“Doctrine” comes from a Latin word meaning “teaching” – doctrine shouldn’t be just an intellectual exercise doctrine “the teaching of Christ” (II John 2:9) Significance of Doctrine. Knowledge enhances relationships even relationships with God – Think of your best friends: they are the people you know the most about – Deep relationships are rooted in a knowledge of one-another’s deepest thoughts, feelings, motives – relationship with Jesus, is deepened by reflection on who he is, what he did, etc.
Belief and Experience are closely related “The fatter I get, the closer I get to God” – actions grew out of a view of death and the after-life. Doctrines fulfills a practical need – many alternative courses of action – some are dangerous–but seemingly attractive sometimes – examining the truth will help prepare us to discern the error – a small variation from the truth may have drastic consequences over time – Doctrines in scripture have practical value – Ex 23:12 – Sabbath to provide rest for slaves and work animals – I Thess 4:13, 18 – Second coming present to comfort the grieving.
God created us with minds and wants us to use them to his glory – Matthew 2:37 “Love the Lord your God … with all your mind” – dealing with the biggest questions: Who am I? Why am I here? What’s going on? Who is Jesus? What did he do? What does he require of me? – not a continuum: Faith – Reason but a grid: Week 1 Day 2 Lesson 2 The Doctrine of Revelation – dealing with God’s communication to us – scripture opens with a picture of God talking face-to-face with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden – sin created a barrier to communication (on which more later) – Adam and Eve told God that basically they didn’t want him – however, they now needed his guidance and counsel more than ever.
General Revelation – Revelation of God in Nature – referred to in scripture: – creation: “The heavens declare the glory of God” (Ps 19:1) – relationships: “As a father has compassion for his children, so the LORD has compassion for those who fear him” – the natural world is marred by sin – Is God seen in the cyclone, the earthquake – Is God seen in the relationship of the incest victim with his/her abuser – the revelation of God in it is obscured – God the mathematical genius, the engineer, the builder but not as a God of love.
God can be seen in nature, but he can also be missed – cosmonauts: we went to heaven and didn’t find God there. Special Revelation – a specific revelation by God focusing on those aspects of his being and work not readily discerned in nature – found specifically in scripture/Bible – II Tim 3:16 – all scripture is given by the inspiration of God – II Peter 1:21 – “Holy men of God” who were “moved by the Holy Spirit” – a common claim in scripture – “Thus says the LORD” (messenger formular) in the prophets Evidence for the inspiration of scripture.
Remarkable preservation NT: produced by an illegal sect which was heavily persecuted in the first three centuries – possession of a NT could be a matter of life or death – extremely difficult and expensive to copy – yet the NT survived in greater abundance than any other work in the ancient world – more certain what Matthew wrote than we can be with Julius Ceasar or Plato. a. Prophecy – Daniel 2; Ezekiel 26:3-5, 12-14 . Changed lives – Ps 119:105 – challenge and an invitation: the God of the universe wants each one of us to be his friend, he has written us a message of his love – changed many other; what about us?
