One of the greatest tragedies in America's churches today is the great lack of Biblical literacy among those lay members that sit in the pews. There's even a great lack of Biblical literacy among many clergy as well. That's why there's so much false doctrine being propagated in the mainline denominations regardless whether it's Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, Assembly of God, etc. In Christendom today there's a movement which is called Ecumenism which stresses unity among the "Christian" churches of the world. Ecumenism teaches that churches should lay aside Bible doctrine and eliminate denominations and all Christian churches should be united together. They teach we all should love another. The old adage goes, "Doctrine divides, love unites." It is true that doctrine does divide people. However, without doctrinal distinctives, there's no way to define what a church is, what it stands for, and its mission. There's so much confusion in America's mainline denominations due to the lack of doctrine being preached and taught.
II Timothy 2:15-16 says, "Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. But shun profane and vain babblings: for they will increase unto more ungodliness." The Apostle Paul is telling Timothy the important of studying scripture. God places a huge premium on knowing scripture. That's why God gave the world a written copy of the Bible. Christians need doctrine in order to be established and thoroughly furnished unto good works. Without the teaching and preaching of Bible doctrine, how are Christians to know how to live their lives and learn their purpose in this life as a Christian? That's the problem in today's churches. That's even so in many Baptist churches regardless whether it's Southern or Independent Baptist. We wonder why the world has such a distorted view of what Christianity is all about. It's due to the fact that many saved people are ignorant about many doctrines of the Bible and they can't portray Christ to the world like they should. I Timothy 4:1-3 says, "Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth."
Those that are ignorant of the doctrines of the Bible are prey to falling for false teachings. There's an array of false teachers that teach false doctrines in this society. There are many teachers and preachers that have departed from the faith and as a result they are deceiving many because those that are deceived don't know God's word. Jude says in Jude vs. 3 and 4, "Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ."
From vss. 3 and 4 it's evident how spiritually dangerous it is when Christians don't earnestly contend for the faith. Why is it so important to know the doctrines of the Bible? One of the above reasons is so Christians can earnestly contend for the faith. Unless you know the doctrines that are taught in scripture, you won't know what to contend for. Another reason why it's so important to know Bible doctrines is so Christians can instruct other people in scripture. We obviously know why preachers that stand behind the pulpit need to know the doctrines of the Bible. But lay members need to know as well. Those that have children need to know doctrine so they can instruct their children in Bible doctrines. Christians also need to know Bible doctrines so they can grant an answer at any moment to those in the world that's without Christ. The Bible says we should have an answer when somebody asks us of the hope that we have within us. There are people you'll come in contact with in the local community as well as at work that may ask you a number of questions about scripture. If a Christian isn't versed in scripture, then they won't be of much help to those sinners in the world. Christians will be challenged concerning their faith and they need to be able to answer questions that the world will pose to them. That's very critical.
Christians also need to learn Bible doctrine so they will be able to detect false doctrines and false teachers. When you know the Word of God throughly you have the ability to detect teachings that are false. First of all, a person has to be saved in order to have any spiritual discernment. The Word of God is a book that's spiritually discerned and unless one is saved a person won't have spiritual discernment. However, a Christian who studies the word with the aid of the Holy Spirit will learn some truths and will have discernment when it comes to identifying false teachings. There are an array of false teachings in our churches today. There is a vast array of false doctrine in the Independent Baptist movement. For a number of years there's been teachings that have perverted the gospel. There have been teachers teaching a salvation without repentance. That's damnable heresy. There have been false teachings on such doctrines as Calvinism and Arminianism for example. The Methodists and the Holiness groups teach a child of God can lose their salvation. The question has to be at what point can a Christian lose their salvation and what sin does a Christian have to commit to cross the line? The Bible says we're saved and sealed until the day of redemption. Many church members have been led astray due to the propagation of false teachings. Much of that is due to a lack of knowledge of Bible doctrines.
I remember hearing a statement that an evangelist that lives in Jacksonville, Florida make years ago. He said two problems among Baptists today is they don't know their doctrine nor their heritage. I say amen to that. I believe a church needs unity. However, I believe the unity Jesus is referring to is the unity in the local church. A local church that has no unity will accomplish nothing for Christ. However, there's nowhere in the Bible where Jesus says all Christian churches should unite together in love and discard Bible doctrine. Without Bible doctrine, there's no way you can instruct a Christian on how they should conduct their lives in this world. It would be like having a mechanic that's never read or learned how to fix a car. If a mechanic doesn't know the first thing about car repairs, you wouldn't want him to mess with your car. That's the same with Christians. A Christian can't be salt and light if they don't know scripture. Just like you can't teach math to someone if you don't know how to work out an equation a Christian will be of little value if they don't know Bible doctrine.
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