Doctrine Is Most Important
By David J. Stewart | April 2008
If there was one truth I would relate to others today, next to the precious gospel of Jesus Christ itself, it would be the importance of Biblical doctrine. So many professed Christians today are falling victim to the apostate Ecumenical Movement, i.e., unity amongst churches or religious organizations that require sinful compromise and lead them away from the truth.
Most believers these days don't have enough character to listen to sermons. Titus 1:3 teaches that God hath “manifested his word through preaching”! We all need PREACHING! That's why I'm always promoting sermons for my web visitors to hear and read. We ALL need preaching! Even preachers need preaching! Most people today are bathed in music, feelings, experiences, captivating video presentations, and all sorts of entertainment in churches; but very few people are bathed in the doctrines of the Word of God. This is what is so wrong with all of today's Contemporary Christian Music (CCM); it says nothing! God deliver us from the sycophantic praise and worship of apostates today! CCM's Phony Culture of Worship. CCM leads it's fans to support Ecumenical Ministers.
Most Contemporary Music is extremely vague and lacks any doctrinal content, deliberately so as to avoid offending various denominations and listeners. This is why singers like TobyMac and Michael W. Smith are very popular with Roman Catholics today. In fact, Michael W. Smith is a Catholic. They don't stand for God, so the world receives them (John 15:19). If we are to live godly in Christ Jesus as the Bible tells us (2nd Timothy 3:12), then we must contend for the faith (Biblical teachings). Doctrine is all-important!
I've heard some people refer to the “doctrines of the Church”; but that is the Devil talking. The only doctrines we are supposed to follow are the doctrines taught in the Word of God. Following the doctrines of a church is how people end up burning in Hell. The Catholic Church is straight out of the pits of Hell. Someone needs to tell you the truth, so it might as well be me. I care about you enough to risk your wrath against me, in order to win your soul over to Jesus Christ instead of religion.
I heard a pastor once refer to John MacArthur as “That great man of God.” I shared numerous articles from my website with the pastor, exposing Dr. John MacArthur as a wolf-in-sheep's-clothing, because he teaches Lordship Salvation and denies the redeeming power of the literal physical blood of Jesus Christ. The pastor became defensive, claiming that although John MacArthur is doctrinally flawed in certain areas, he's “still a great man of God.” No Sir! I disagree 100%. John MacArthur is NOT a man of God.
Anyone who denies the efficacy of Jesus' physical blood is an unsaved Modernist in need of salvation. I pray for that pastor and admire his work for the Lord, but he is on a wrong path to think John MacArthur is a great man of God. MacArthur is an admitted 5-point Calvinist and teaches works salvation. Eternal life is the gift of God, based upon the PROMISES of God (Titus 1:2) and God's unconditional love which sent Christ to Calvary to pay for our sins (John 3:16). Shame on those who teach that a sinner must stop harmful activities to be saved.
It is tragic that more believer's today are upset about abortion and homosexuality, than they are about heretics who pervert the Scriptures. There is nothing any more important than doctrinally purity and integrity. By the way, women ministers are ALWAYS false prophets, because they are disobeying God by usurping a leadership role over men in the Church.
Make An Issue of Doctrinal Differences
The best way to combat the Ecumenical Movement is to DIVIDE OVER TRUTH. Ecumenicals want us to UNITE BY ERROR. 2nd Corinthians 6:14-17 commands each believer to separate from unbelievers... "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?" Ecumenicals come to us, desiring to unite with us in Jesus' name, but they always make light of doctrinal differences.
This is often called a “social gospel,” whose proponents are only concerned about uniting differing religious and ethnic groups at the expensive of Biblical Truth. Ecumenicalism covers a broad spectrum of religious denominations, worldly organizations, and sinfully compromised ministers. Ecumenicalism is of the Devil. The Word of God must not be watered-down to appease the wickedness and unbelief of our generation. God makes no apologies or excuses for his directness, harsh reality, and straightforwardness in the Bible, so neither should we. If the Truth has to be sugar-coated in order for the unsaved world to receive It, then it is no longer the Truth.
