GOSPEL DELTA

Dug Down Deep

// March 9th, 2010 // Doctrine, Life

“Orthodoxy literally means ‘right opinion’. It is shorthand for getting your opinion or thoughts about God right. It is teaching and beliefs based on the established, proven, cherished truths of the faith. These are the truths that don’t budge. Orthodox beliefs are ones that genuine followers of Jesus have acknowledged from the beginning and then handed down through the ages. Take one of them away, and you’re left with something less than historic Christian belief.”

“Orthodoxy matters because the Christian faith is not just a cultural tradition or moral code. Orthodoxy is the irreducible truths about God and his work in the world. Our orthodox faith is not just a state of mind, a mystical experience, or concepts on a page. Theology, doctrine, and orthodoxy matter because God is real, and he has acted in our world, and his actions having meaning today and for all eternity.”

“Theology matters, because if we get it wrong, then our whole life will be wrong. We’re either building our lives on the reality of what God is truly like and what he’s about, or we’re building our lives on our own imagination and misconceptions. We’re all theologians. The question is whether what we know about God is true.”

The quotes above are from a book I’m reading called “Dug Down Deep” by Josh Harris. My wife and I are currently reading through this book together. It’s a wonderfully accessible introduction to orthodox Christian doctrine. Here is a graphical breakdown of the chapters and their associated theological topics:

Navigating the shifting currents of doctrine in American Christianity is a daunting task and something that I have been passionate about ever since God saved me a handful of years ago. Two years into my new life as a Christian, I started leading a bible study on the Five Solas of the Protestant Reformation. Needless to say, I’m a guy who loves theology.

One of the first doctrinal statements I ran into as a new Christian was the at the Acts 29 Church Planting Network. Thank God for it, as this doctrinal statement has been incredibly formative for me and continues to be tremendously clarifying as a framework to understand the various aspects of orthodox doctrine that I’m encountering as I delve deeper into the Gospel.

Christian

Evangelical

Missional

Reformed

This is the hierarchy of theological distinctives for churches that comprise the Acts 29 network. The order is crucial. I have often wondered whether we should we wear our theological distinctives on our sleeves and how to balance this in the context of community. This framework helps me prioritize the things that I lead with in communicating what I believe to other people, and it helps me keep a charitable and humble stance as I encounter Christians with differing beliefs. This hierarchy also helps me discern where my boundaries are in regard to ecumenical cooperation. They go on to describe each point:

First, we are Christians which distinguishes us from other world religions and cults. Therefore, we adhere to both the Apostles and Nicene Creeds.

Second, we are Evangelicals and in agreement with the doctrinal statement of the National Association of Evangelicals:

• We believe the Bible to be the inspired, the only infallible, authoritative Word of God.
• We believe that there is one God, eternally existent in three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
• We believe in the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ, in His virgin birth, in His sinless life, in His miracles, in His vicarious and atoning death through His shed blood, in His bodily resurrection, in His ascension to the right hand of the Father, and in His personal return in power and glory.
• We believe that for the salvation of lost and sinful people, regeneration by the Holy Spirit is absolutely essential.
• We believe in the present ministry of the Holy Spirit by whose indwelling the Christian is enabled to live a godly life.
• We believe in the resurrection of both the saved and the lost; they that are saved unto the resurrection of life and they that are lost unto the resurrection of damnation.
• We believe in the spiritual unity of believers in our Lord Jesus Christ.

Third, we are Missional:

• We believe that our local churches must be faithful to the content of unchanging Biblical doctrine (Jude 3).
• We believe that our local churches must be faithful to the continually changing context of the culture(s) in which they minister (1 Corinthians 9:19-23).
• We believe that our mission is to bring people into church so that they can be trained to go out into their culture as effective missionaries.

Fourth, we are Reformed:

• We believe that God created the heavens, the earth.
• We believe that God created man and woman in a state of sinless perfection with particular dignity as His image bearers on the earth.
• We believe that our first parents sinned against God and that everyone since is a sinner by nature and choice. Sin has totally affected all of creation including marring human image and likeness so that all of our being is stained by sin (e.g. reasoning, desires, and emotions).
• We believe that because all people have sinned and separated themselves from the Holy God that he is obligated to save no one from the just deserved punishments of hell. We also believe that God in His unparalleled love and mercy has chosen to elect some people for salvation.
• We believe that the salvation of the elect was predestined by God in eternity past.
• We believe that the salvation of the elect was accomplished by the sinless life, substitutionary atoning death, and literal physical resurrection of Jesus Christ in place of His people for their sins.
• We believe that the salvation of the elect, by God’s grace alone, shows forth in the ongoing repentance of sin and faith in Jesus Christ that leads to good works.
• We believe that God’s saving grace is ultimately irresistible and that God does soften even the hardest heart and save the worst of sinners according to His will.
• We believe that the gospel should be passionately and urgently proclaimed to all people so that all who believe may be saved through the preaching of God’s Word by the power of God’s Spirit.
• We believe that true Christians born again of God’s Spirit will be kept by God throughout their life, as evidenced by personal transformation that includes an ever-growing love of God the Father through God the Son by God the Spirit, love of brothers and sisters in the church, and love of lost neighbors in the culture.
• We believe that God is Lord over all of life and that there is nothing in life that is to be separated from God.
• We believe that the worship of God is the end for which people were created and that abiding joy is only to be found by delighting in God through all of life, including hardship and death which is gain.

READ THE REST OF THEIR DOCTRINAL STATEMENT HERE