July Newsletter 2008 - Is doctrine really all that important?

Beloved, while eagerly preparing to write to you about the salvation we share, I find it necessary to write and appeal to you to fight earnestly for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints. Jude 3

The past couple of months we have taken look at some teachings that make us who we are as Lutheran Christians. The proper distinction between Law and Gospel (May) is an important doctrine (teaching) of the church. It must be understood that these two most basic divisions of the Scriptures need to be kept in balance in the Christian's life. Being saved does not free us from the Law, it simply changes how the penalty for breaking the Law (sin) affects us. The Gospel tells us specifically how Jesus Christ took upon Himself that penalty in our stead. In our Gospel freedom we still strive for Godly obedience as it is still what God expects of us. We are, with the help of the Holy Spirit and His power at work in us, happy to keep the Law and live a God-pleasing life as part of our gratitude for what He has done for us in Jesus. The Doctrine of Close(d) Communion (June) is also an important teaching of Scripture that helps us to ensure that we and others are approaching and receiving the Lord's Supper properly and that we do not profane the Supper.

As we look at this month's topic I return to a statement I made in the May article. Divisions among us can only find their solution through each of us "being on the same page" theologically. As a congregation we are called by God to be unified in doctrine and thought (see Acts 4:32,1 Corinthians 1:10 and II Corinthians 13:11). This is not just a suggestion for God's church - it is a command. We are a Missouri Synod Congregation. You have called a pastor trained in the doctrines (teachings) and practices of the Missouri Synod. One should not expect your pastor to promote or put forward anything but what he has been taught as true and pure doctrine. In fact, I promised in both my signed call documents and my installation vows to preach and teach nothing but the pure doctrine of our church as expressed in the Scriptures and explained in the Lutheran Confessions and I will not do otherwise for any reason. This same standard is applied to all professional church workers and is not a "negotiable" or flexible standard.

Likewise, it is not unreasonable for your pastor to expect the people he has been called to serve, who have become members of a Missouri Synod congregation by their own free will to abide by the teachings of the church body to which they belong. If they do not know the doctrines of Lutheranism well, it is incumbent upon them to learn and understand what they can. If after honest attempts to learn and they still disagree with the our doctrines that person, then, has a serious decision to make concerning their continued membership in our congregation since they are not "of one mind" with the other members. This lack of one-mindedness is what brings about less than God-pleasing divisions in Christ's church.

This still brings us back to the original question raised by the title of this document. If we are serious about keeping the Lord's command for unity in His Church and if we are serious about protecting ourselves from the lies of the devil (false doctrine) then the answer is a resounding "YES!" Doctrine is important. As we strive for this unity in doctrine and thought we must be wary of false doctrine. Part of your pastor's job is to protect the sheep of his flock from those who would disrupt and even destroy a congregation with false doctrine and self-serving divisions (II Peter 2:1; I Timothy 6:3ff; II Timothy 4:lff and others). St. Paul warns Timothy that those who wander from the truth will spread lies that will spread like gangrene (Remember in Paul's day there were no antibiotics. Gangrene was a virtual death sentence). False doctrine will, at the very least, harm one's faith and, at worst, destroy it. In the same way, a congregation that allows false doctrine to infiltrate its membership will suffer for it and the effects usually are not mild.

We certainly do not live in a culture where there is a shortage of opinions on any given subject. We question truth. We question the validity of nearly every institution, moral, or accepted idea. This type of thinking has invaded the church in spades. People no longer desire to hold to the accepted teachings of their church body, but instead form their own opinions of what they "think" the Bible says. This is not a healthy attitude nor is it healthy for the church. The situation is not helped when there are pastors and other professional church workers, who like their people, strike out with their own ideas and versions of the doctrines of the church. A simple reading of St. Paul's pastoral instructions to both Timothy and Titus will show just how wrong and destructive this can be. A Missouri Synod pastor is bound by oath to pass down the faith to his people "as he has been taughf (Titus 1:9) - not as he personally interprets it.

False doctrine is a real problem for the church. It has been for a very long time. Most of the Old Testament prophets were sent because God's people thought they knew better than God and had strayed from His true Word. The prophets were sent, in large part, to call them back to a right understanding and practice of what God commanded. Throughout the Gospels Jesus warns of false teachers. It is a theme repeated more than once by Him. Jesus' sometimes angry response to false doctrine also gives us an indication of how serious this was to Him. If it was an important enough danger to the Christian for God in the Old Testament and Jesus and the Apostles in the New to repeatedly issue warnings against false teachers and false teachings, we should be equally concerned today. It is not something that smoothed over or simply dismissed. And our sometime flippant attitude toward doctrine is also not good.

