diagonal relationship in
doctrines.
I. Relationship between faith and doctrines
(a) What is the importance of doctrine in respect to faith?
Doctrine
means something taught, teachings, instruction; it denotes the principles of
religion as presented for belief. Doctrine refers to the truths of God's Word
that are to be held, believed in, and disseminated. The purpose of doctrine is
to present a full and balanced declaration of the substance of faith; it is
"those things which are most surely believed among us," as the
framers of the 1689 London Confession of Faith described the things pertaining
to the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, and furthermore, all else that is
presented in Scripture for our faith.
Doctrine
and faith are so inseparable that doctrine determines destiny. Who and what we
believe in affects eternal destiny. It is absurd to say it does not matter what
you believe as long as you're sincere. You may drink poison believing it's your
medicine, but it will kill you. A man may be sincerely wrong (2 Peter 3:14,15)
Our relationship to Christ (the Christ as preached by the apostles, an no
other) affects where we will spend eternity. In Christ is light and life;
outside of Him is darkness and death.
(b) Doctrine is the
skeleton, the groundwork upon which faith is built.
How can I believe in Christ if I have no facts about Him, who He is, what He
has done, whether He's living or dead, what He has promised, and so on? For
faith to be exercised, the disciple of Christ must see to it that the Word is
correctly handled, not misinterpreted or twisted. Grammatico-historical
exegesis is the order of the day. Scripture is to be understood, and its
doctrine expounded before it can be lived out in faith that pleases God
(Hebrews 11:6) It is nonsense to set up an opposition between knowledge and
faith. Faith thrives and grows upon knowledge, as it applies it and stands fast
upon it, moving to action as impelled by knowledge.
As
over against this pragmatic attitude, we believers in historic Christianity
maintain the objectivity of truth. Truth can be known and must be known. It is
the setting forth of the facts (1 Corinthians 15:1ff.) that set men's souls
free. Our experience must be based on fact. As a matter of fact all true faith
involves an intellectual element; all faith involves knowledge and issues in
knowledge.
Theology
follows faith. Faith is something that the church gets from God and transfer it
to others/ new generations. Faith germinates in the family.
Religion
as a sense of connectedness to the ultimate that has come out expresses itself
in various ways in the societal association. Religion generally manifests
itself in common commitment. It generally involves dogma.
Dogma
is a set of believes that distinguishes a certain group from other groups.
Lutheran’s have their own dogma. Calvin’s have their own dogma. Every religion
will have a set of dogma- written or unwritten. Every group has a sense of
feeling, a sense of testing and a sense of experiencing the ultimate.
When
we are thinking of God we have to reorient our thinking of God- that is we are
totally or completely dependent on God. Attempting to prove the existence of
God through Jesus Christ is not part of theology.
Theology
is our quest to make sense of our faith. Theology is within the realm of faith
.It is faith clarifying faith. A theologian is a theologian of the church. He
must articulate the theology of the Church. A theologian’s job is to articulate
the faith of the church.
Evangelical
like us believes that faith is God’s gift. We don’t have the ability or reason
to explain ‘the inequality of preaching’. We will not get near to getting an
answer. Our ability to reason is so small, so finite. Faith is God’s gift
therefore we look at the events of the world in that way.
II. Relationship between apostolic faith, historic
church and contemporary-contextual realities
Apostolic
Period is a definitive landmark in the development of Christian doctrine.
Anglican writer Lancelot Andrews declared that Orthodox Christianity was based
upon two testaments, three creeds, four gospels and the first five centuries of
Christian History. During the first period of Christian history the church was
often persecuted by the state. Its agenda was that of survival; there was
limited room for theological debate and disputes, when the very existence of
the Christian Church could not be taken into granted. These observations helped
us to understand why apologetics came to be of such importance to the early
church through writers such as- Justin Martyr, who were concerns to defends and
explain the beliefs and practices of Christianity to the hostile pagan beliefs.
These conditions became possible during the foutth century with the conversion
of Constantine the Roman Emperor. In 321, he decreed that Sundays should become
public holidays. He further declared Christianity as State religion this marked
the greatest historic event for the Christian and also paved the way for
constructive theological debate in public affair. The church could now count
upon the support of the state, increasingly doctrinal debates became a matter
of both political and theological importance and thus the doctrinal differences
should be debated and settled as a matter of priority. Many issues were
addressed which are of continuing concern for the modern church and
contemporary-contextual realities.
III. Relationship between doctrines and faith -
praxis
The rise of liberation
theology, with its characteristic emphasis upon the importance of praxis, the
prioritization of the situation of the poor, and the orientation of theology
toward political liberation, Given the vast expansion and diversification of
Christian theological writing, exploration, and debate since about 1750, it
stressed little more than note some important trends and developments.
Limitations on space mean that a detailed engagement with everything that needs
to be covered to gain a comprehensive overview of theology is quite impossible.
We shall, however, try to gain something of a bird’s-eye view of the
contemporary theological landscape, even if we cannot fill in the fine detail
that is needed for many purposes.
Exploring cultural developments that shape the environment in
which Christian theology has been done in recent centuries. This is followed by
an exploration of some of the denominational distinctives of theological debate
and eventually put into practices.
Also read note above I. (a) and (b)
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