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It is a false dilemma to put doctrine and Christ in conflict with each other. We are given teachers. That is Scriptural. We test the teachers against the Scriptures. That is Scriptural. We know Christ as a person, *and* we know the truths He give us to know. We are obligated to follow sound doctrine.

BTW, there is a history to why doctrine has fallen on such hard times. The impulse of liberalism is to elevate personal, emotional experience to the level of supreme moral authority. The entire “gay liberation” movement is based on the same fallacy, the downgrading of objective truth to a status of being less important than how one feels personally. It is a very dangerous place to be. We have the word of God, and we have the words of God. They are not in conflict.

Peace,

I didn't suggest that doctrine is in conflict with Christ, my FRiend, but rather that man's doctrine is. The Lord's doctrine is inseparable from the Lord Himself - despite the author's claims to the contrary:

The relationship between doctrine and God is the same relationship of Gray's Anatomy to the human body. It is a description of a reality. It is not the reality itself.

Man's doctrines spring from his opinions, elevated and esteemed beyond their worth. The hubristic act of replacing God's words with one's opinions renders one's worship empty and pointless. (Matt. 15:1-9) But it's done every Lord's Day. One might as well stay home and watch the football game as engage in the pointless worship in many churches.

(If you don't believe it, visit around and ask people why they do the things they do in the assembly. Where are the instructions from God? Did God command it? Or do they just think it's a good idea?)

The author's confusion arises not from the Bible's description of God, but from his resistance to that description, as he clings to his own opinions and doctrines rather than yield in meekness to the Lord's.

As if that weren't enough, he seems to take pride in his resulting confusion. But not content to stop there, he holds up his ignorance and confusion as qualities authenticating him as a trustworthy teacher. Anyone with knowledge and understanding of God as revealed in the Scriptures is denigrated as "probably worshiping an idol."

Follow men like him at your peril.