Doctrine Divides: Why The Reformation Isn't Over

If you're anything like me, you've probably heard someone in your circle of Christian peers say something along the lines of:

"Don't give me theology, give me Jesus."
"My only doctrine is the Bible"
"Doctrine divides; let's keep the gospel simple."

While I understand the sentiments behind those words, I'm afraid that the people who are saying them don't really understand what they mean.

For centuries, Christians have divided over doctrine. Albeit, sometimes it was done ungraciously, but for the most part, these divisions were never done needlessly.

Take the example of the early church: when Christ came in the form of a man, didn't He oppose the practices of the Pharisees by teaching doctrine? He taught people new practices that would replace old notions of the Law (see: Matthew 5).

And when He ascended into heaven and left the spread of the gospel in the charge of His disciples, weren't they also spreading doctrine? Weren't whole epistles written explaining why Christ came to save and how He did it? Weren't we instructed how to live according to that salvation? Were these things not doctrine too?

Here's what I'm puzzled about. If theology is the study of God, how can we understand anything about Jesus if we don't have theology? How can we know about things like the Trinity, or how we are saved (soteriology), how the church works (ecclesiology), evangelism and discipleship (missiology), or even defend what we believe in (hermenutics) if we disregard doctrine? The Bible is replete with these concepts, so to say that you hold to it without any regard for doctrine is contradictory.

NAILED IT

Today -  October 31, 2017 - marks the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation. A time when a German monk, so upset about his guilt and his sin that he so desired to be made right with God, realized that he had been living in accordance to the wrong set of doctrines all his life. (I'm merely summarizing things here.) He was so bothered by the injustices done by the Roman Catholic church on how far they've strayed from the true gospel that he nailed a theses - 95 lines long - that would call people back to true doctrine. It was never his intention to cause trouble, but God led that event to be the cause of why there are Protestants and Catholics today. In the end, doctrine did divide. It caused quite a scandal, but it was a necessary scandal, and one that would echo all throughout history. If you are a Christian attending a Bible-believing church you reap the benefits of that division.

It's been 500 years since that time, and yet we have only seem to be moving backwards rather than forward from that fateful day. The Christians I meet are either too liberal or too legalistic - they either don't care enough to know the Truth, or they think they know enough to care about it. They exchange difficult (like hard to swallow; not complex) doctrines all in the name of simplicity and pragmatism, and in effect, water down the message of the Word.

I think this is why churches and Christians everywhere are always called to Keep Reforming (Semper Reformanda Est). It's so easy for us to stray further and further away from the Word of God and become deluded to our own self-righteousness because we are sinful and want nothing of God. The whole point of the reformation was to bring us back to the essentials. To reform our way of thinking by allowing our convictions to bow down to the authority of Scripture. Not the other way around. If the power of the gospel and the Holy Spirit is at work within us at all, then may our desire for all things that are right and true continuously grow as well.

HAPPY REFORMATION DAY!