DOCRTINE-GENERAL

There is only one safeguard against error, and that is to be established in the faith; and for that, there has to be prayerful and diligent study, and a receiving with meekness the engrafted Word of God.

A.W. Pink

The Attributes of God, Baker, p. 22.

There is scarcely anything so dull and meaningless as Bible doctrine taught for its own sake. Truth divorced from life is not truth in its biblical sense, but something else and something less.

A.W. Tozer

Leadership, v. 12, n. 1.

Christian doctrine is unique in that it is an intellectual response to the historical activity and revelatory disclosure of God. Doctrine is rational reflection upon God’s saving activity in Jesus Christ. Foundational to the idea of “doctrine” is the fact that we need to be told what God is like. It is not ours to determine what kind of God we will believe and obey. It is God’s to determine to show Himself to us. Doctrine is our effort to articulate what He has made known. Doctrine is the divinely authorized attempt to describe God in accordance with how He has revealed Himself in creation, in history, in Jesus Christ and in the Scriptures. In doing so, doctrine also serves to expose false interpretations of reality, false concepts of God. It is the aim of doctrine to make sense of the individual’s and the church’s experience of God as He has made Himself known in Jesus Christ.

Alister McGrath

Understanding Doctrine: Its Relevance and Purpose for Today, Zondervan, 1990, p. 43. www.zondervan.org.

There is a direct line that runs from our doctrine to our actions, from what is in our minds to what is in our words and ways… The heart spills over into life. Thoughts of God, and of all else, erupt into acts. The filling of the heart with wise thoughts of God becomes the most important, the most practical, business in the world.

Tom Wells

A Vision for Missions, Permission by The Banner of Truth Trust, Carlisle, PA. p. 108-109.

John Bunyan says that he never forgot the divinity he taught, because it was burnt into him when he was on his knees. That is the way to learn the gospel. If you learn it upon your knees you will never unlearn it. That which “men” teach you, men can unteach you – if I am merely convinced by reason, a better reasoner may deceive me. If I merely hold my doctrinal opinions because they seem “to me” to be correct, I may be led to think differently another day. But if “God” has taught them to me – He who is Himself pure truth – I have not learned amiss, but I have so learned that I shall never unlearn, nor shall I forget.

C.H. Spurgeon

Believing right doctrine will no more save you, than doing good works will save you.

C.H. Spurgeon

Nothing makes a man so virtuous as belief of the truth. A lying doctrine will soon beget a lying practice. A man cannot have an erroneous belief without by-and-by having an erroneous life. I believe the one thing naturally begets the other.

C.H. Spurgeon

Sermon, A Defense of Calvinism.

Exultation that does not flow from education, affections that do not flow from knowing, savoring that does not flow from seeing, feeling that does not flow from thinking – are hollow and rootless – noisy gongs and clanging cymbals. And God is not glorified by artificial and empty passions. True delight is rooted in true doctrine. God-centered Exultation is rooted in God-centered Education.

John Piper

Education for Exaltation, Psalm 100, May 19, 2002, www.DesiringGod.org. Used by Permission.

We must ask, Do I fight merely from doctrinal faithfulness? This is like the wife who never sleeps with anybody else but never shows love to her own husband. Is that a sufficient relationship in marriage? No, ten thousand times no. Yet if I am a Christian who speaks and acts for doctrinal faithfulness but do not show love to my divine bridegroom, I am in the same place as such a wife. What God wants from us is not only doctrinal faithfulness, but our love day by day. Not in theory, mind you, but in practice.

Frances Schaeffer

Taken from “The Church Before the Watching World” by Frances Schaeffer. Copyright (c) 1971, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA. Used with permission of InterVarsity Press, P.O. Box 1400, Downers Grove, IL 60515, p. 60. www.ivpress.com.

Doctrine is useless if it is not accompanied by a holy life. It is worse than useless; it does positive harm. Something of 'the image of Christ' must be seen and observed by others in our private life, and habits, and character, and doings.

