Doctrine Isn't Practical?

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"All doctrine is practical, and all practice must be based on sound doctrine. Doctrine that is not practical is not healthy doctrine, and practice that is not doctrinal is not rightly based."

-- Charles Ryrie (in Balancing the Christian Life)

It seems that in a lot of churches today doctrine is a dirty word. I have often heard the misguided statement that doctrine isn't practical. People label doctrine as boring or irrelevant to their daily lives. The fact is that doctrine is vital to the Christian life. The above quote by Ryrie reinforces my view that doctrine is practical. Dr. Albert Mohler has written a great article along these same lines. You can find it here:
http://www.albertmohler.com/2004/07/02/why-doctrine-matters-2/ .

A Personal Testimony

I grew up in a loving home with Christian parents and Christian siblings (an older brother and sister). My dad felt God's call on his life to become a pastor before I even started school so I have been a preacher's kid for practically all of my life. Yeah, I'm that kid. The one that got to go on the youth group snow skiing trip before I was in the youth group because I got to tag along with my pastor/dad. I have heard a lot of stories of preacher's kids (pk's) who are bitter about their experiences; the perceived constant scrutiny from church members, the lack of privacy, having to share their dad with hundreds of other people, missing out on family vacations because someone's aunt so-and-so died, etc. Those are real experiences, but I consider it a privilege to have the example of a godly dad who gave himself to minister to others as their pastor. The blessings of being a pk far outweigh the challenges in my opinion. When I was around five years old, my ni...

The Lord's Supper and Eating Unworthily

By far the most popular passage in Baptist churches concerning observing the Lord's Supper is 1 Corinthians 11:17-34. A particular focus has been placed on verses 27-31 quoted below from the King James Version that many of us grew up with. 27 Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. 28 But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. 29 For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. 30 For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. 31 For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. (1 Cor. 11:27-31 KJV) photo courtesy of www.freeimages.com Pastors often point to these verses as a warning to would be participants in the ordinance that they should first examine themselves so that they don't partake unworthily ...

Isaac Asimov's book "In the Beginning": Part One- The Introduction

With this post I am starting a series of articles about the book In the Beginning by Isaac Asimov. Asimov was a well known science fiction writer. In addition to science fiction, he also wrote over 200 books of both fiction and non-fiction and edited hundreds more. He was president of the American Humanist Association, a college professor, and a self-proclaimed atheist. The book has eleven chapters, an introduction, and an appendix. It is my intention at this point to discuss each part of the book, making for a 13-part series. photo courtesy of www.freeimages.com I hope to accomplish several things by reviewing Asimov's book. First, I expect that we will discover that Asimov, though an atheist, was in reality a person of blind faith. His religion was secular humanism. Therefore he viewed the world through the belief system that presupposed that there is no God. Secondly, I think we will find that Asimov had a wrong view of science, c...

Doctrinal Matters

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