Quotes About Doctrine

Communism was meant to be an alternative religion.

As Boettner so aptly observes, for the Calvinist, the atonement "is like a narrow bridge which goes all the way across the stream; for the Arminian it is like a great wide bridge that goes only half-way across." p. 41

biblical inerrancy.

theologically conservative Protestant Christian)

Christianity, like most religious traditions of any vintage, is inherently conservative.

but whether the Church universal will or should change its mind collectively.

I am saying that Christians have many resources for listening to God's voice and discerning God's will. But given human limits—even as humans with Jesus in front of us, the Bible open before us, and the Spirit within us—I am rejecting any inerrant path to infallible doctrine.

evangelicalism—at its core, at its immovable power center—never was more than fundamentalism with lipstick on.

Majority Christian opinion on various issues has sometimes shifted profoundly.

The Nicene Creed

The Bible cannot be the primary source of knowledge and criterion of truth in all areas of importance.

Well-defined theological convictions did not admit contrary viewpoints, for even the consideration of alternate possibilities ran contrary to the notion of faith.

Religion has no positive value.

Religion hurts people.

With a doctrine-centered discipleship program, one must teach everything to ensure a person has the knowledge to be obedient. With an obedience-centered discipleship program, the emphasis is on how we can be obedient to Christ in every area of our lives and in every circumstance. When a new disciple asks a question, my answer is always the same: What must you do to be obedient to Christ? I

The word of God is a divine doctrine.

My own opinion is that belief is the death of intelligence. As soon as one believes a doctrine of any sort, or assumes certitude, one stops thinking about that aspect of existence.

Why is it that the choice among churches always seems to be the choice between intelligence on ice and ignorance on fire?

Life is too complicated and, as far as we can understand it in our present state of knowledge, too illogical, for it to be confined within the four corners of a fixed doctrine. The

I had little patience with leftist groups in India, spending much of their energy in mutual conflict and recrimination over fine points of doctrine which did not interest me at all. Life is too complicated and, as far as we can understand it in our present state of knowledge, too illogical, for it to be confined within the four corners of a fixed doctrine.

Do not believe anything merely because you are told it is so, because others believe it, because it comes from Tradition, or because you have imagined it. Do not believe what your teacher tells you merely out of respect. Believe, take for your doctrine, and hold true to that, which, after serious investigation, seems to you to further the welfare of all beings. (47)

I am well aware that a great many of the world's most popular spiritual doctrines advocate a heart-centered approach to spiritual development, but popularity among the soundly asleep may not be the best criterion by which to judge a method for waking up.

A young woman asked the great preacher Charles Spurgeon if it was possible to reconcile God's sovereignty and man's responsibility. "Young woman," said he. "You don't reconcile friends

the 34th, gently explaining that the doctrine of equal shares for all could not always be maintained, since the needs of one might exceed the needs