Doctrine and Fundamental Beliefs, Part 1

This presentation, as far as the PowerPoint presentation, is one that's used at ABC. And there is a class taught on the fundamental doctrines of the Church at ABC. And we've got about half of those in PowerPoint, so I'm going to take advantage of that. And as we go through these doctrines, I will be using those PowerPoint presentations. The next slide shows the reaction of the class, I think, to the first test that they were given.

This was back in 2004. They had not expected a surprise quiz, but there it was. Many of you will remember that from years ago, Basil Wolverton, his drawings.

Questions about what we are going to be covering here. Why is the subject of doctrines so important? Why is it an important topic? What part does doctrine play in our lives? Is it just an intellectual exercise that we understand and we can memorize certain scriptures? Or does it affect our lives? And as a Christian, isn't it more important how you act instead of what you believe? So we want to address a number of those questions today. I might mention the story about the United Church of God, how we began. Many of you will remember back in the 90s, the introduction of, let's say, doctrines that were contrary to our theology, to our belief, to what we felt was correct. Well, one result of that was, as a church, we organized in 1995.

And 14 ministers and their wives gathered in Indianapolis from April 23 through April 30 in 1995 to discuss the future of the church. Where do we go from here?

Give you a timeline of what took place. Again, April 23, we had the pre-conference meeting in Indianapolis. Norm and I were there as part of that planning session. There were, I think, out of the number there, I believe there were 11 regional pastors, and then there were about three or four others who were there who were not regional pastors. April 30, 1995, we had a general conference. We had no idea how many people would show up. In fact, the opening night, we were at a restaurant. And they allowed us to meet in their meeting room at the restaurant simply because we ordered food there. So they had a buffet line we went through. Afterwards, we thought, well, we'll meet here. And lo and behold, we filled that room very quickly, had sliding doors. We had to pull those back. We just actually took over the whole restaurant. I think they closed it down. And we had 125 or so, but we had 155 elders who met at that time. We were just amazed. There wasn't any formal announcement of this. It was just news on the street. And the news got around. So we had approximately 300, and you can't all the ladies and different ones who were there with us. May the 2nd conference concluded with the transitional board of nine men in place. And I was appointed to that transitional board at that time. May through November 1995, the governing documents were prepared. We prepared the Constitution and bylaws for the United Church of God. And then those were approved in December. We had a conference in Cincinnati. All of the elders were invited. And those documents were approved by something like 96% of the elders invalidating upon those. So that's how we began. What was the key motivation for the meeting? Why were we meeting? Well, probably the primary issue that drove these actions was doctrine. The doctrine had been changed. The doctrine was being corrupted. And so therefore, if we were going to continue teaching the truth, what we all know is the truth, that we needed to be able to have correct doctrine. We were not rebelling against the governmental structure. We were not willing to accept or teach what we believed to be heresy. Our ideas about government were affected because, as you know, the government was being misused, misapplied, and abused. But the motivation was simply because of the, let's say, the doctrines that were being corrupted. So, other questions that we need to address as we go through the presentation today. What is doctrine? If I were to ask you the question, what is a doctrine? All of us should be able to, just like that, be able to tell what is a doctrine. Where do we get doctrine? I mean, where is it formulated? Where does it come from? How do you find it?

What is a fundamental belief? If we say we believe in doctrine and we have fundamental beliefs, what is a fundamental belief? And why is it fundamental? And what is the origin of our fundamental beliefs? So, to begin with, some of you may be familiar with this Latin phrase. And never having spoken Latin, I'll give an attempt here. Sola Scriptura would be my attempt at it. And it means only scripture. Excuse me. Only scripture. We find that we as a church believe that scripture should be our guide when it comes to doctrine. Whereas, if you're going to base doctrine on something, it's got to be based upon the Bible, on the Word of God, on scripture. Our ultimate authority for all doctrine has to rest in the scriptures. Now, there's another Latin phrase here, which simply means the Holy Scripture is the Word of God. So, if it's only scripture, then what Word of God are we talking about? The Book of Mormon? We're talking about the Muslims, writings, Hindu, Buddhists. Now, we're talking about the Bible, the scriptures. So, the Holy Scriptures are the Word of God. Now, many churches claim that they base their doctrine on the Bible. Right? I mean, most organizations would claim that. But if they do, why do they all teach so many different doctrines, so many different beliefs, and all claim to get it out of the Bible? You could have a book on automobile mechanics, which tell you how to take an engine apart. You could have five people read it, and five people wouldn't disagree with what it says. Simple. Step one, step two, step three. And you could read it. But when people read the Bible, they come up with all kinds of ideas about what does the Bible say. So, we want to take a look at that. And we want to take a look also at additions to Murphy's Law. We've all heard of Murphy's Law. If anything can go wrong, it will. But notice, anything written can and will be misunderstood.

