Sound Doctrine

 

Whom will he teach knowledge? And whom will he make to understand the message? Those just weaned from milk? Those just drawn from the breasts? For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little, Isaiah 28:9, 10.

 

Before delving into this interesting and revealing passage in Isaiah I would like to put forth one more quote from Peter. In 1 Peter it is said we find incipient apologetics. The verse that the term apologetics is derived from is, “But sanctify (set apart) the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense (answer, KJV; apologia in the Greek) to everyone who asks you the reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear,” 1 Peter 3:15. Christians are called upon to respond to opponents and the curious with doctrinally orthodox answers. To the opponent we must be able to give a logical defense of the Christian faith. To the curious we must be able to accurately give the gospel of salvation. Both must be done with the love of God, and respect for our fellow man made in God’s similitude. Peter tells us to set God apart from the rest of our heart’s contents. He receives the primacy from men and women saved by His grace, and now as vessels of that grace fulfilling the role of God’s ambassadors to a fallen, hostile world. Ours is the ministry of reconciliation, to preach Christ to a lost world, a world so steeped in darkness, lolling drunkenly in the arms of the wicked one, that most people will not remotely acknowledge their lost position. “And who is sufficient for these things?” 2 Corinthians 2:16.

Ministry begins with us. To teach we must know. To know we must not only learn, but to trust the content and Originator of what we are learning. An uncertain teacher trying to impart knowledge is like a bucket with a leak; it defeats the purpose it was created for. The application of Isaiah’s passage now enters the context of our dialogue. Learning Scripture is a slow, fruitful labor of love. Be much in the word, but be fervent, receptive and trusting, Mark 4:24, 25, Matthew 13:11, 12. A methodical, verse by verse reading compels us to confront what we claim to believe. Proper exegesis is only possible if teachers can confront a verse or passage with confidence. That confidence must come from the Holy Spirit to open Scripture to us so we may compare Scripture to Scripture to gain understanding, and to practice sound doctrine, Titus 1:9, 2 Thessalonians 2:15, cf. Acts 17:11. Christians must trust God the Holy Spirit to lead us into all truth, John 16:13. A robust Scriptural integrity does not come from some sudden epiphany or spontaneous revelation, but rather line upon line. Despite this, many in Isaiah’s time mocked at him as the prophet sought to impart God’s truth to the wayward Jews. “Yet they would not hear. But the word of the Lord was to them, “Precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little,” that they may go and fall backward, and be broken and snared and caught,” Isaiah 28:12, 13. The Jews of Isaiah’s day mocked this method of learning: methodical, slow and corrective.

 

Christianity in modernity is no different. We want fast answers. We want simple answers. We are impatient, cynical, and subjective when it comes to determining truth, and objective when it comes to jettisoning Scripture we find incongruent with our biases. Modern Christianity has produced works such as Eugene Peterson’s “The Message”: a paraphrased mockery of Scripture that does not respect hermeneutics or the parent languages’ nuanced complexity. Should this matter? Yes. If all Scripture, including the “boring,” “outdated,” and “politically incorrect” parts, are inspired by God, 2 Timothy 3:16. All Scripture is given for doctrine (canon; to reveal and formalize orthodoxy) and correction (teachings or lifestyle habits that break the standard or canon and introduce heterodoxy). Heterodoxy, or disagreement with established truth, by virtue of what it is cannot appear until there is a revealed truth present for it to begin perverting. Peter’s apologia passage compels Christians to steadfastly present the truth in the face of external or internal opposition, 2 Timothy 4:2-4.

 

God’s word is completely capable of enabling the believer not only to give an answer but to live out that answer in the midst of the unbelieving world. “As His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness,” 2 Peter 1:3. Christians are to, “contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints,” Jude 3. Jude is a little rougher than Peter, but his message is no less clear. To contend means to struggle. To do so earnestly means intensely and strongly. We cannot do this if we are not properly trained. Now I don’t mean seminary or becoming a doctor of divinity, though that is fine if you believe that is where you are being led. No, we as saints are one and all called upon to contend earnestly for the faith; Jude left no exceptions when he addressed his epistle to, “those who are called, sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Christ Jesus,” Jude 1. Become familiar, well acquainted with God’s word, and the God whose word it is. Then become comfortable in it, because in the Bible we have all of the reasonable answers we need to live life in accordance with God’s will.

 

But we must part with human conceptions, or rather misconceptions, predispositions, and narrow-mindedness. The word of God is entirely accurate. It answers questions pertaining to: salvation’s exclusivity in Christ, God’s judgment upon sin, man’s creation in the beginning (and material creation in general), Israel’s importance on the world stage, the institution of marriage, God’s response to fornication, adultery, abortion, homosexuality, and more. His word never changes. When He spoke on these matters in that far off cultural climate, those matters were solved and sealed. His words do not change because God is not subject to change, Hebrews 13:8, Malachi 3:6. Change is a symptom of our universe and sin’s effects upon it. God stands outside the material universe He created. His nature is immutable; He is not capable of changing, because if He was then He could in fact forsake those who have come to Him for salvation. God’s unchanging nature testifies of His perfection; a being in perfection has no need of change, because the only change He could make then would be toward what is imperfect.

 

His immutability should give Christians hope and comfort. Our Father in Heaven vouchsafed His word to us, and since His word is inextricably linked to Him, it too, does not change. Heterodox theology may take pains to alter the eternal word, but what results isn’t an abrogation of God’s truth. It is the destruction of those who champion apostasy. It is another gospel, a perversion of truth, indicative of Satan’s tactics. Evil isn’t the opposite of good, it is good’s corruption, and this is what the devil does through willing or unwitting agency when heterodox theology invades the clear stream of God’s word.

 

In one uniquely recorded incident, Paul the apostle learned by divine revelation, Galatians 1:11, 12. To subdue his ego or arrogance however, God sent him a thorn in the flesh, likely to keep Paul’s focus on his Lord and his daily need to lean on Christ for his strength, 2 Corinthians 12:7, 10. For the rest of us it is a slow, deliberate walk, taking in details, pausing, doubling back, and looking again from a different angle. The Bible can teach the student patience and reverence for the God whose word it is. Dozens of voices over hundreds of years, directed and supernaturally inspired by God the Holy Spirit, brought forth a revelation of God’s character and intention for us, His creation. Only by abiding in His word can we offer the apology Peter tells us to, to both the opponent and the curious. Our gospel must be intact, undergirded by a faithful confidence in Scripture’s God-breathed nature. From creation to summation, study the word line upon line, and the Holy Spirit will lead you into all truth. He can do nothing less, for He is God, and He does not change.