“It is better to be divided by truth than united in error.” – Dr. Steven J. Lawson
Chapter One of J. Gresham Machen’s book Christianity and Liberalism addresses the subject of doctrine. Not just doctrine in general, but biblical doctrine in particular.
What is doctrine? Doctrine (διδασκαλία; didaskalia) is instruction and teaching contained in, and communicated from, God’s Word, the Bible (I Tim. 1:10; 4:6; 2 Tim. 3:16; Titus 1:9; 2:1; Heb. 6:1).
It has become popular among churches, and church leaders, to abide by the maxims “Deeds not Creeds” and “Doctrine Divides, but Love Unites.” The perspective is that how we live for Christ is far more important than what we teach about Christ. The ultimate goal is that we all get along with one another. In other words, fellowship and experience is more important than objective, propositional and biblical truth. Machen encountered this perspective in the theological liberalism of his day.
“At the outset, we are met with this objection. Teachings, it is said, are unimportant; the exposition of the teachings of liberalism and the teachings of Christianity, therefore, can arouse no interest at the present day. Creeds are merely the changing expression of a unitary Christian experience, and provided only they express that experience they are all equally good. The teachings of liberalism, therefore, might be as far removed as possible from the teachings of historic Christianity, and yet the two might be at bottom the same,” stated Machen in explaining religious liberalism.
Machen understood that at the heart of theological liberalism was a hostility to biblical doctrine. He argued that liberalism had its own doctrine, as previously expressed in this brief article and summarized by the phrase “the universal fatherhood of God and the universal brotherhood of man.”
What modern liberalism rejects are the doctrines contained in Scripture and in the historic creeds of the church. Liberalism believes that God is not understood but experienced. God is not knowable but felt. Therefore, there can be no objective, absolute truth claims. Experience is supreme. Machen understood the ramifications of this perspective.
“That meaning is perfectly plain. The objection involves and out-and-out skepticism. If all creeds are equally true, then since they are contradictory to one another, they are all equally false, or at least equally uncertain. To say that all creeds are equally true, and that they are based upon experience, is merely to fall back upon that agnosticism which fifty years ago was regarded as the deadliest enemy of the Church. According to the Christian conception, a creed is not a mere expression of Christian experience, but on the contrary it is a setting forth of those facts upon which experience is based.”
Machen contended that Christianity was a doctrine and not just a life. The Christian life was rooted and grounded in biblical doctrine. To say otherwise was to be radically false. Machen contended that Christianity could be subjected to historical investigation regarding its origin.
“Christianity is an historical phenomenon, like the Roman Empire, of the Kingdom of Prussia, or the United States of America. As an historical phenomenon, it must be investigated on the basis of historical evidence. The question of what Christianity is can be determined only by an examination of the beginnings of Christianity.”
Machen argued that the Christian movement was never just a way of living in the modern sense. It was never about moralism. Rather, it was a way of life founded upon a message. Christianity has never been about what Jesus would do, but rather what Jesus has done. Christianity was not based upon mere emotions, or a program, but rather upon an account of facts. Christianity was based upon doctrine. This doctrine begins in Genesis 1:1 and concludes in Revelation 22:21 and is sustained by all points in between.
“The primitive Church was concerned not merely with what Jesus had said, but also, and primarily, with what Jesus had done. The world was to be redeemed through the proclamation of an event. And with that event went the meaning of the event; and the setting forth of the event with the meaning of the event was doctrine. These two elements are always combined in the Christian message. The narration of the facts is history; the narration of the facts with the meaning of the facts is doctrine. ‘Suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried’ – that is history. ‘He loved me and gave Himself for me’—that is doctrine. Such was the Christianity of the primitive Church.”
Machen contended that this was to be the Christianity of the twentieth century. This is to be the Christianity of the twenty-first century and beyond.
Soli deo Gloria!
His Word Today 