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Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 6. Can I love Jesus without caring about theology is one of the most sincere questions I am asked, and I never want to crush the heart behind it. Usually the person is reacting against something cold they have seen, a Christianity that knew all the right answers and somehow loved no one. I…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 5. Everyone is a theologian, whether they realise it or not, and I do not say that to flatter anybody or to play with words. I say it because the moment you form any thought about God, about whether He exists, about what He is like, or about what He might want from you,…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 4. Why does Paul call right teaching sound doctrine, and what does the word sound actually mean? When he tells Titus to ‘teach what accords with sound doctrine’ (Titus 2:1), he reaches for a word that might surprise you. The Greek term behind sound is hygiaino, and its plainest meaning is healthy or wholesome….
Reading Time: 9 minutesQuestion 3. What does it mean that Scripture is breathed out by God? Few verses carry more weight for understanding the Bible than 2 Timothy 3:16, where Paul writes, ‘All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.’ At the centre of that sentence…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 2. Does doctrine divide the church? You have probably heard it stated as though it were settled fact: doctrine divides, but love unites. The idea is that if we would only set aside our tiresome theological differences and concentrate on relationships, the church would be stronger and happier. It sounds gracious, even spiritual. But…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 1. If you want to know why doctrine matters, start by noticing how quickly people’s eyes glaze over when the word is mentioned. Doctrine sounds dusty and academic, something best left to theologians in their studies, with no obvious bearing on getting the children to school or holding a marriage together. I understand the…
Reading Time: 9 minutesQuestion 0. Why do I keep going to the Bible for answers when the world is full of other voices? It is a fair question, and it sits right at the heart of everything we do here. Why not simply reach for common sense, or science, or philosophy, or the accumulated wisdom of clever people,…
Reading Time: 7 minutesQuestion 4000. The doctrine of the Spirit is the part of Christian teaching that asks who the Holy Spirit is, what He does, and what His nearness means for an ordinary believer trying to follow Jesus on an ordinary day. We give it a technical name, pneumatology, and the name can make the whole thing…
Reading Time: 7 minutesQuestion 0046. The phrase itching ears comes from one of the most honest descriptions of human nature in all of Scripture, and Paul saw it coming with painful accuracy. People would gather teachers to suit their itching ears, choosing voices that scratched the spot rather than told the truth. “The time is coming,” he wrote,…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 0041. When a church begins to prize experience over doctrine, the change is rarely announced and rarely sudden. No one stands up and says they have decided to value feelings above truth. It happens by a slow shift of weight, where the test of whether something is right gradually moves from what God has…