by Mike Ratliff
3 Ἀγαπητοί, πᾶσαν σπουδὴν ποιούμενος γράφειν ὑμῖν περὶ τῆς κοινῆς ἡμῶν σωτηρίας ἀνάγκην ἔσχον γράψαι ὑμῖν παρακαλῶν ἐπαγωνίζεσθαι τῇ ἅπαξ παραδοθείσῃ τοῖς ἁγίοις πίστει. Jude 1:3 (NA28)
3 Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints. Jude 1:3 (NASB)
1 All who are under the yoke as slaves are to regard their own masters as worthy of all honor so that the name of God and our doctrine will not be spoken against. 2 Those who have believers as their masters must not be disrespectful to them because they are brethren, but must serve them all the more, because those who partake of the benefit are believers and beloved. Teach and preach these principles.
3 If anyone advocates a different doctrine and does not agree with sound words, those of our Lord Jesus Christ, and with the doctrine conforming to godliness, 4 he is conceited and understands nothing; but he has a morbid interest in controversial questions and disputes about words, out of which arise envy, strife, abusive language, evil suspicions, 5 and constant friction between men of depraved mind and deprived of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain. 1 Timothy 6:1-5 (NASB)
Over this weekend I’ve been in a conversation with my editor at CRN, Marsha West. It was about a couple of people who were monopolizing one of her posts on her Facebook Page which dealt with two things, doctrine itself and the Doctrine of Unity and Separation. These two people were insistent that the only valid doctrines are God’s doctrine found in his Word spoken to us clearly. Well, what about the Doctrine of the Trinity? What about the Doctrine of Baptism and the Doctrine of Regeneration. Are they one and the same? Some people claim they are while many of us call that a false doctrine called “Baptismal Regeneration.” You get the idea. In any case, Marsha ended up blocking one of them and asking me to define for her where these people were coming from. The best I could come up with was they were “cage stage pharisees” and that they were very close to what I have seen in the Hebrew Roots movement. For us to be wise and discerning according to God’s will we must know His Word, that is, His truth and, therefore, His doctrines. We must know the difference between what God says and what men say in their man-made religiosity. Yes, Doctrine is important regardless what these post-modern pharisees say.
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