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What is Our Doctrine
- discussion two [See
discussion one
here]
Just how many doctrines do we have?
What are the subject headings for these doctrines? That is, what is our
doctrine about?
How are our doctrines constructed?
Where do doctrines come from? That is, who is the author of each one?
At a previous Bible Study I had already gone through
Menu Item 31 answering the
question, "What is Our Doctrine" by stating that the Bible was our
doctrine. Later I was presenting another menu item and making it
clear that we had no doctrine concerning that specific topic. A
man in the audience, not an ICG member, made reference to a single verse
and felt that we SHOULD have a doctrine on the subject based on the
verse he quoted In fact, he said that I was contradicting my self
to say on the one hand that the entire Bible was our doctrine and then
not having a doctrine built around his one single scripture.
I first had to point out to the gentleman that his referenced scripture
in no, way, shape or form supported or even spoke to the subject I had
just presented. I then went on to talk specifically about our
doctrine.
Out of the entire Bible, we have but
33
doctrines in seven subject areas:
1. Primary Doctrines: God, Bible,
Jesus Christ, Holy Spirit, Mankind, Angelic Realm;
2. Salvation: Salvation, Faith,
Repentance, Baptisms, Laying on of Hands;
3. Kingdom of God: Kingdom of God,
Gospel, Prophecy, Resurrections, Judgment;
4. Law of God: Law of God, Biblical
Covenants, Ten Commandments, Sabbath, Annual Holy Days, Tithing and
Giving, Sin;
5. The Christian: The Christian, The
Christian Relationship with God, The Christian Relationship with Fellow
Man, The Christian Family, Healing;
6. The Church of God: The Church of
God, Ministry of the Church, Fellowship of the Brethren;
7. Traditional Christian Doctrines:
immortal soul, heaven, hell, trinity, Sunday, Christmas, Easter, rapture
etc.
All of these are about the
Salvation Process, for the Bible is the Handbook of the Salvation
Process. The Bible is not the Universal Book on every subject in
Creation or even every subject on planet Earth in this 21st Century.
The Bible does not claim to contain doctrine for every conceivable
subject one could name.
How are our doctrines constructed?:
All of our doctrines are constructed using something called Systematic
Theology. In fact, our primary document explaining what it is we
believe from the Word of God is called the "Systematic Theology
Project." Systematic Theology is the practice of gathering all of
the appropriate scriptures on a single subject. If the doctrine is
"Faith",
we gather all of the scriptures on faith and present them in clear and
concise way to make our meaning clear. Some might call this "Chain
Referencing" with commentary or explanation. Each sub element of
the subject is presented in such a way to aid the firstfruit in fully
understanding and comprehending what it is we believe. Our
doctrine on
Faith makes twenty references to scripture, contains seventeen
paragraphs and almost 1,500 words. Our doctrine on
Healing
has almost 200 scriptures, 190 paragraphs and over 16,000 words.
We do not construct doctrines or beliefs on single verses!! We do
not construct doctrines outside the realm of the Salvation Process.
Where do our doctrines come from?
That is, who is the author of each one?
We all know the answer to this question don't we? 2 Timothy 3:16
clearly states that all scripture is given by inspiration of God.
Further, as stated in our doctrines on the
Church of God
and the
Ministry we see that the Work of God, in the form of gospel
spreading, sermons, Bible Studies and writings are all done under this
same inspiration of God through the power of the Holy Spirit in us.
Therefore God inspired the explanations we have of our beliefs from the
Word of God.
God is the author of everything spiritual in the Church of God.
See now the difference between our Doctrines and Personal Elements of
Belief - Menu Item 65
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