That's another application of Murphy's Law. If it isn't written, it will be assumed that you no longer believe it. So, I remember in the early days when United first started, well, United doesn't believe this or United believes that because we had not yet written any paper or booklet or article on it, so therefore it was assumed that you no longer believed in it. And if a person has two choices for an explanation, he will always choose the worst and the most negative. And I think that's true about how we deal with one another. Many times, it's always you believe the worst instead of the best about people. So, you know, with that in mind, we have to realize that doctrine has, over the years, been a divisive factor and not a uniting factor among churches. And it's been one of the primary reasons why different splinter groups of the church have gone off and you have all of these different groups that believe different things over doctrine. Now, the only problem is, in many cases, what many people call doctrines, not doctrine. It could be administrative applications. It could be any number of things, but they include that it's a doctrinal thing. One of the first booklets that we wrote was the fundamental obelis of the United Church of God and the International Association. Now, I remember this very well because each region in the United States was asked to write one or two of the doctrines. In other words, we got together as all of the church pastors, and I remember I was a regional pastor at that time, also over the Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, you know, several states who were there. We all got together and we began to draft a couple of the fundamental beliefs. I think we did repentance and baptism. Then it was sent to one of the pastors who was supposed to be a good writer, and he wrote it up. Then we all critiqued it. Then we sent it in to the doctrinal committee. They took a look at it, and then somebody who was really a good writer then took it and put it to where it sounded okay. This led us to putting this booklet together, and we felt that we could do that very quickly by having actually every pastor in the church working on it, all the regional pastors, doctrinal committee, and all of that. So this particular booklet was put together as a result of that. So it was one of the very first booklets that was produced by the United Church of God.

Now, to just show you what we're going to be covering, I left this slide in. I could have taken it out, but at ABC, they go through the doctrines basically in this order, the Godhead. The Word of God, Satan the devil, humanity, sin, and God's laws. The sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Now, if you haven't guessed, these are the fundamental doctrines that are included. Three days and three nights, repentance, water baptism, the Sabbath day. Now, I've got slides on all of these. Second column I don't yet. Hopefully we'll get those. The Passover, the festivals of God, God's food laws, military service, and war. The promises to Abraham, God's purpose for humanity. The church, tithing, the resurrections, and the return of Jesus Christ. These are the 20 fundamental doctrines of the church.

Now, when we put the Constitution together, we embedded within the Constitution the fundamental doctrines. And the only way those fundamental doctrines can ever be changed is if three-quarters of the ministry ballot and say that they feel that we've been in an error on some aspect of one of those doctrines. And in other words, one man cannot change it. The council cannot change it. The doctrinal committee cannot change it. The region cannot change it. It would take three-quarters of the ministry, plus it would also go to the membership, and the membership would have a chance to look at it and give their input. To give three-quarters of the ministry to agree on almost anything would be a minor miracle. So I don't know that we'll ever change any of the fundamental doctrines. I say that facetiously, but basically, you're going to have to do a lot of convincing that we've been wrong on something that's very fundamental in order for that to be changed. So it was embedded in the Constitution for that very reason. But the preamble from UCG Constitution Article 2 has this to say, the following are statements regarding the fundamental beliefs of the United Church of God and the International Association. This article is not intended to be a comprehensive statement of the beliefs of the Church. Questions about doctrine and belief will be addressed by a process adopted by the Council of Elders and approved by the General Conference of Elders. General Conference are as we call it the GCE. Now let me just explain a little bit about the process of changing doctrine. In order for a doctrine to be changed, let's say, what if you came to me and said, Mr. Holiday, we're wrong on how we explain... I'll just throw out repentance... that we're wrong on our understanding of repentance. I would say, okay, you write it up. You write it up, and if you can make a strong argument, I'll go ahead and send it in. Prior to that, if I don't think you've really made your point, I'll sit down with you and go through it and try to show you what the Bible teaches. But let's say maybe you make a point, and I agree with you. So I send it in. The subcommittee of the... of the doctrinal committee... we have a subcommittee... doctrinal committee is a committee of the Council, but there's a subcommittee of the Council that basically is the one who would do the research. So they would take your... what you wrote up. They would research it. They would go back and compare everything that we've written on it and see if we are in error and if you're right. Now, if you were right, it would be submitted to the Council doctrinal committee. They would then present it. They'd go over it and either agree or disagree. And if they agreed, they would submit it to the Council. Now, if the Council approved it and agreed with it, then it would have to be sent out to all the elders. And it would then be also distributed among the membership for everybody to give their input on it. And they'll give their input, and then it would come up for a ballot at the general conference. In three quarters of all elders, that means we have something like 450 or 60 elders in the church. There would have to be 350 or more of them who would say, yes, I believe this is a change. So you see, you're not going to change doctrine very quickly. It's a long process. And we just don't believe that fundamental beliefs are going to be tinkered with that much as far as what we believe. So, as it says here, this article is not intended to be a comprehensive statement of the beliefs of the church. That was to be written later in a booklet, which it was.

