With reference to: DOCTRINE by Jay12
I have been told by many Protestants that they do not believe in “doctrine.” They say they only believe in “what Jesus said”.
This is utter nonsense. People of all faiths believe in doctrine, for doctrine is simply a system of beliefs.
When Jesus said, “do this in remembrance of me,” he was referring to communion, of course. We all agree on that. However, many Protestants teach that this is just a symbolic taking of Jesus’ flesh and blood, whereas Catholics believe in transubstantiation. Both ideas are doctrine. It necessarily involves some interpretation of Scripture.
The concept of the Trinity is a doctrine, and most Christians believe this one.
The concept of OSAS is a doctrine.
Any time a person reads words, there is some interpretation involved. We cannot escape it. For example, I say to my sons “put your soccer shirts on the table, so I can wash them,” and later I find one soccer shirt on the kitchen table and one on the coffee table. Each person heard the same words, but only one of my sons put the shirt where I actually wanted it, i.e. on the kitchen table. Moreover, the interpretation gets even more difficult when you cross cultural/language barriers. For example, in Russian, you cannot say “Let’s have some fun.” You can have “Let’s have a good time,” but it is not exactly the same.
To continue to mince words evidences the following:
- Lack of intellectual honesty. Every person has doubts about their faith. To say otherwise shows dishonesty. Have you never read a miracle in the Bible and said “Did that really happen that way.” Have you never doubted any teaching of your Church? When I was a Baptist, I doubted OSAS, but I will tell you that no one would entertain the doubt with me for even a moment. All I got in reply were the same standard, tired old phrases that made we want to vomit, because it was clear to me that the person I was talking to didn’t care to question it.
- General ignorance of the English language itself and the fact that words have layers of meaning. Words have denotative meanings and connotative meanings. This is one of the most difficult facets of language for people who learn a second language to understand. For example, take the words “famous” and “notrious.” I have seen students (I used to each at the college level) use these two words interchangeably. Are they, however, exactly synonymous? No. One has a negative connotation, i.e. “notorious.”
- Ignorance of logical reasoning and effective rhetoric (in its postive sense). For example, a person tells me “I believe that abortion is wrong because the unborn child is a living being with just as many rights as his mother,” but I say back to him, “Oh yeah, well you’re an idiot.” Clearly, the first person has a logical reason for believing what he believes. I may not agree with him, but his argument is logical and well-formed, rhetorically speaking. I can respect its thoughtfulness.
When it comes to faith, we are all looking at the faith’s doctrine, as a whole, and saying to ourselves, this one seems most correct to me, most reasonable to me. I have met sincere and lukewarm Protestants and Catholics. This should not surprise us, as we are all sinners, and I suspect that we all vascillate to some degree between perfect sincerity and perfect depravity.
Blessings,
Lisa
It is clearly pennance right in front of you. If this is so clearly outlined in this Scripture passage, why do Protestants STILL refuse to acknowledge this? Go figure…
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