J.C. Ryle

Inability to distinguish doctrine is spreading far and wide, and so long as the preacher is “clever” and “earnest,” hundreds seem to think it must be all right, and call you dreadfully “narrow and uncharitable” if you hint that he is unsound!

J.C. Ryle

We should no more tolerate false doctrine that we would tolerate sin.

J.C. Ryle

Not all doctrines are equally important. They are equally true, but not all truth is equally important. It isn’t a matter of some doctrines being “more true” than others, as if some doctrines are partially false. It is rather that some doctrines bear less impact than others on our capacity to know, love, and obey God.

Sam Storms
Authority and Method in Theology, November 8, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.

The Savior moved from divine doctrine to dirty feet in a very short space of time. We would do well to remember this.

Derick Bingham

Encouragement – Oxygen for the Soul, Christian Focus, 1997, p. 14. Used by Permission.

The truths that I know best I have learned on my knees. I never know a thing well, till it is burned into my heart by prayer.

John Bunyan

For every truth there is a corresponding falsehood. A Christian is known not only by what he believes or affirms, but also by what he rejects and denies.

R.C. Sproul

We may invigorate our faith and renew our courage by reflecting that divine power has always attended the preaching of doctrine, when done in the true spirit of preaching. Great revivals have accompanied the heroic preaching of the doctrines of grace, predestination, election, and that whole lofty mountain range of doctrines upon which Jehovah sits enthroned, sovereign in grace as in all things else. God honors preaching that honors Him. There is entirely too much milk-sop preaching nowadays, trying to cajole sinners to enter upon a truce with their Maker, quit sinning, and join the church. The situation does not call for a truce, but a surrender. Let us bring out the heavy artillery of heaven, and thunder away at this stuck-up age as Whitefield, Edwards, Spurgeon and Paul did, and there will be many slain of the Lord, raised up to walk in newness of Life.

J.B. Gambrell

Obligations of Baptists to Teach Their Principals, Baptist Principles Reset, The Religious Herald Company, 1902.

Doctrine is the necessary foundation of duty; if the theory is not correct the practice cannot be right. Tell me what a man believes, and I will tell you what he will do.

Tryon Edwards

The Word of God tells us that Christ’s church is glorious... [But] today the glory of the church is thickly veiled. It is no exaggeration to assert that in the main it presents a picture of advanced decadence and extreme feebleness... Let it be said emphatically, the church is where the truth is. Sound doctrine always has been, is today, and ever will be the foremost mark of the true church. But who dares to assert that there is today in the churches a rising tide of interest in doctrine? By and large people do not go to church to learn about God from His infallible Word, but to be tranquilized. And that the glory of God is both the beginning and the end of common worship does not seem to occur to them.

R.B. Kuiper

Now, in order that true religion may shine upon us, we ought to hold that it must take its beginning from heavenly doctrine and that no one can get even the slightest taste of right and sound doctrine unless he be a pupil of Scripture.

John Calvin

Institutes, Scripture.

Doctrine matters. What you believe about God, the gospel, the nature of man, and every major truth addressed in Scripture filters down to every area of your life. You and I will never rise above our view of God and our understanding of His Word.

John MacArthur

Grace to You, Newsletter: Aug. 14, 2007.

The basic task of the church is to teach sound doctrine. It is not to give one pastor's opinion, to recite tear-jerking illustrations that play on emotions, to raise funds, to present programs and entertainment, or to give weekly devotionals. In Titus 2:1 Paul writes, “But as for you, speak the things which are fitting for sound doctrine.”

John MacArthur
The Master's Plan for the Church, Moody, 1991, p. 84.

We should understand that the subjective depends on the objective. Right emotions depend on, and derive from, sound doctrine.

D.G. Heart
How Does Hell Glorify God? © 9Marks. Website: www.9Marks.org. Email: info@9marks.org. Toll Free: (888) 543-1030. Used by Permission.

One must ever be reminded that to be right on doctrine does not mean one is right with the Lord.