So, defining the fundamental beliefs.

What is a fundamental belief? Well, fundamental means forming a foundation or basis. It's like having a house and having a foundation underneath the house. Basic, essential, important, leading or primary principle, rule, law or article, which serves as a groundwork or basis, essential part, as a fundamental or Christian faith. So, fundamental belief is one that forms a foundation of what we believe as a church. It is a primary principle in which we believe. So, with that in mind, that was taken from Webster's New Universal Unabridged Dictionary, 1979. What is doctrine?

Well, quoting from Erdmann's Bible Dictionary, doctrine. Latin, doctrinea. And it means to teach, or that which has been taught. The Greek words, daraki and ditskale, also mean teaching. King James Version also uses the term in the archaic sense with regard to the act of instruction. In other words, the word is used of someone such as myself or anyone who might be instructing you or teaching you. Let's go over several scriptures. I'm not going to read all of these scriptures. If you want to jot them all down, you certainly can. But Mark 4 and verse 2, talking about Jesus Christ, Mark 4, 2, says, then He taught them many things by parables and said to them in His teaching. In other words, in His teaching, or in His, we might say today, in His doctrine or what He taught. Notice also Acts 2, Acts chapter 2 and verse 42. It says, they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine. And if you'll notice, the margin is in the apostles' teaching, what they taught, and fellowship in the breaking of bread and in prayer. So Jesus' teachings, as recorded in the Gospel going on with the quote up here, were discursive, relating new interpretations of the law to the contemporary needs of His followers. This instruction formed the basis of the doctrine of the early church. In other words, where did the early church get their doctrine or their belief or their teaching? Well, the apostles had been trained by Jesus Christ for three and a half years. So when they started preaching, they taught what Christ taught. So that formed the basis of it. And that's again from Erdmann's Bible dictionary, page 289.

So coming back again to doctrine. In the New Testament, doctrine stands once for logos in Hebrews 6.1. Otherwise, did Aki and did Askelai, of which the farmer denotes especially the act of teaching, the latter, the thing that was taught. It is noteworthy that that Askelai is never used of the teachings of Jesus, always did Aki. Also, that did Askelai is found chiefly in the pastoral epistles. This is in keeping with the distinction between did Aki as teaching. In other words, when you read through the New Testament, you'll find it talks about Jesus Christ, what he taught, his teaching, and it's generally translated that way. In the pastoral epistles, you find the other word is used, and it's generally translated as doctrine. So it's interesting when you begin to look at it. Let's notice in Ephesians chapter 4, and verse 14, it is interesting that in the New Testament, that the word for doctrine is in many cases used in a way where it shows false doctrine, or doctrine being misused, or not being applied properly. Ephesians 4, verse 14, says that we should no longer be children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men in cunning craftiness of the deceitful plotting. So it is possible for people to come along and trick you as far as doctrine. And so we need to realize that all doctrine that is taught is not always correct. Then Jesus Christ, back in Matthew 15, 9, tells the disciples to beware of the doctrines of the Pharisees and Sadducees, that what they taught was traditions of men. Colossians chapter 2, and verse 22 is another scripture. Colossians 22, you might remember here he's talking about those who would come along with false teaching, and he enumerated what some of those false teachings were. In verse 22, Colossians 2, which all concerned things which perish with the using according to the commandments and doctrines of men. So the Bible is very explicit when it talks about the doctrines of men. Doctrines and teachings that are based upon traditions, that was the Jewish problem, and just simply the doctrines or the teachings of men, and not based upon the teaching of scriptures. Now, that particular quote was taken from the Hastings dictionary of the Bible. So if we could summarize it, didaki, often translated doctrine, are teaching. This is the word most often used in the gospel in reference to Christ's teachings. And then didaskali, translated doctrine primarily. This is the word most often used in the pastoral epistles.

Conclusion. Doctrine develops from teaching, didaki, to formal doctrine, didaskali. Christ taught the apostles formalized that teaching. So, you know, you can teach, but when it's formalized as, yes, this is what we believe. The Sabbath. We believe in the Sabbath. We believe in the Holy Days. We believe in any number of doctrines. Those then become formal teachings. Now, let's move on to something else here, the development of doctrine. Doctrine is developed, first of all, by teaching.

