Does Doctrine Really Matter?

  “Does Doctrine Really Matter As Long As We Believe In Jesus?”
   This question expresses a popular sentiment of our times within the “Christian community” in general. “Don’t get caught up with arguments over doctrines that divide, just preach Jesus and bring people together.”  The trouble with this kind of thinking is two-fold.  First of all it is based on emotional subjectivism and supposition rather than the objective investigation and study of what the Bible actually says about who Jesus Christ is, what He did, and what He is now doing.
   Second, this approach allows for every individual to decide who Jesus is according to their own imagination.  He can be whoever and whatever they want Him to be if they ignore what the Bible actually teaches about Him.  Many who have this attitude are not wholly at fault for their misguided view of Bible doctrine (teaching).  In part, they are victims of the pastors and Bible teachers who propagate this kind of thinking.  Some of these are just too lazy to put the required effort into the study of the Bible that it takes to learn it and properly prepare doctrinally sound messages.  Others have been taught that Bible doctrine is not important in the Bible schools and seminaries they attended.  It seems that more often than not men preparing for ministry these days are taught more about how to be the CEO of a church rather than how to be a pastor who protects and feeds the flock with genuine spiritual nourishment from the Word of God and to lead them to walk in the Spirit to the praise and glory of God.  But no believer who has access to a Bible is completely off the hook though.  Each of us have the responsibility to read and study the Bible for ourselves.
   When a person is not grounded in sound doctrine, he/she is left in great spiritual danger.  There are many deceivers out and about who are searching for those they can mislead with their erroneous doctrines of Jesus Christ.  These people do teach a form of doctrine that they claim is from the Bible and those not established in sound doctrine are often easy prey for them.  One large organization that does extensive door-to-door proselytizing claims that Jesus Christ was not God come in the flesh and neither was He the Second Person of the Trinity, but was the archangel Michael.  Another large and deceptive group insists that Jesus was the brother of Satan.  And on and on it goes with an abundance of varieties of Jesus for the naïve, the unsuspecting, the deceived, and the imaginative to choose from.  But, there is only One Jesus Christ who can save people from the penalty of their sins; the Jesus Christ who is revealed in the Bible.
   Do you believe in a Jesus who came to make us feel good about ourselves and “probably” sinned while He was here on earth?  Or, do you believe in the Jesus who is the “Holy One of God” (Mk. 1:24) “Who did no sin” (I Pet. 2:22), but was “made sin for us…that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him” (II Cor. 5:21)?  Do you believe in a Jesus who was only a good man who demonstrated an exemplary lifestyle for us to emulate?  Or do you believe in the Jesus who demonstrated God’s great love for us “in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8)?  Do you believe in a Jesus who was something less than God in human flesh, but only earned the privilege to call Himself the Son of God by the good life He lived?  Or do you believe in the Jesus who is co-eternal with the Father and is your Creator as “all things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made” (John 1:1-3; cf. Col. 1:16; Heb. 1:2).  Do you believe in a Jesus who only came to make us happy, healthy, and wealthy in this life and that by invoking His name you can manipulate the Holy Spirit to bless you according to your fleshly desires?  Or do you believe in the Jesus who is seated at the right hand of the Father as “the only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of Lords”  (I Tim. 6:15) and Who is also “the One Mediator between God and men…Who gave Himself a ransom for all” (see I Tim. 2:4-6; cf. Rom. 8:34).  What you believe about Jesus Christ really does make a difference.  Bible doctrine is not a take it or leave it proposition.  It is only the Jesus who is revealed in Scripture that can save lost sinners, and all are lost apart from faith in Him.  But, it is important to understand that He only saves those who believe who He is and what He did.  So, what does the Bible say?  Read it, all of it, and find out.