I love YouTube and I hate YouTube. I walked into the office one day and declared, “YouTube is of the Devil!” The reason that I love it is that one has access to all kinds of normal, subnormal and mostly abnormal behaviors uploaded by anyone with a simple camera and a computer. Did you see the self-affirming little girl singing to herself in the mirror? Don’t click on it. I also hate YouTube because, well, I waste time watching 4 year olds sing in the mirror.

YouTube is also the place where any doctrinally deficient doofus can display a less than systematic theology. I recently showed a YouTube video to an Acts 29 pastor of a “preacher” advocating “tokin’ the ghost” with mythical “jehovajuana.” We both thought (hoped) it was a joke. Unfortunately it is more normal than abnormal in the church today. Maybe not to the level of this guy, but the church, trying to attract the perceived anti-doctrinal culture, spews Oprahesque theology and nobody seems alarmed.

Six Reasons Good Doctrine Makes Good Sense

(drawn from J. Ligon Duncan III)

1. Truth is for Joy and Growth

John 17:13-17, But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.  They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.

2. Truth is to be Lived

Matthew 28:18-20, And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

3. Errant Doctrine Destroys, True Doctrine Leads to Love

1 Timothy 1:3-5, As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine, nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies, which promote speculations rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith. The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.

4. Life and Doctrine are Inseparable

1 Timothy 1:8-11, Now we know that the law is good, if one uses it lawfully, understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers, the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine, in accordance with the gospel of the glory of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted.

5. Good Doctrine Promotes Godliness

1 Timothy 6:2-4, Teach and urge these things. If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions.

6. Truth Proclaiming is a Pastoral Responsibility

Titus 1:1, Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the sake of the faith of God’s elect and their knowledge of the truth, which accords with godliness.

Written by: on maio 24, 2010

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