Then your understanding, based upon that teaching. Let's say we teach the Sabbath. Your understanding of that teaching then is going to form the vases of your doctrine. Now, there are a lot of churches today who will tell you, yes, we keep the Sabbath, but they keep Sunday. There's something wrong with their understanding of what the Bible teaches. So, first of all, you have to rightly divide the word of truth. You've got to understand what the Bible says on a particular topic. So, understanding comes. Where does understanding come from? Well, it comes from God's Spirit, doesn't it? And what is it that makes us unique, brethren? It's because God has called us, opened our minds, and through His Spirit, He has begun to reveal the truth to us. And we use that terminology, the truth. Now, I'm going to give you a chart following this that shows how doctrine is developed. It's called the degree of authority.

We'll get to that, but first of all, let's cover this.

Doctrine is established teaching, to give you a definition. In general, the word means teaching, or that which is taught. So, it means teaching, or that which is taught. Doctrine is formalized, or developed teaching. While Christ was alive, He taught. There was no need of a formal list of His teachings. After His death, there was a need. It was through the apostles and the early church that doctrine was formalized. So, the apostles, and then Paul, coming along later, were the ones to formalize and say, this is what the Bible means. This is what Christ taught us.

So, here is the degree of authority chart.

You'll notice you start at the bottom, and the further away from the bottom you get, the less sure you are of a doctrine. You start out with direct statements of the scriptures. If the Bible says, do something, remember the Sabbath day, keep it holy, we'll just give an instance, honor your father and your mother, then guess what? That becomes a doctrine. That's something that we need to do. Then you have direct implication of scriptures. Maybe it's not clearly stated, but everywhere you look in the Bible, where do you find the church meeting? Well, they're meeting on Saturday, so therefore, you could deduce from that that they kept the Sabbath. Probable implication of the scriptures.

It's probable. It's not as definite as the other, which is direct implication, but probable. Then inductive conclusions from scriptures, where you deduce and you think about it and you come up based upon the scriptures. Then, well, let's say an inductive conclusion from scripture would be, don't smoke. Just give you an example. Where in the Bible does it say, don't smoke a cigarette? Well, it doesn't. But can you deduce from scripture that you should not hurt your body? Anything that would harm you would be perhaps a sin. And you begin to ask yourself, does this show love to yourself? Does it show love to your family? To your neighbor? And so, you come up with a conclusion based upon deduction. Then conclusions inferred from general revelation.

And then outright speculation. Now, speculation normally comes about when it comes to prophecy. I believe the church is going to flee to a place of safety on. And you put a date in there. And you start speculating. And it's not in the Bible. It's just, you know, somebody sits down, puts together some charts and begins to come up with something. So, you know, that's the degree of authority. What we try to do is to make sure that as far as fundamental beliefs of the scriptures, that they are all based upon the scriptures. Okay, moving on here. That's taken from Millard Erickson's Christian Theology, Second Edition, Grand Rapids, and so on. Now, let's notice in 2 Timothy 3 verses 16 and 17. All scripture.

So notice that it doesn't say half the scripture part of the scripture. Some of the scripture. It says, all scripture is given by inspiration of God. So God inspired it, and it is profitable for reasons. But number one, it says it's profitable for doctrine. Well, it's formalized teaching. For reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. That the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. Now, it's interesting that the word for inspiration, all scriptures given by inspiration of God, is from three Greek words that are put together. Theo, pneuma, and tosis. Now, notice, theo, as we know, means God or divine.

Pneuma, or nu, the word we use for the spirit means breath, breathe, or spirit.

Stoasis here is an agitiy pointing to God as the originator. It's on the end of the word, and it shows where the action comes from. So, in this particular case, where does the action come from to inspire all scripture? What comes from God? Scripture originates with God. It is God-breathed. Paul states that all scripture is God-breathed. So, we have used that over the years to say that God-breathed. The scriptures are God-breathed. It means that God was the one who inspired all of those men who wrote the scriptures. You can go back and say, well, Moses wrote it, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and all of these men, the minor prophets, apostles, and yet God, through his spirit, inspired every one of them in writing them. They are God-breathed, or God-inspired. So, how many of you are familiar with the documentary hypothesis? Most of you probably haven't studied that much into what we would call Bible critics or Bible criticism, but some critics of the Bible have come up with sophisticated arguments in their attempt to disprove the authenticity and reliability of scripture. One of these attempts is known as the documentary hypothesis or the JEPD theory. In short, this theory states that the first five books of the Bible, called the Pentateuch, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, were not written completely by Moses. You might have written some of them, but they were not written by him.

