The Importance of Doctrine

Why does doctrine matter? Many well-meaning, perfectly sincere people, Christian and otherwise, claim that doctrine, that is teachings, are options, not truths. But this is not the historic Christian position. We have creeds, the Nicene, Apostles’, and Athanasian, that we written to lay out the boundaries of Christian discussions. That is, they divide true things about Christ and false things that lead away from Him. To be brief, doctrine matters because it gives us Christ as He truly is.

Christianity is not built on religious sentiment or spiritual emotions. It is built on a real Lord who lived, died, and rose in real history. If Christ is real, then what we say about Him can be either true or false, right or wrong. The historical reality of Jesus demands specificity. He is not a collection of ideas or mythologies from which we may draw at our leisure. He is a true and living Savior, who really became incarnate in the womb of the Virgin Mary. Who really suffered and died and rose again.