John Napier

And I am afraid there are Calvinists, who, while they account it a proof of their humility that they are willing in words to debase the creature, and to give all the glory of salvation to the Lord, yet know not what manner of spirit they are of. Whatever it be that makes us trust in ourselves that we are comparatively wise or good, so as to treat those with contempt who do not subscribe to our doctrines, or follow our party, is a proof and fruit of a self-righteous spirit. Self-righteousness can feed upon doctrines, as well as upon works; and a man may have the heart of a Pharisee, while his head is stored with orthodox notions of the unworthiness of the creature and the riches of free grace.

John Newton

The pulpit is not to be used to experiment in doctrine. Doctrine should already be settled before it ever reaches the pulpit. The sanctuary should not be a personal theological laboratory, and the people of God used as white mice. This can have profoundly damaging affects as already seen through the history of the church. Men have often used the pulpits to preaching and through doctrines which they have yet to understand, or fully grasp.

C. Matthew McMahon

The Pulpit: A Moment for Self-Reflection, www.apuritansmind.com.

No doctrine of the Christian religion is worth preserving which cannot be verified in daily life.

John T. Watson

It is an undoubted truth that every doctrine that comes from God, leads to God; and that which doth not tend to promote holiness is not of God.

George Whitfield

Unity is not found in uniformity of thought, but in the fellowship of the Spirit, based on sound doctrine which, in turn, is predicated on the clear teaching of Scripture. This is why Paul exhorts us to “mark them which cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them” (Rom 16:17). The false prophets call for unity based not on Scriptural doctrine, but on their (the false prophets) claim for authority. Those who insist on fellowship based on sound doctrine are labeled legalists, while the false prophets are the ones imposing unscriptural demands upon those who follow them.

Media Spotlight Special Report

Latter-Day Prophets: The Restoration of Apostles and Prophets and the Kansas City-Vineyard Connection, September 1990, p. 14.

I firmly believe people have hitherto been a great deal too much taken up about doctrine and far too little about practice. The word “doctrine,” as used in the Bible, means teaching of duty, not theory.

George MacDonald

Biblical orthodoxy without compassion is surely the ugliest thing in the world.

Francis Schaeffer

We have come to a place in time where we measure the correctness of our plans simply by their seeming to contribute to our favorite aim. We estimate the soundness of our doctrine, not from its tendency to exalt and glorify God…but entirely by the apparent facility with which it enables us to get sinners to turn from their ways.

Horatius Bonar

Doctrinal preaching certainly bores the hypocrites; but it is only doctrinal preaching that will save Christ's sheep.

J.I. Packer

Doctrine is the framework of life – the skeleton of truth, to be clothed and rounded out by the living grace of a holy life.

Adoniram J. Gordon

Assent to certain propositions about God is not all of faith in God, but it is necessary to faith in God; and Christian faith, in particular, though it is more than assent to a creed, is impossible without assent to a creed.

J. Gresham Machen

Those who teach by their doctrine must teach by their life, or else they pull down with one hand what they build up with the other.

Matthew Henry

The foundation of true holiness and true Christian worship is the doctrine of the gospel, what we are to believe. So when Christian doctrine is neglected, forsaken, or corrupted, true holiness and worship will also be neglected, forsaken, and corrupted.

John Owen

We cannot pursue biblical knowledge just to grow in knowledge. Understanding doctrine isn’t the goal. Loving God and living in a way that pleases Him need to be our aims. Knowledge tends to puff us up (1 Cor. 8:1-2), but a genuine relationship with God with a true knowledge of His character and love will keep us humble (Isa. 6:5; Ps. 8:3-4).

Karl Graustein

Growing Up Christian, P&R, 2005, p. 147. Used by Permission.

Good conduct arises out of good doctrine.

John Stott

The New Encyclopedia of Christian Quotations, ed. Mark Water, 2000, Baker, p. 313.

Thousands today change what they believe to accommodate their moral behavior. On the other hand, thousands more take up false doctrine, then apostatize in their actions.

Kent Hughes