Christian Doctrines- Relationship between faith and doctrines

 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.