Question: What is doctrine? What does the word mean in scripture and why is it important?
Question: What does the word catechism mean? Is it used in the Bible? What is the Biblical place of catechism instruction?
Question: Do you know God and His glory? Do you glory in knowing the living and true God as the God of your salvation?
A Starting Point for Doctrinal Study
This and the following pages are a starting point for the study of Christian doctrine and the Reformed faith of the Protestant Reformation. The purpose of the following pages is to answer questions, search the Scriptures, and give confession to the gospel of grace in Jesus Christ.
In doing so we set forth what we believe in the way in which the Christian church has always confessed "the faith which was once delivered to the saints," (Jude 3) and contended for it, namely, by means of confessions, statements of doctrine, and creeds. This is our calling to "... be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you," I Peter 3:15.
It is not creeds or catechisms which have divided the Christian church. A clear statement of the truth of the gospel divides no one. It is false doctrine, twisting the Scriptures, and hiding behind lack of clarity, which divides the church.
We stand in Christ. But we are also to be rooted, built up in Him and established in the faith, a faith which has content and is to be taught, Colossians 2:6, 7.
The truth of the gospel is not a matter of human opinion. It can be known, studied, and defined from the scriptures. It is a systematic unity in the truth of the one, only true God, the one and only mediator, Jesus Christ. There is one way of salvation which is by grace, one covenant of grace, essentially as a relation of friendship and spiritual sonship in which God is become our God and Father in Jesus Christ. There is one work of God, one people of God, the church of all ages, and one hope of glory This is what Jesus Himself taught and is the consistent teaching of the scriptures.
The Spirit of God in Christ by Whom God gave us the scriptures is the Spirit of Truth. Over against that truth stands the lie of sin and the corruption of error. Believers are therefore to "try the spirits whether they are of God,"
I John 4:1.
Do you know the history of Christian doctrine and the history of the Christian church? This doctrine and the Christian church cannot be understood apart from their history: the battles fought for the truth, the struggle to understand and grow in the word. As errors and misdirections have occurred, they needed to be corrected and the church reformed on the basis of God's Word. Old errors also reappear in a new suit of clothes. While this subject is a vast one, one way to approach it is by reading about those who were important in the history of the Christian church and its doctrine. The following link is to a book by Professor Herman Hanko which gives brief sketches or portraits of faithful saints, and some not so faithful, but significant figures in Christian church history.
Many of these issues will also be addresed by the History section