Doctrine, Gospel, Fruit and Apples

April 30, 2007

Joe,

Yesterday a friend of mine who I have deep respect for said something that concerned me. I know what he meant, and what he meant was true; but what actually came out of his mouth was potentially misleading. Here’s what he said: ‘Preaching doctrine only divides; we need to preach the Gospel.’

I asked him what he meant and he explained his statement. He was addressing a form of evangelism which he has seen which seems to worry more about doctrinal issues than about the receiving of Christ’s saving work on the Cross. In other words, he has seen people sharing with unbelievers who seem more concerned about whether that person speaks in tongues, or whether they are a Baptist or a Methodist or a Presbyterian. When these doctrinal differences take precedence over the Gospel then there is something deeply wrong. This is what my friend was referring to when he said that doctrine will only divide people, but the gospel is what we should focus on.

That being said, the statement ‘Doctrine divides; we must focus on preaching the Gospel’ is a common thing for people to say these days, and many people do not mean what my friend meant. They mean that people really should not worry about ‘doctrine’, but they should only concern themselves with the Gospel. They believe the Church would be a much better place if that’s what happened. There are some serious flaws in that way of thinking. Briefly I want to mention three such flaws:

1) The Gospel divides just as easily as doctrine.

The statement in question seems to imply that while doctrine tends to be divisive (and therefore harmful), the Gospel will unite people. But a look at the New Testament reveals that this is clearly not true. The proclamation of the Gospel will most certainly divide people: “For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Cor. 1:18). The word of the cross divides; some receive it as folly, while others receive it as the power and wisdom of God. Jesus Himself said, “Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division” (Luke 12:51). So let us not think that the simple preaching of the message of Jesus is the great unifier, and doctrine divides; Jesus came to bring division.

2) The Gospel can’t be preached without preaching doctrines.

The statement ‘Don’t preach doctrine, just preach the Gospel’ is like someone saying, ‘Don’t eat fruit; eat apples’ (Hence the title of this post). It’s no use telling someone not to eat fruit, but to eat apples, because apples are fruit. If a person eats apples, then he is eating fruit. Likewise, a person cannot preach the Gospel without preaching doctrines: the doctrine of God, and His holiness and righteousness; the doctrine of man as fallen and alienated from God; the doctrine of Christ and His atonement; the doctrine of justification by faith alone. These are all doctrines; and you can’t share the Gospel with someone unless you share doctrine with them. Just like you can’t eat apples without eating fruit. It makes no sense, and so it makes no sense to preach the Gospel without preaching certain doctrines.

3) To the degree that we ignore doctrine, we strive against the desire to save souls through the Gospel.

The person who says, ‘Don’t preach doctrine because it will divide, just preach the Gospel’ is saying this (likely) because of a genuine desire for the salvation of souls. He wants to see people saved, and he wants no unnecessary obstacles to stand in the way of people being saved. But if we ignore doctrine or pass it off as harmful and irrelevant, we destroy the hope of seeing people get saved. That seems to be the argument of Paul in 1 Timothy 4:16, “Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.” This text says that if you want to save yourself and your hearers, do two things: pay close attention to your life, and to your doctrine. So if you don’t care about doctrine, you are manifesting indifference toward people’s salvation and therefore failing to love them.

My friend who made the statement understands these things; but sadly, an increasing number of people in the evangelical church do not understand them. They really believe that doctrine divides, while the Gospel unites, and therefore the pursuit and preaching of ‘doctrine’ (which really only means biblical truth) should be kept to a minimum.

The next time we talk to someone who holds to such an opinion, perhaps these points will help us explain why we cherish doctrine; not as an end in itself, but as a means toward the end of the worldwide hallowing of the name of Jesus through the Gospel of Christ crucified and risen for sinners. For without doctrine, the Church has absolutely nothing to contribute to the world. Again, not because doctrine is an end in itself, but because we cannot properly love people if we do not share the Truth with them.

Larry

Posted by Larry | Filed Under Random Musings