Over the next several weeks we are going to start our bible study for Proclamation Church (for information in attending please contact us) and it is going to start by looking at the essential Christian doctrines that are instrumental and paramount to the Christian faith in a series called, appropriately enough, “doctrines.”

There are three main reasons that I think starting with a series on Christian doctrine is essential:

1. Transformational — It ensures that Proclamation Church is firmly rooted in God’s truth.  The list of topics is quite lengthy (I’ll get to that in a second) but includes the essentials of the Christian faith (e.g., the doctrine of Christ, the doctrine of Grace, the doctrine of Salvation, etc.) necessary for God to bring those in the Darkness into the Light (John 1:1-5).  While terms such as protoevangelium and substitutionary atonement and verbal plenary inspiration might drive the most educated mad, they do have contemporary, even “hip/cool” translations (the first Gospel; Christ substituted His bodily death for our spiritual death; and the entire Bible is what God said and meant to say through its authors and translators, respectively).
2. Important — The Scriptures are necessary for Christians to be “equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16).  Without an understanding of the Scriptures, as Christians, faith will not grow.
3. Timely–The church and culture are at a crossroads.  While culture has been shifting away from “church” for the last 40 years with the “postmodernism” mindset, the last 15 years have seen the church try to “catch up” and adapt itself to culture in order to be, like a middle school kid, “popular.”  However, the Bible doesn’t call Christians to be popular, it calls Christians to be like Christ (Ephesians 5:1-2) and to conform to the new life, not the old (Ephesians 4:17-25).  Paul also charges Timothy to be ready in season and out to “preach the word” (2 Timothy 4:2) because of those who “accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.” (2 Timothy 4:3-4)

So, over the next several weeks we will be discussing:

1. doctrines: the Bible
2. doctrines: God
3. doctrines: Christ
4. doctrines: Holy Spirit
5. doctrines: Trinity
6. doctrines: Man/the Fall/Original Sin
7. doctrines: Salvation
8. doctrines: Grace
9. doctrines: Faith
10. doctrines: Predestination
11. doctrines: Sanctification
12. doctrines: Prayer
13. doctrines: Church
14. doctrines: Eschatology (End Times)

For those that know, my physical body vision is horrible–legally blind in my left eye without contacts! However, thankfully, by God’s grace, my spiritual vision is crystal clear–now even more than ever!!

God has granted me, by His grace and through the Holy Spirit, a spiritual excitement and vision for Nashville! Beth and I see reaching Nashville and spreading the message of Light into the Darkness.

God has also given Beth and I the vision and excitement of defending God’s truth in a city that seems so prone to the false doctrines that are being used to simply attract numbers on Sundays and not the true doctrines that see and show Salvation and Changed lives as a result of people believing and trusting in the real and personal work of the onle true Savior–Jesus!!

I praise God for His timing and am always continually overwhelmed by His calling on Beth and I’s lives and placing us in the only position that matters–telling others about Jesus!!