Notice, this is basically what we believe, even though it's quoted from a book here, the inerrancy of the scriptures. When all the facts become known, they will demonstrate that the Bible and its original autographs, the original books that were written, and correctly interpreted, is entirely true and never false. It's correct. And all that it affirms, whether relative to doctrine or ethics or the social, physical, or life sciences, is that there are no contradictions in the way that the Bible was originally written. And contradictions come about because many times our own lack of understanding. The documentary hypothesis says that there were four authors of the Pentateuch. According to this theory, there was the Jehovah's. The author who used Jehovah's, or YHWH. There was the Elowis, the author who used Elowim for God. And there was the priestly author who wrote most of the book of Leviticus. And then finally, the Deuteronomist, the author who wrote the book of Deuteronomy. So, you know, here you have all four of these. And so, consequently, they claim that, you know, the Bible, when you begin to really look at the especially in the 18th century, 19th century, the German rationalists, and they began to try to explain away everything in the Scriptures. And so, they came up with everybody in the world except who the Bible says wrote a particular book. Now, I think it's very important for us to understand that the Bible clearly recognizes the Old Testament as Scripture. When Paul said, all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable, there was no New Testament written at the time. So, he's referring to the Old Testament. Jesus Christ quoted the Old Testament constantly. So did the writers in the New Testament. Let's go back to Luke 24. Luke chapter 24.

We had some sunlight a while ago. It's gotten considerably darker in here. Grady, maybe you need to turn on a light or two around.

That helps a little bit. At least I can see my Bible.

In Luke 24 verse 45, notice what Christ states here. Luke chapter 24 verse 45.

Then He said to them, These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the Psalms concerning me. And He opened their understanding that they might comprehend the Scriptures. Now, the Jews recognized the threefold division of the Old Testament, the law, the prophets, and the writings. And so Jesus Christ referred to these as the Scriptures. Now, our understanding of the New Testament Scriptures, which ones belong there, we take because these are the ones that were approved by the early New Testament church. What you find, there were all kinds of books written in the first century, but those books were not, you know, many of them were not included in the Bible. So, only the ones that we have are the ones that were approved. Now, with that in mind, let's just sort of summarize this. John 17, 17 says, Sanctify them by your word. Your word is truth. So, the word of God is truth. And if we want to know the truth on a given topic, our subject, our fundamental belief, we have to go to the Scriptures. You know, when you and I first came into the church, you remember what somebody would ask you, how did you learn the truth? And you'd begin to, you know, tell them, you know, how you first came in contact with the church. Now, questions that we want to address and answer before we get away from this topic. Where do we begin in establishing doctrine? Well, you should know by now. We start with the Scriptures. The Bible is a compilation of 66 separate books. What is major and what is minor? Are some books minor and other majors? What constitutes a fundamental belief? And what are the major doctrines of the church?

Now, we've actually already covered all of this, so you should be able to answer all those questions by now, but we will spend a little more time, you know, going through this.

So, summarizing this, to show you some of the major sections, what we would call summary sections of the Scripture, Exodus 20 gives us the Ten Commandments, the Law of God from Mount Sinai. Leviticus 23 summarizes the Holy Days. Matthew 5 through 7, Christ's teachings to the disciples. I think we would all recognize that these are major fundamental sections of the Scriptures. Hebrews 6, the basic doctrines. of the church. Now, when you begin to look at some of Christ's teachings, notice, seeing the multitude, He went up on a mountain, and when He was seated, His disciples came to Him, and He opened His mouth, and He taught them, saying. Now, what we will see here, then, is a summary. Notice, He taught. So, this is His doctrine. This is His teaching. This is what Christ believed. The word taught means to instill doctrine, to impart instruction. So, Christ was imparting to His disciples His teaching, His instructions. What were those? Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are they that mourn. Blessed are the meek. Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness. Blessed are the merciful.

Blessed are the pure in heart. Blessed are the peacemakers. It doesn't say blessed. It says blessed. Blessed are they which are persecuted. Blessed are you when you are reviled and rejoice and be exceedingly glad. So, you find in Matthew 5, 6, and 7, you have the fundamental teachings that Jesus Christ gave.

Christ's teaching, notice continuation as you go through those chapters, you have heard it was said, you should not kill. Now, I want you to notice one thing that Jesus Christ did. In many cases, He would say, you have heard it was said that you shall not commit adultery. We'll pop that up here shortly. Well, of course, the Bible says that. And the Bible also says you should not kill. But the Jews also had what they called oral tradition. An oral tradition was raised in height, our importance, and equated with written tradition or the written word of God.

And so, the oral tradition basically explained how to apply the written. Now, do churches do that today? Are there any churches that say their traditions are equal with Scripture? Well, what about the Catholic Church who says to the Protestant churches, the only reason you keep the Sabbath, or excuse me, you don't keep the Sabbath and you keep Sunday, is because we changed it. And they just boldly say the only reason that we're keeping Sunday is because the Catholic Church changed it.

