For many decades, the Church has downplayed the importance of doctrine in Christian discussions. Oh, theologians and seminaries still teach it and church leadership still include it in their mission statements, but all in all, most Christians believe that a life with Christ is possible without dealing with the weighty issues of doctrine.

Wrong! Not only is doctrine important, doctrine is everything! According to my trusty Winston's Dictionary, doctrine means "that which is taught or set forth for accepting or belief." ⁽¹⁾ Vine's Complete Expository Dictionary goes on to expound, regarding the two Greek words translated into English as "doctrine": the former stresses the authority, the latter the act.

In other words, doctrine is not only what we believe, it is the basis for our behavior. It is that upon which we determine what we will choose and what we will do.

Doctrine is everything!

Never have I become so convinced of this as in the past months when I have begun to analyze the behavior of the Western Church. You see, behavior leads up directly back to doctrine. What we do explicitly shows us what we believe.

Why is this important? Because how we relate to God, what we expect in our relationship with Him, and how we interpret scripture is foundationally based and influenced by our doctrine. And deny it or not, all of us have doctrines.

Doctrine is everything!

There is a hierarchy of doctrine, some doctrine being more influential in our behavior than others. In fact, some of the most influential doctrines in our lives are those doctrines which we fail to articulate, those which fundamentally influence our behavior but are unspoken and perhaps even unacknowledged.

One of the most permeating doctrine, one of the most influential, in the Western church is Calvinism. Basically, Calvinism can be summarized in what is known as TULIP:

T - Total depravity

U - Unconditional Election

L - Limited Atonement

I - Irresistible Grace

P - Perseverance of the Saints

To understand how Calvinism has permeated even the most Arminian of churches, it is important for us to have a rudimentary understanding of what Calvinism says.

Basically, Calvinism says this: Man no longer has free will, existing in total depravity, and cannot choose to respond to God's plan of salvation. God, in His sovereignty, unconditionally elected some people to be saved and others to be damned and no person can choose otherwise. Jesus only died (limited atonement) for those God elected. Those who are elected cannot withstand God's irresistible grace, but will respond to His offer of salvation. Those whom God has chosen will persevere in their salvation until meeting Him in heaven.

Now, there are various components of Calvinism. Some denominations consider themselves to be three-, four- or five-point Calvinists, actively embracing some of these points and rejecting the rest. And since this isn't necessarily a discussion about Calvinism per se, I won't address the issues surrounding this. What we do want to look at is how Calvinism itself-a doctrine-has influenced the majority of Christian behavior. You see . . .

Doctrine is everything!

Most Western Christians fail to be active in evangelism. They will take one of the following positions:

• Evangelism is best left to pastors and other leaders of the Church who are more knowledgeable and have more time than I.
• Evangelism only works in mass groups (i.e. revivals and crusades)
• Evangelism only works through structure programs (i.e. The Jesus Video project or Evangelism Explosion) ⁽²⁾
• "I evangelize through my lifestyle. I don't need to use words."
• "I don't want to offend him, so I will wait until the time is 'just right'."

What we fail to understand is that most of these positions have been produced by the doctrine of unconditional election, that is to say, that God will save who He has chosen and we don't need to worry about the rest. Why do I say this? Because if we truly believed that every single person had the potential to be saved or to be damned and if we cared about them, we would do everything in our power to compel them to accept the gospel message. Our behavior demonstrates the truth of our doctrine!

Doctrine is everything!

There is another point of Calvinism that we inherently believe-the perseverance of the saints. This is evidenced in our willingness to live less than holy lives. If we didn't believe that ultimately, after saying the sinner's prayer, we were going to heaven, we would pay more attention to the mandates of scripture. We would be more concerned about following Jesus as His disciples, more ardent in our study and application of scripture in our behavior. But ultimately we believe that a single prayer has determined our eternal outcome; consequently, our lives have become self-centered, egocentric and materialistic.

Doctrine is everything!

The Church, rather than dumbing-down the gospel and avoiding doctrinal discussions, needs to challenge Christians to get off their duffs, shake out the cobwebs between their ears and begin to study in earnest! Scripture tells us that the demons know scripture; obviously, they know it for the purpose of deceiving us! In order for us to be equipped for battle, we must learn the art of warfare by becoming adept with our only offensive weapon-the Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God! And in learning the art of warfare, it is important that we not only learn the Word, we must apply it to every aspect of our lives.

DOCTRINE -what we believe and that on which we act-IS EVERYTHING!!