Christians today need to stand firm in defense of the fundamental doctrines of the Christian faith. We have nothing to hide. Jesus Christ is the virgin-born Son of God, who came to this earth as God Almighty in the flesh (John 1:1,14;10:33). Imposters, like Martin Luther King Jr., openly deny the virgin-birth of Jesus Christ. Tragically, many African Americans still praise King as a man of God. King was a man of sin, and an anti-Christ (1st John 2:22). The Bible doesn't teach a social gospel of unity and acceptance amongst differing religious groups.
The Bible's teachings about God's love do NOT go against the clear Biblical command for believers to separate from other professed believers who live in open sin (1st Corinthians 5:10-13). 1st Corinthians 5:13 states: “Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.” In other words, every preacher should cry aloud against sin in the church, and the congregation should separate itself from those who call themselves “Christian” but live in shameless unrepentant sin.
If You Truly Love Jesus, Then You'll Love the Word of God
The reason why so many professed Christians today don't see anything wrong with perverted modern bibles, like the New International Version [NIV], is because they don't love Jesus. In fact, the name “Jesus” is removed 38 times from the heathen NIV bible. Please, rip your NIV into pieces and throw it in the garbage pail. Seriously, you'll never mature doctrinally into the Christian God intended for you to be if you're feeding on contaminated milk (1st Peter 2:2). The fact that the NIV butcheries completely removed the word “Godhead” from the Bible is ALARMING!!! Check your faithful King James Bible and you'll find “Godhead” mentioned in Acts 17:29, Romans 1:20, and Colossians 2:9.
One big problem today is that people are seeking for spiritual answers from the latest New York Times Best-Seller. No wonder our churches are in such shambles! Rick Warren's The Purpose Driven Life is of the Devil. Max Lucado's writings are all of the Devil. We ought to be seeking for answers from the Word of God. In John 5:39 Jesus told us to SEARCH THE SCRIPTURES! I wouldn't give you a dime for any modern Bible translation. Give me the old King James Bible. I wouldn't give you a dime for any popular modern Bible scholar. Today's theologians are teaching corrupt doctrines, because they are using corrupt bibles. Ask some of them how much time they've spent soul-winning lately? Apostasy has infested America's theological training institutions. They are preacher's cemeteries instead of preacher's seminaries. I wouldn't give you a dime for a so-called theologian who never tells a soul about Jesus Christ. What kind of theologian doesn't go soulwinning? I'll tell you—one who needs to get right with God, or get saved.
Jesus is the Living Word, and the Bible is the Written Word (John 1:1-3,14; Revelation 19:13). Anytime you hear someone talking about Jesus, but there's no mention of the Word of God—RUN AWAY!!! Jesus Christ and the Bible are inseparable! Few Catholics can quote the Bible, most have no idea what their own religion teaches, and yet they hypocritically walk around with crucifixes hanging around their neck. 1st Peter 1:23 tells us that the Word of God is the very seed by which a believer is born again... “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.” There can be no salvation apart from the Bible.
Catholics are deceitfully taught that obedience to the Vatican in Rome is the way to Heaven. So sad. Jesus plainly stated in Mark 7:9... “Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition.” Catholics don't care about Biblical doctrine because they don't love Jesus Christ. Instead, they love their religion and manmade traditions. 1st Corinthians 16:22 states: “If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha.” “Anathema Maranatha” means “let him be cursed, the Lord is coming.” All we can do as Christians is warn the wicked of the judgment to come. I cannot make a person come to Jesus Christ for salvation. All I can do is present the Gospel Truth from the Word of God. Our part as believers is to preach the Gospel to all the world (Matthew 28:19,20).
No one who truly loves Jesus Christ will make light of the fundamental doctrines of the Word of God, for they are a matter of life and death, of Heaven and Hell. I just don't understand a so-called “man of God” who tolerates John MacArthur's open denial of the redeeming power of Jesus' literal physical blood. Tragically, Moody Bible Institute honors the heretic every year at their Founder's Week. It is apostasy!!! John MacArthur is of the Devil.
Conclusion
There is nothing any more important than Biblical doctrine. Psalm 138:2 tells us that God has elevated His Word above His own holy name... “I [king David] will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name.” If God's Word is unreliable, and only written by men, then God's name is also unreliable and manmade. This is why Biblical doctrine is so critically important, for it reflects the very nature and character of a holy God.