You can come up with all of your arguments and all of your reasons, but none of them hold water. And by the fact that the Catholic Church changed it, you acknowledge that the Catholic Church has authority to change it. And if it did, then why aren't you a part of it? I mean, this is their argument and the way they reason. But notice, Christ said, you have heard it said you should not kill. You have heard it said you should not commit adultery. You've heard it said whoever puts away his wife. You've heard it said you should not swear. You've heard it said an eye for an eye.

You've heard it said you shall love your neighbor. So again, we have the teachings of Jesus Christ. Now, Jesus Christ also warned us about false doctrine, false teachings. And the book of Matthew, I referred to this earlier, Matthew 15.9, in vain they worship me teaching as doctrine the commandments of men. If you get nothing else out of this Bible study, remember Matthew 15.9. Because if we try to worship God through our own man-made traditions, now you find there are traditions in the church. Now, you don't get me wrong. The Bible very clearly, Paul very clearly, talks about the church to follow the traditions that he had established. But the traditions of men are traditions based upon men's ideas and not the scriptures.

Godly traditions are based upon the scriptures. They use the scriptures as a foundation and a springboard. So, a tradition would be how do we conduct Sabbath service? That's a tradition. Now, what's it based upon? Well, it's based upon certain references in the Bible, especially 1 Corinthians 14, that talks about the fact, let two or three speak. And so, normally we have two men speak. We have a sermon and a sermon.

There have been a couple of times over the years I've heard three men speak. And, but, you know, normally it's two. And the Bible talks about, let all things be done decently in order.

God's not the author of confusion. So, we try to have orderly Sabbath services. And we try to be organized. And we try to have things planned. And those may be certain traditions and how long the service will be and who speaks and all of that.

But it's based upon the scriptures, or at least it's not contrary to the scriptures. But when somebody comes along and says, well, our tradition is we keep Easter. Our tradition is we keep Christmas. Our tradition is that we keep Sunday. Those are man-made. And those traditions are not based upon the scriptures. So, therefore, you have to understand that. And this is what Jesus Christ is talking about. Men taking the commandments of men, their own ideas, and elevating that to doctrine, formal teaching. And the Jews were very good at this. They had all kinds of different ideas and so on that they taught.

What Paul writes about scripture. Let's notice some of these very quickly here. I don't want to get bogged down because we still have a lot to go through. 2 Timothy 1. 2 Timothy 1, verse 13. Most of these are 1 Timothy, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy 1, verse 13. Holding fast the pattern of sound words, sound doctrine, which you have heard from me, and faith, and love, which are in Christ Jesus. 2 Timothy 4, verses 1 through 4.

I charge you, therefore, before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead by His appearance in His kingdom, preach the word, be ready in season, out of season, convince, rebuke, exhort, with all long suffering and teaching, for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine. I want you to notice the word sound throughout this. Time will come when they won't endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers. As one translation says, they will, in essence, appoint their own teachers. They will gather teachers. So we find that that very thing, I think, has happened today, where people leave the church, go off, and they listen to everybody. In other words, they may get tapes and material from dozens of different sources, and listening to others. And then it goes on, they turn their ears away from the truth, and they turn aside defables. First Timothy 1.6 talks about vain janglings. Titus 1. Let's go over to Titus chapter 1, beginning in verse 10. For there are many insubordinates, both idle talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision, whose mouths must be stopped, whose subvert whole household, teaching things which they ought not, for the sake of dishonest gain, for money's sake. One of them a prophet of their own. It says the Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons. This testimony is true. Yeah, that's right, he said. Therefore, rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith. And again, we find the word sound. In 1st Timothy 4.16, it talks here about 1st Timothy chapter 4, verse 16. Take heed to yourself and the doctrine, continue in them. For in doing this, you shall save both yourself and those who hear you. So sound doctrine has something to do with salvation. So that's why it's important. Salvation has to do with God-givingness, eternal life, immortality in the kingdom. And God is not going to do that unless we believe the right things. Now, let's notice going on here. Doctrine is sound teaching. Barkley comments on 1st Timothy 1, verses 5 through 11, the Christian message is sound teaching. The word used for sound literally means healthgiving.

Let me just read what he says about this in a little more detail. I'm quoting from Barkley. The Christian message is sound teaching. The word used for sound, and I've read sound throughout a number of these, literally means healthgiving. Christianity is an ethical religion. It's demands not only for the keeping of certain ritual laws, but for the living of a good life. Christianity is, Christianity, if it is real, is healthgiving. Mentally, emotionally, psychologically, spiritually, physically, and all of its elements, it helps you to be healthy. It is a moral antiseptic, which alone can cleanse life. The Greek has a sense of health, and then more generally, rational, intelligent, reliable, and whole. Health implies a proper balance of the whole. Sound doctrine implies something healthy and complete. Our beliefs should make our lives better. Doctrine shouldn't be a black cloud that hangs over us. Ideally, we can't wait to explain our doctrinal belief to others. So again, you find that this is true. Let's go over quickly to 1st Timothy chapter 1 and verse 5. 1st Timothy chapter 1 verse 5.

