- DOCTRINE
'dɑk.trən noun. Official belief, or group of teachings, held by an organization. - 2. Decree: A decision by officials as to how they choose to interpret an idea, or handle a controversy.
- [Doctrinal
'dɑk.trən.əl adjective.]
Doctrine is a formal word. A lot of Christians don’t realize this, and fling it around anyway. I know of one pastor who used to title his podcast, “Doctrines for Today.” Even though a lot of what he taught was more his interpretations of the scriptures; it wasn’t actually his church’s official stance.
Well… was and wasn’t. Y’see, he pastored one of those churches where the pastor runs the whole show. Nobody oversees him, nobody vetoes him. It’s a dictatorship. Hopefully benevolent, and I’m sure he’d like to think of himself that way, but
Historically, doctrine is one of those words we reserve for the core beliefs of Christianity. You know,
Fr’instance:
- TRINITY (or “doctrine of the trinity,” if you wanna be all formal about it, but I’m not gonna do that here):
God’s a trinity. One God; three persons. - JESUS IS LORD: Jesus is God.
He became human, lived on earth,literally died, literally rose from the dead, andis literally coming back. He’s our master and teacher; we can’t know God without him; we follow him. - KINGDOM: God’s intent is to
establish his kingdom on earth, a kingdomJesus is king (or Christ) over. Our job is to pitch in. - GRACE: We’re not getting into this kingdom (i.e. “getting saved”) through our good works, but only by God,
who graciously forgives us, andadopts us as his kids.
There are others, but you get the idea. They’re Christian essentials.