Biblical doctrine doesn't matter to Catholics. Ask a Catholic “why” they believe what they believe and you'll have your proof of what I say. They certainly don't follow the Bible. Ask someone who uses the NIV bible to quote you a few Scriptures word-for-word and I assure you that they won't be able to do so. The apostate Ecumenical Movement is devoid of Biblical Truth. The Doctrine of Christ means nothing to them. They preach love, understanding, unity, better cooperation and compromise amongst churches; while totally disregarding the truths of God's Word.
In 2009 Sigourney Weaver stared in a made-for-television movie titled, PRAYERS FOR BOBBY. The film strongly appeals to churches to embrace the Homosexual Movement. Weaver says to be careful what you shout “amen” to, because a child is listening. Her implication is that no one should ever preach against homosexuality as a sin, and no one should ever respond with an “amen” to show agreement with such preaching. I say “amen, amen and amen” to whatever the Bible teaches! This wicked generation is the enemy of God. The sinful world has always been God's enemy. James, 4:4, “Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.”
Most of today's Christian “best-sellers” are devoid of Biblical truth. Most of today's Contemporary Christian Music [CCM] is devoid of Biblical Truth. The NIV bible is devoid of Biblical Truth. Even the recent children's book, The Picture Bible, is woefully lacking in fundamental Biblical doctrines, failing to even present the guilt of sin, or how to be saved, to children.
Beware!!! America has been infested with apostasy. America's pulpits today are filled with milquetoast ministers, who are more interested in money than the souls of men, and place little emphasis on Biblical Truth anymore. The average pastor dares not preach against sin by name, for fear of offending his tithers. America's so-called Christian music today is identical with that of the sinful music of the world, and the lyrics are so vague that no genuine Biblical doctrines are conveyed. The name of the game today is compromise, and it is sinful. Go to any Christian Rock artist's website today, and look for any mention of "how to be saved," or any Biblical doctrine for that matter. Good luck!
America has been infested with a false type of Christianity that only contains the outer shell, but no genuine substance... "This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves... Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away" (2nd Timothy 3:1,2,5). We are living in these apostate times now—when most people have churchianity without Christianity.
Apostasy has crept into most of our churches. If your church focuses more on social issues than Biblical doctrine, please find a real church. Most so-called churches, missions and ministries today are lackadaisical concerning teaching Biblical doctrine. Consequently, people are spiritually vulnerable to every attack of Satan. A knowledge of the Word of God is a strong defense (Psalm 119:11).
I have never understood professed Christians who make light of Biblical doctrine. It DOES matter what you believe. The Devil's primary goal is to REMOVE the Word of God from America. To fail to teach Biblical doctrine is in effect to remove the Word of God. Satan came to Eve in the Garden of Eden, causing her to doubt the Word of God (Genesis 3:1). The results were tragic. Nothing has changed in over 6,000 years. All across America, even in most our theological seminaries, the Word of God is still being attacked.
If Satan can't get you to reject the Word of God, then he'll try to change the Word of God. God knew that Eve wouldn't flat out disobey God's Word, so the Devil instead CHANGED the Word of God into a lie, convincing Eve that she and Adam would become “as gods” if they ate the forbidden fruit. Stan uses the same methods today, corrupting all modern versions of the Bible... removing the Godhead, removing the word “begotten” from John 3:16, saying in Philippians 2:6 that Jesus is not God, not referring to the Holy Spirit as “He” anymore, et cetera. Only a fool would claim that the NIV contains God's Word in an attempt to justify anyone using it. If the NIV were all I had, I would rather have nothing, because the NIV teaches the damnable curse of Lordship Salvation.
I plead with all Christian believers to become diligent defenders of the Word of God (i.e., the King James Bible), and to contend for the Biblical doctrines that form the basis of Christianity. The Word of God is the foundation upon which Christianity is built (John 1:1-3,14; 1st Corinthians 3:11; Revelation 19:13). Away with the modern false Christianity that is NOT solidly rooted in the Word of God. There is nothing any more important in the life of a Christian than Biblical doctrine. We must not be tolerant of those who deny the fundamental doctrines of the Christian faith; but rather, reject them as heretics.
Please read, Modernism Exposed
Ye Must Be Born Again! | You Need HIS Righteousness!