance leading to the LORD’s revival and restoration is our only hope.

Then we will not turn back from You;
Revive us, and we will call upon Your name.

Restore us, O Lord God of hosts;
Cause Your face to shine,
And we shall be saved! (vv. 18-19)

The heart of the matter is our heart, but not in the way many of us have been taught. We touched on this in Part Five, but it bears repeating: God would not replace our old corrupt heart with another corrupt one (Ezekiel 36:26). Our carnal minds are the enemy of God (Romans 8:7), blame-shifting onto our hearts at every opportunity. It is the mind that must be renewed for our transformation, that we might prove the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God (Romans 12:2).

We must learn to trust and lead with the hearts we have been given. After all, man believes with his heart (Romans 10:9-10), and God promises to give us the desires He has stored there (Psalm 37:4). Consider the synergy God intends in mixing our heart’s desires and faith. What we know to be true, codified in our doctrines, is important, but not more so than what we believe and desire with God.

A Transformational Response

We are not here to prove our doctrines, but to manifest the life of the Son of God. The key is not a doctrine, but the Lord Himself. Oswald Chambers

But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord. 2Corinthians 3:18

There are three general approaches to ensuring we prioritize, focus, and use our doctrines in the most profitable ways possible. First, we must learn to lead with our hearts, and not our heads. This is the easiest and most sure way to escape the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil traps. The hearts we are been given at our rebirth are humble, filled with faith, and the source of desire to fulfill every commandment given to us by Jesus Christ – including the desire to love one another as we love ourselves.

Secondly, we must learn to lead with love, look for love, and let love reign – in all our thoughts of, encounters with, and relationships with brethren, neighbors, and enemies. Please forgive me for stating the obvious, but love is not passive, and it is not natural. Loving is difficult, active, and sacrificial good work. If God is love, then love should be our priority investment.

And above all things have fervent love for one another, for “love will cover a multitude of sins.” 1Peter 4:8

Thirdly, we must learn to subjugate our purposes to God’s, measuring them against His desire to reign over, enjoy intimacy with, inhabit, and manifest His glory through His people. Pursuing God’s purposes locates us in the center of His will, the only safe place to be – particularly in this season of storms, chaos, and crises.

A dear friend recently asked, “What then should be the core of our doctrines?” I think Paul said it best:

I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. Ephesians 4:1-6

Specific to the Problems Sited

It seems appropriate to provide specific solutions to each of the problems we have sited in this series. We do so with one caveat in mind: These solutions are not intended to be an end-all list, nor are all of them for everyone. The reader is encouraged to use them as a means of prayerful communication with God. (Sorry for the bulleting here; WordPress is not cooperating.) 

1. Doctrines provide a ready substitute for faith, good works, truth, etc.
   1. Revive the process of faith: the hearing of faith, obedience to the faith, and the work of faith. Do so with other church fellowships.
   1. Recognize the word of God is for faith, not doctrine; it is for unifying good works – faith putting forth power through love – not argument and debate.
   1. Put aside what we know, and our attempts to know more, long enough to ensure our faith is not dead.
   1. Recognize that full and deep knowledge of God’s kingdom and its mysteries require faith, not more information.
2. Doctrines are used for the wrong purposes.
   1. Whatever purpose we find for our doctrines, subordinate them to and align them with God’s eternal purposes.
      1. Preach, teach, and encourage the Gospel of the kingdom (Mark 1:14-15).
      1. Reinstitute and emphasize the corporate meeting.
      1. Recognize the presence of the Lord (i.e., His habitation) in every meeting.
      1. Provide corporate opportunities for the glory of the Lord to be manifest in the communities surrounding your church building (Matthew 5:16).
3. Doctrines unnecessarily divide the Body of Christ, delaying the Lord’s return.
   1. Defend what we believe, not in argument with our brothers and sisters, but in obedience and good works.
   1. Stop indoctrinating the fellowship and begin disciplining them into the faith and knowledge of Jesus Christ, including the manner in which He is building His church (Ephesians 4:11-15).
   1. Reprioritization the doctrines we hold – particularly those of man and those that support competition and division. We must absolutely and unequivocally stop dividing the Body of Christ over doctrine.
   1. Pursue humility and love: There is so much we do not know; certainly not enough to hold such strong opinions. It is arrogant to do so, particularly when our incomplete proofs are divisive.
4. Doctrines inhibit us from spiritual growth in the truth, discourage stewardship of the mysteries of God, and lead to an ignorance of wonder.
   1. Beware of worshiping your doctrine instead of worshiping the Lord (Oswald Chambers).
   1. Recognize that the pursuit and study of God’s word is not for information’s sake, but for applying the word of God for our spiritual growth through the process of faith.
   1. Embrace and encourage Proverbs 25:2 – It is the glory of God to conceal a matter,
      But the glory of kings is to search out a matter.
   1. Look beyond the doctrines of men (Colossians 2:20-23) to the doctrine of Jesus Christ (2John 1:9).
5. Doctrines encourage living from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, thereby trapping us in our heads and away from our hearts.
   1. Reject our propensity to collect information and develop knowledge for the sake of consumption and control.
   1. Pause intellectual development and reasoning at all levels (i.e., individual to corporate) until we develop the necessary wisdom to avoid exterminating ourselves.
   1. Recognize that wisdom comes from the fear of the LORD – including the fear of offense to His Body.

I believe with all my heart that God is offering us nothing less than another reformation – perhaps the final one – in this season of storms, chaos, and crises. Those called to lead will be greatly blessed, and they will be a great blessing to those entrusted to their care. For you, we offer this word of encouragement:

Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever. 1Peter 1:22-23

A Closing Word About the Prophets

This seems an odd way to close out this series; I am doing my best to just be the pen. Having now penned these six articles, it is clear they are encouraging a prophetic transformation to the way we do church. Consequently, one might imagine the reader is being encouraged to be prophetic. For that, I am grateful.

As we have written in the past, we desperately need the prophets: The prophets among us will be used by God to communicate His purposes in the midst of storms, chaos, and crises. Not to foretell the outcome, but to forthtell His warnings and instructions to His people. Make no mistake about it, God is up to much, and His attention and intention is more for us than for the world. Please find the rest in the link above; and, for now, consider these quotes:

The prophet is an iconoclast, challenging the apparently holy, revered, and awesome. Beliefs cherished as certainties, institutions endowed with supreme sanctity, he exposes as scandalous pretentions. Abraham Joshua Heschel, The Prophets

Prophets are rarely, if ever, institutionalized. Nor will they necessarily use institutional language. If the language of the prophets is strange and unfamiliar, it is because they are speaking with divine imagination; their words are not of religion, but of the God who will tear down the temple, the God who looks like fire and tastes like tree sap, and [the God who] feels like starlight crawling beneath your skin. Walter Bruggeman, The Prophet Imagination.

The task of prophetic ministry is to nurture, nourish, and evoke a consciousness and perception alternative to the consciousness and perception of the dominant culture around us – including the dominant church culture and Christian culture, too.

Pursue love, and desire spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy. 1Corinthians 14:1,39

God bless you with wisdom, discernment, patience, and courage for a life characterized by more than the doctrines you have been given, that you might be a voice crying out to the Body of Christ.

Have a strong day in the Lord,

Rob

#iamjustthepen