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Teaching doctrine is not only Biblical, but essential in growing mature Christians.

Part of the muddled thinking in much of the church was brought about by an abandoning of doctrine. All of a sudden the guy in the pew can't even recognize that there are cults circaling Christianity that use the same "words" as Christians, but those words have different meanings.

We have abandoned perfectly Biblical terms for catch phrases that make the church seem less daunting.

I'll bet every person sitting in any church in America participates in some hobby or profession that has a precise vocabulary that others in the same activity share and know the definition of, and newcomers learn as they become, more advanced.

Whether golf, fly fishing, medicine or law. Quilting or making preserves or blogging, every activity has a language. Why are we afraid of perfectly good biblical words?

Part of the muddled thinking in much of the church was brought about by an abandoning of doctrine. All of a sudden the guy in the pew can't even recognize that there are cults circling Christianity that use the same "words" as Christians, but those words have different meanings.

Tell me about it. The leading member of the pastor search committee recently offered me materials from the Shepherd's Chapel. If I were looking for Christian Identity materials from the most explict antisemitic and racist televangelist preacher around, I wouldn't need to attend church. I'm especially offended at Christian Identity mixed with modalist heresy and Gap theory and Utahish pre-existence teachings. And I'm still uneasy at being asked whether I thought a black preacher would be appropriate.

Unfortunately, that's only the tip of the iceberg. Currently, I'm not attending services and trying to decide where to worship or if I should attend a sound bible study instead. You can only imagine the mischief these people have caused. Unsound in doctrine? Well, first they would have to actually learn some doctrine in order to be unsound in it. I suppose a good beginning would be if they stopped hiding magazines and books inside their large zippered bibles that they slyly read during services. And it's a little strange to see a Baptist deacon lugging the charismatic Dake Bible (tritheistic heresy, racial segregation, Gap theory, adoptionism).

At a certain point, you realize some people cannot be considered your brethren in Christ because you simply do not hold the same doctrine. As I indicated earlier, this isn't even about Calvinism/Arminianism. These folks appear to be years away from actually confronting real biblical doctrine. I would point out that they are all Arminians though.

Instead of pretending fellowship with those who won't obey scripture, particularly Jesus' own simple and direct commands in the Gospels, I'm going to spend some time rereading sound devotional material. First on my list is The Death Of Death In The Death Of Christ by John Owen (1648).

So I guess I'm on vacation from church recently too. I still hope the situation will resolve itself but I don't anticipate that happening.