First–
Find all Bible verses that might speak to the subject.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Second–
Read, re-read, study, re-study these verses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Third–
Refrain from saying anything about the doctrine you’re thinking about defining\/nailing down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fourth–
Let the Bible verses speak for themselves, by themselves, without commentary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fifth–
When you think you ‘have to’ formulate a doctrine statement, just use Bible verses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Where do we get the idea that we can say (must say) ‘it’, that is ‘anything’, better than the Bible says it ?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
– – –<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What about Bible verses that seem to say different things than other verses on a subject ?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Do we think we can solve that by adding man’s words, to explain what God didn’t make clear to our satisfaction in the Bible ?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Oh, let me explain it, and I can make it clear” ? ? ?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Oh, let Me explain it, and I can make it clear” ? ? ?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Oh, let ME explain it, and I can make it clear” ? ? ?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There’s more where that comes from.
Example—30,000,000 “explanations for the trinity” (right there on the internet first time I looked)—just because Bible verses alone weren’t enough to tell us about God—Father, Son, Holy Spirit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We get in trouble “comparing ourselves with those who commend themselves . . . measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, they are not wise.”*<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We have a theological pattern of creating doctrines, for 2000+ years — — — shake it off ?—but nobody does that—why not ?—we’re stuck—everybody refers to some revered person or statement in the past — — — almost impossible to start fresh with just the Bible, without somebody ‘enlightened’ telling us . . . how it is . . . what it really says . . . what it really means.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Why do we refer to what people say about God, a long time ago, and today, to form our doctrine ?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
XX– Is it because the Words in the Word of God are not enough for us ?
OR
XX– Is it because it is too much work for us to spend time in the Bible, for ourselves, to see what God says about Himself ?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Who do we want to impress with our knowledge of theology ? “Study to show yourself approved unto God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, accurately explaining the Word of Truth.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n * “For we dare not class ourselves or compare ourselves with those who commend themselves. But they, measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" First–Find all Bible verses that might speak to the subject. Second–Read, re-read, study, re-study these verses. Third–Refrain from saying anything about the doctrine you’re thinking about defining\/nailing down. Fourth–Let the Bible verses speak for themselves, by themselves, without commentary. Fifth–When you think you ‘have to’ formulate a doctrine statement, just use Bible verses. Where do […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,2,7,9,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-educational","category-faith_based","category-inspire_lifter","category-political-cultural","category-time"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7202"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7202"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7202\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7266,"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7202\/revisions\/7266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
How do we expect to impress them ?
— By quoting important people to show our knowledge of church history ?
OR
— By quoting God to show everything we must know about Him and His<\/span>tory !<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But ‘he who glories, let him glory in the Lord.’ For not he who commends himself is approved, but whom the Lord commends.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n