But how does the average person know if what is being taught is from God or from man? Jesus explained one sure fire way of knowing whether a teacher is true. He made it clear that if what He was teaching was in harmony with God's

Word then it was true (John 7). It is the same for the modem day teacher in the church, be it pastor, DCE or any other professional church worker. The worker has promised to keep all that he teaches in harmony with the Scriptures and Lutheran Confessions. When it comes to doctrine, the pastor or other church worker does not have the luxury of a personal opinion or, in other words, teaching his own opinion. Teaching one's opinion or one's own understanding of Scripture actually hides the true Christ. By speaking only in accordance with the Scriptures and Confessions the hearer can be certain they are hearing the thoughts and voice of God.

Admittedly, a pastor or teacher of the church will sometimes mis-speak or even be mistaken on a doctrine out of ignorance rather than any evil intent. No one can "know it all" for no one is perfect, but this does not, however, lessen the danger false teaching presents. Teaching in the church is, based on Jesus' warnings and frequent admonitions, a heavy responsibility. Any teacher, pastor or otherwise, who truly cares about the eternal well being of the people he serves must be ever diligent in his task. It is the teacher's duty to study, to check and recheck, and to be as certain as humanly possible that what he is presenting to his people is doctrinally correct - and free from his opinions.

Teachers in the church must be in constant study, not only to learn new things, but to refresh what has already been learned to ensure it is understood correctly. No one, no matter how many brain cells they have, has what can be termed as an inborn, innate talent for theology. The study, the discipline of theology is like an athlete training for a marathon. It takes work. The work requires diligence. Being able to compete in a marathon often requires running over the same stretch of road that has been trodden over before, sometime many times. So it is with theology. Flying by the seat of one's pants or relying on one's supposed "talent" is lazy and can easily lead to false doctrine.

Another phenomenon that is occurring in churches these days is a rebellious spirit among some pastors and other church professionals. Sometimes they take it upon themselves to "break away" from the accepted doctrine of our Synod. They do so for various reasons. They, perhaps, want to "soften" a teaching in the vain hope of putting more people in the pews because it is an unpopular teaching. Some do it because their desire to be "liked" somehow outweighs all else. However, we never see Jesus softening true doctrine just to keep His number of supporters up (See John Chapters 5 and 6 for a good example of this). Teachers of the Word are called to be faithful to their task and to be God pleasers first -not people pleasers (I Samuel 15:24; Acts 5:29; Galatians 1:10 and I Thessalonians 2:4). To belong to a church body where you are required to make a vow of faithfulness to its doctrines and to then not is truly dishonest.

Sometimes the teacher simply thinks he knows better than those who have gone before him in his church. In actuality this is a rather arrogant stand to make. Any Lutheran pastor, for example, who strikes out on his own and teaches willfully a doctrine that is contrary to the Confessions is claiming he knows better than 450 years of Lutheran teaching and practice. There are a lot of great minds and theologians that are covered by that great span of time and to claim to know better than all of them is quite an arrogant stand to make indeed! But we also must turn to our Lord who had something to say about those who teach their own doctrines. Jesus once said: "He who speaks from himself [rather than from God's Word] seeks his own glory" (John 7:16). That same arrogance can be applied to lay people who, even after careful instruction from the Scriptures and Confessions, determines their own way concerning doctrine.

I have always made it clear to those whom I serve that if they ever have a problem with what I have taught, that they should compare what I have said to the same Scriptures and Confessions they have been taught from. This is quite simply the "golden standard". All teachings of the church find its source in the Scriptures and its proper explanation in the Confessions. Often I hear the excuse, "I didn't go to the seminary, pastor. I don't know these things like you do" or something along those lines. That is why the Christian life is one that does involve study - both personal and structured. How can one know what it is that God expects of them or know what He has done for them if they do not study what that is? How can one protect themselves from the winds of the times or from false teachers if they do not know God's Word well? False teachers are often subtle, not blatant, in their attempts to draw you away from the narrow path. Cults like the Mormons and the Jehovah's Witnesses feed upon weak Christians with their ever so clever lies about who Jesus is and what He taught. The study of God's Word is a sure defense against the always destructive nature of false teaching.

Many believe that the Bible can be interpreted various ways. In reality this is not true. Most of Scripture is pretty black and white. It is amazing how different Lutherans and Baptists, for example, are, yet on the basic teachings of the Scriptures they agree. This is because there is an easily discemable meaning to be taken from the Bible. It is people who like to make the gray areas because (more often than not) they are looking for a way to make the Bible say what they want it to say - even to the point of condoning sin. That, by the way, is one of the ways to determine if a teacher is false - that he teaches as right what God has declared as wrong. Unity in doctrine and thought is still the goal of God's command. We are blessed to belong to a church body that clearly defines what we believe, teach, and confess. There is a standard to which those who teach in our church body and for those who willing belong to it are to be held. It is a standard that I have promised to be faithful to as I strive to be faithful to my Lord and His Word. And it is your standard, too.

All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine,

for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. II Timothy 3:16, 17