And you'll notice here, he says, Now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, with a good conscience, and from sincere faith, which some, having strayed, have turned aside to idle talk, desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say nor things which they affirm. And verse 10, notice, he talks about the law is not made for a righteous person, but for different people. And part of them would be fornicators, sodomites, kidnappers, liars, perjurers. And if there's any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine, to health giving doctrine. So doctrine is very important. Notice the importance of sound doctrine. I think I'll just sort of summarize this for you. I've got a number of points up here, but sound doctrine shows us how to be reconciled to God. That's what repentance, baptism, all of that is about, is it not? Our reconciliation to God, being in harmony with God. Sound doctrine is also a relational ship. It shows you how to love the Lord your God with all your heart or your soul or your mind and how to love your neighbors yourself. So it's based upon relationship. Sound doctrine aids in our growth. We grow because we learn what God wants of us, requires of us, as an example, to love your neighbor so you love your neighbor. And the better you understand that, the more you grow in your understanding, comprehension, you grow. It's important because it leads us to salvation. It's foundational. Sound doctrine is foundational. It's what we believe. It forms a foundation of our belief. It's something that we should be thankful for. Every day, we should thank God for the truth, the understanding that He gives to us. It is also something that leads us to have the proper type of love. The Ten Commandments show us how to love God, our neighbors. It convinces us. As you read through the Bible, you are convinced. You are convicted of the truth of the Scriptures, and you repent. The Bible talks about being able to convict the gainsayers. And so you and I should be able to do so. Now, with that in mind, let's move on here to the last section I want to cover.

Part of this is the development of the doctrine in the church. In other words, how has doctrine developed here in the end time, in the last 20th, 21st century? First of all, it began with the apostles in the New Testament church. Acts 2, verses 41 through 47. You might remember, on the day of Pentecost, after 3000 were converted, what does it say? It says, they continued in the apostles' doctrine. So they continued in what the apostles was teaching them, instructing them. Acts 5, 28, basically the same thing. Acts 17, verse 19. Then we have the church down through the years has continued to teach the doctrines based upon the Scriptures. New Testament, Old Testament. Revelation, chapters 2 and 3, shows the development of the church, especially in the first century. Then it also gives a history of the church down through the ages. Revelation 2 and 3. Revelation, chapter 12, talks about the church in the wilderness from the time of 476 down to around 1812, a period of 1260 years that the church had to flee, and what's commonly called the Dark Ages, that period of time. And church beyond what we would call the Middle Ages or the Dark Ages. So the development of doctrine sort of flows in this manner. Teachings of Christ, the biblical record, the apostles, and the New Testament church. So you find 31 AD, the church starting around 100 AD. You have the book of Revelation, the apostle John, and then the church through the ages. In 1664, if you want to date, the Sabbath truth comes to America. This is when the first Sabbath keepers showed up on the shores of America, 1664. First issue of the Plain Truth magazine, February 1934, that Mr. Armstrong put out.

Is a world dictator about to appear?

Mr. Armstrong was also on the radio during these years with the same message. Many of you will remember this photograph of Mrs. Armstrong, Mr. Armstrong, Norman Smith out there controlling the dials, and the radio program being made. The development of formal teaching of the church. Picture Mr. Herbert Armstrong. In 1927, Mr. and Mrs. Armstrong began to attend the Church of God's seventh day.

In 1933, Mr. Armstrong begins the radio Church of God in the fall of the year. In 1934, Mr. Armstrong begins the Plain Truth magazine. In 1938, Mr. Armstrong writes the first official list of church doctrines. In 1938, in 1946, four additional doctrines are added to the official list.

Now, when Mr. Armstrong incorporated the church and wrote a bylaws and constitution, he included these basic doctrines as part of that. That was 1946.

When the United Church of God started, we went back to that document, lifted those doctrines out, and put them into our constitution. So, fundamentally, what we're teaching traces its roots back to 1938 and 1946, into that period of time. Now, a couple of them were, they weren't written too well at that time, and they were edited, but it didn't change any of the meaning of what the teaching was. It was just updated. Here's what happens a lot of time. We'd like to join, but we may have doctrinal problems. If anyone here believes in full immersion, I believe in sprinkling, and Icky here holds to licking.

So, people, because of their doctrinal differences, don't always get along. Doctrinal compatibility is an important part of church membership. As Amos 3.3 says, can two walk together unless they are agreed?

So, you know, our compatibility is important.

