Doctine?

For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry. (II Timothy 4:3-5) 

            Dare I say that “the time” is here? I’m not saying that “the time” has never happened before, or that we can’t pull back from the brink and come to it again a few years, decades, or centuries from now. But I believe it has come. Doctrine? Who cares about doctrine? All we need is mushy, gushy, good-feeling L.O.V.E. that makes us say, “Aw, how cute.” That’s as much doctrine as anyone needs. And so, we find someone who preaches that the only part of the Bible that matters is printed in red, or that it was all just written by men (and white (Caucasian) men at that) so we have to rewrite it for our culture. Rather than demanding that we be better about the parts where we’ve failed, we’re called to give up the parts we’re holding on to. Some historian who claims to be an expert discovers or rediscovers a document that mentions Jesus and insists that it’s just as valid as Scripture as anything in the Bible. (Follow the money, consider the motive. They are not scientists or scholars, they are salesmen and politicians.)

           But you… keep your head in all situations. Not keep your heart. Hearts are useful, but when the time comes that your heart goes into fight, flight or freeze mode…keep your head. Endure the hardship. Do your job, which includes evangelism. Discharge the duties of your ministry, whatever it may be. Those things are all hard to do all the time. When the situation is less than ideal, it can seem impossible. 

            The situation is almost always less than ideal. Back when people were more familiar and accepting of a socially acceptable Christianity, people thought they were good enough and didn’t care to listen to the real substance of Christianity. Now, society has rejected Christianity in favor of mushy, gushy “love.” If you mention doctrines or sins, or even just object to having them shoved down your throat, you get told that “The Bible says that divorce is wrong and Christians accept divorce, so Christians should also accept ____________.” They don’t realize that the answer is for Christians to approve neither divorce nor _____________. The answer to the problems Christians and society face is never to relax Scriptural doctrine, but to return to it.