Years ago, a young man I had known in high school telephoned one day. He told me he had sensed a call from God to vocational Christian ministry and wondered if I would let him preach in my church. To put me at ease, supposedly, he assured me "I don’t preach doctrine. I just preach Jesus."
I was aware then of what is etched now even more keenly on my heart: to preach Jesus is to preach doctrine. I have learned that not every "Christian" "believes in Jesus" as I do, which I hope is in a manner consistent with Scripture.
Early Christianity had to fight for its very life against what has come to be termed as Gnosticism. The heart of Gnosticism was a radical redefinition of Jesus. Men like Cerinthus and Valentinus took the Church’s teaching about Jesus and sought to make him into something far different from and far less than the Incarnate Word really was. Ultimately, the church rejected the views of this heretical movement.
Doctrine is not, as we can see, a bad thing. We Baptists have certain doctrinal distinctives that characterize our life and practice. Our self-understanding as a denomination and as individual believers is formed upon a biblical foundation articulated from a Baptist perspective.
Paul commended Scripture to Timothy as being "profitable for doctrine" (2 Tim. 3.16). Now, let us understand what doctrine is. The Greek word translated doctrine is didaskalia, a noun based on the Greek verb didaskō, meaning "to teach." So, didaskalia means "teaching," and also, "what is taught." Therefore, didaskalia encompasses both the idea of the teaching event and the content of teaching.
Paul told Timothy inspired Scripture is "profitable" as a source and foundation for Christian instruction. One teaches upon the authority of the Word and one teaches the Word. The "all Scripture is inspired" statement delineates clearly the boundaries for profitable doctrine. We need look no further than the Bible for our source of truth or wisdom.
What we must reaffirm at this point is the scope of "all Scripture." Are we to restrict ourselves to the Hebrew Scriptures for our doctrine as Paul did? Surely not. The early church realized that not only was the Hebrew Bible inspired, but certain writings from the first century, which had the mark of Apostolic authority, were binding for believers as well. Upon that basis, the NT Canon was developed.
Consequently, believers have at their disposal both Old and New Testaments, each co-equal with the other; each equally inspired; each equally authoritative; each equally beneficial for doctrine. The OT and the NT together constitute the revealed Truth of God. The OT was not replaced by the NT. They complement and augment one another. They are together the sufficient Word of God.
One must be warned, though, that no believer is free to randomly and indiscriminately "interpret" Scripture. While we Baptists have our doctrinal distinctives, we do not depart from the traditional core beliefs of historic Christianity. At the same time, we understand those central doctrines from the Baptist perspective.
We, as do all Christians, accept the admonition to be baptized. We, though, approve only of immersion as the biblically acceptable mode. Our form of church government is congregational, not episcopal (bishops) or presbyterian (elders), although all have biblical support as forms of ecclesiastical governance. We have a de-centralized view of denomination life: authority flows from the local congregation to the denomination, not the opposite.
We also see something unique and singular in Scripture. In God’s Word, we find our justification for belief and practice.
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