If our doctrines are not correct, then how are we going to obey the truth? How are we going to live by the truth? See, Christ said, the time is coming, and they'll neither worship me here nor in Jerusalem. The Father seeks those to worship Him. What?

According to truth, according to the Spirit. You and I have to understand the truth of God. So, what we have are foundational principles, and we find in Ephesians 2, 19-20. Well, let's read that scripture, because I think that one is very important. Ephesians chapter 2, verse 19, Now therefore you are no longer strangers and foreigners and fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on. What is the church built on? What is our foundation? We're built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, and in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit. So, God dwells in His church, in His spiritual temple today. Now, you'll notice that we are built upon the foundation of the apostles. That's the New Testament. Prophets, that's the Old Testament. But basically, Jesus Christ is the foundation. That's what we're built upon. Now, one other scripture over here, 1 Timothy 3 and verse 14.

It says, These things I write to you, though I hope to come to you shortly. And if I am delayed, I write so you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, the church of the living God, the pillar and the ground of the truth.

The word ground, if you'll notice in your margin, in many of the Bibles, says foundation. The church is where you should be able to come to find the foundational basic truths of God. And what happened back in the late 80s and 90s is, instead of the church holding to those foundation, teaching sound doctrine and not letting go, they did. And they corrupted the doctrine. So it's extremely important that we hold on to what is true doctrine. Now, what I'm going to show you here, and we'll end with this, is the rules of interpretation. There are rules of interpretation on how to interpret the Scriptures as we go through them. The Holy Scriptures represent God's written revelation to mankind. While other sources may be a value in supporting the biblical record, any contradiction of the Bible against divine revelation is not true. The Bible is to be read, viewed, and interpreted as a whole. The Bible interprets itself. God's purpose has been the same from the beginning. Doctrine is established upon the clear, consistent teaching throughout the Bible, not just on one or two vague Scriptures. The Bible interprets its many symbols. So we don't try to interpret ourselves. We go to the Bible and see if the Bible provides an interpretation. The Bible does not contradict itself. Alleged contradictions can arise through misunderstanding of linguistic, cultural, historical details. Contradictions are not a part of God's revelation. Five. The Bible account of the Kingdom of God, the divine realm and its description of the creation of the physical world in events in human history are to be viewed as true and accurate. As an example, there are those who will try to say, well, the six days of creation, well, that's a thousand years for a day, or who knows how long those days were, and so they try to explain it away. So we take the Bible literally for what it says. Six points. The Bible was written to be applicable and meaningful to all generations of humanity. The laws and principles therein should be applied diligently in our own environment while being cognizant of the cultural, historical setting in which they were written.

The Bible was written for all people, not just for the wide-angle Saxons, not just for Israel or Jews. It's written for all humanity.

Number eight. Whenever possible, straightforward understanding of the text is preferred. Priorities should be given to the understanding provided by Christ, the apostolic church, and the original audience in the context of the day in which they lived. The Bible reveals the plan of God created from the foundation of the world. In the current church age, we realize it's a divine call by God. God is not trying to save the entire world in this age. This is not the only day of salvation. The plan of salvation is revealed through God's holy days.

The Old Testament outlines basic doctrines of the church, including an understanding of the New Covenant relationship. And the eleventh point, the Bible contains inspired prophecy, which is not subject to private interpretation. If there's any part of the Bible, that is subject to private interpretation, it is prophecy.

Then finally here, the apostles, the apostle Paul, does not interpret Christ.

Paul's epistles should be interpreted in the light of and based on Christ's teachings and not the reverse. See, Christ's teachings form the foundation, and you interpret what Paul or any other of the apostles wrote based upon that. Thirteen distinctions must be made between a doctrine and the administration of that doctrine. A doctrine could be divorce and remarriage. How do you administer that today? Okay, how do you go about handling that? Well, that becomes an administrative matter. And then finally, no book or portion of the Bible claims to present a complete systematic presentation of doctrine or theology. Doctrine are understood by examining the relevant sections or subjects of that doctrine and going through the whole Bible, seeing what the whole Bible has to say about it. So there are rules of interpretation, as you can see. I think all of these sound very biblically based. So, brethren, as we begin then to go through doctrine, and we will begin next time, probably, with the Godhead, and we will go through that particular topic. In other words, is God a trinity? What is God? What is He like? We will be covering that. So, in conclusion, each utensil has its own use. I'm not quite sure how that applies, but it's there. Doctrine is formalized teaching. It is accepted church teaching that is written in contrast to oral tradition. A fundamental belief is a doctrine that is basic and foundational. It is essential that we accept and support our fundamental beliefs. If you have trouble with one of our fundamental beliefs, you need to talk to me, because these are fundamental. This is what helps to unite us together. So, that ends our Bible study today on Introduction to Doctrine.