Territorial Bloggings

As per the norm, Theresa has done us all a service with one of her latest postings over at Be Strong in the Grace — this time dealing with the subject of the oft-constructed strawman argument warning against “too much” doctrinal purity.

Theresa does a nice job of summarizing another blogger’s posting on the subject, along with a good bit of her own insights on the subject. I highly recommend that y’all head over there to read it in full, particularly as there’s a nice, lively discussion thread in progress.

I find this whole false dichotomy between doctrine & evangelism to be quite distressing. It is disingenuous, misleading, intellectually bankrupt, and just plain-old-wrong. Even worse, it threatens to lead even more folks off the narrow path, if only because it sounds so “good” and so “loving.”

In reality, however, it’s dangerous, untrue, and quite easily disproven.

1. “Doctrine” merely means “teachings” or “that which is taught.”
2. “Evangelism” is based on the root “Evangel” or “Good News” — i.e., The salvation earned for us by Christ on the cross, told to us in the Bible, and given to & strengthened in us by the Sacraments.
3. Thus, it behooves us to have good, solid, orthodox doctrine, because
4. Why would you not want to proclaim the Truth?

Having all your doctrinal ducks in a row WILL COMPEL YOU TO CONDUCT EVANGELISM! It will, however, be a Biblical evangelism, (i.e., one done out of our vocations and based on the Law & Gospel properly divided) and not the feel-good, meet-their-felt-needs based “evangelism” found in so today’s Methobapticostal neo-Evangelicalism.

Simply put, if you’re not even concerned (for whatever reason/rationale…) about trying to ensure that what you’re teaching is the Truth, then what you’re trying to sell isn’t Christianity.

-ghp