Integrating Doctrines With Scripture
Chris Hefner
Key Scriptural Affirmations from 2 Peter:
Scripture is more foundational than experience
The Holy Spirit authored Scripture
Scripture and the Holy Spirit provide the guardrails against doctrinal heresy, immorality, and eternal judgment
How do we practice these affirmations?
We don’t decide what God means with Scripture, we discover what God means
We must see that false theology and immorality flow out of both intentional and unintentional misinterpretations of Scripture
We need the Holy Spirit to help us understand and apply Scripture
We need to submit to the authority of Scripture for cognitive understanding as well as formative application
What happens without a proper view of Scripture?
Without a proper view Scripture, God becomes just another deity or one of a multitude of ways to get to heaven
Without a proper view of Scripture, man is an animal, machine, or completely free to choose his/her own morality and identity
Without a proper view of Scripture, Christ is merely a man or is a lunatic without any intrinsic worth or ability to save
Without a proper view of Scripture, salvation is a made-up endpoint without genuine atonement or ultimate expression
Theological Takeaway: The doctrines of God, man, Christ, and salvation find their root and intersection in the doctrine of Scripture
Worship Takeaway: With Scripture as the foundational liturgical element in Christian experience, we can know God, worship God, and grow to become like Christ from Scripture’s truth and practice
Evangelistic Takeaway: In Scripture, we have the story of the gospel as well as the statements about God, Christ, man, and faith that we need in order to experience conversion
Relational Takeaway: We remain firm and stable in our faith in our liturgical (formative) community where (together) we deepen our understanding, belief in, and application of God’s Word in our lives
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