How important is doctrine? If you askthat question of some Christians, theywill emphatically say, "It is very impor-tant!" However, many will say, "Well, itdepends." And then they will justify theiranswer to some extent, by saying: "Weshouldn't be so dogmatic on our doctrinesthat we break or intrude on the Christianfellowship among other people."

American Ecumenism

We have, what we call, an "ecumeni-cal". movement in the United States,where a number of professing Christiansare attempting to unite all of the church-es in some sort of a fellowship. They aretrying to convince the people that the onlyimportant thing is that they use the Bibleand profess Jesus Christ. Any other differ-ences should be subdued or forgottenbecause we MUST get together for fellow-ship! This carries down all the way toindividual Christian families saying, "Idon't agree with the doctrines preached inthis church, but it's the only one in myneighborhood, so I'm going to go thereanyway."

So doctrine is compromised at all lev-els. Some of the argument is, "Doctrine isnot important if you have disagreementswith others, because after all we are allChristians! — We are all brothers," etc.And I happen to be one minister who doesget some criticism from people who say,"Pastor Emry, you emphasize doctrinaldifferences too much, and you antagonizepeople by insisting that certain doctrinesare true and that certain other doctrinesare false. Doctrines should not be made

that important. The important thing is tokeep from antagonizing people. Be nice tothem and get them to listen. And we espe-cially need coopration among the minis-ters."

Jesus’ Teachings Are CalledDoctrine

Well, all of that sounds very good, butlet us read what Webster's Dictionary andthe Bible have to say about doctrine. InWebster's dictionary there is about fourinches of very fine print about doctrine, soI will just briefly summarize what it says.

Webster says that doctrine is "thatwhich is taught. The body of principle inany branch of knowledge." Then Webstergives some other words: "tenet, dogma inrelation to religion, principle of faith,learning, knowledge." Mr. Webster, also,uses the following phrase: "a dogma is adoctrine laid down with authority."Remember that, because I will repeat itlater. We will, also, look at Strong'sConcordance dictionary definition, as wego on in our study.

Matthew five is the first place that theword "doctrine" is used in the NewTestament. We will begin reading in thefirst verse, which is the introduction ofthis long teaching by Jesus Christ:

“And seeing the multitudes, he wentup into a mountain: and when he wasset, his disciples came unto him:“And he opened his mouth, andtaught them, saying,

Is Doctrine Important?by Sheldon Emry

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“Blessed are the poor in spirit: fortheirs is the Kingdom of heaven.”

Matthew 5:1-3

Then follows all the teaching of JesusChrist, sometimes called the sermon onthe Mount in chapters five, six and seven.And at the very end it closes this way:

“And it came to pass, when Jesus hadended these sayings, the people wereastonished at his doctrine:“For he taught them as one having au-thority, and not as the scribes.”

Matthew 7:28,29

Not only do we have the word "doc-trine" here, but we have another versewhich, in effect, says he taught withauthority. According to Webster, Matthew5,6 and 7 would be DOGMA — doctrinetaught with authority:

Jesus’ Teachings Are God’sDoctrines

Verse 28 of Matthew seven says "thepeople were astonished at his doctrine."This indicates that it was apparently newand/or different than they had heardbefore. Yet, they did recognize that Hespoke with authority.

Turn to John 7, starting with verse 14:

“Now about the midst of the feastJesus went up into the temple, andtaught.“And the Jews marvelled, saying, Howknoweth this man letters (or learn-ing), having never learned?”

John 7:14,15

In other words, how can He know allthese things if He never went to ourschools? The Jews were surprised at Hiswisdom. Some thinking-Christians have.

problems when they try to point out anunpopular truth, from a particular scrip-ture passage, to some Judeo-Christianminister. The minister does not specifical-ly address the issue the Christian bringsup, but instead, comes back with, "Well,I've been in the seminary for four or sevenyears and I've been preaching for 25 or 30years and, therefore, I have more authori-ty to interpret this than you do."

If you ever encounter such a minister,you might point out these verses in Johnseven, where the scribes and thePharisees admitted that Jesus taughtwith doctrine and truth; but they couldnot figure out why, because he had nevergone to their schools. He had not gone tothe accepted schools, which they had setup for teaching the teachers in their reli-gion.

Jesus answered in the next verse as towhere he got his doctrine:

“Jesus answered them and said, Mydoctrine is not mine, but his that sentme.”

John 7:16

So we have it from Jesus Christ, him-self, that what He taught that astonishedthem was God's doctrine. This is the sameword translated "doctrine" in other places.It IS the doctrine of God.

Obedience Helps You ToIdentify True Doctrine

Then Jesus went on to tell us how aman can know if something is the doctrineof God:

“If any man will do his will, he shallknow of the doctrine, whether it be ofGod, or whether I speak of myself.”

John 7:17

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He, in effect, was saying that if a manwill obey God, he will know whether thedoctrine is true or not. Now think aboutthat. You know of many people who readthe same verses and the same chaptersout of the same translations that you doand yet you have a disagreement withthem over what it means. They do not un-derstand it the way you do. Here, Jesus issaying that if a man will do God's will, heshall know whether the doctrine is of God.In some way, he will have a verificationfrom God that this is Bible truth. But it ispredicated on him doing God's will. It isnot predicated on him reading the Bibleten hours a day, or going to certainschools, or attending certain churches. It,apparently, is predicated on obedience. Ifyou will obey God, He. will reveal Histruth to you.

Here is a warning on how to listen tothe MAN who is preaching the doctrine tosee whether his doctrine is true:

“He that speaketh of himself seekethhis own glory: but he that seeketh hisglory that sent him, the same is true,and no unrighteousness is in him.”

John 7:18

Correct Doctrine Will GlorifyGod Only

In other words, if he seeks God's glory,he is true and righteous. To put it anotherway, a man who preaches the true doc-trines of God will not preach anythingthat glorifies himself. When he gets allthrough preaching, if you, having listenedto him, glorify and praise God, then he. ispreaching the truth. But if, after listeningto him, you glorify and praise the speaker,then be careful. Be careful if he builds upsome sort of an emotional feeling in youthat makes you think, "Boy, isn't he agreat preacher! Boy, he is something!" Be

careful if you go out praising the man,because then he is NOT preaching thetruth!

Many of the television evangelists cre-ate a tremendous loyalty among their lis-teners, and the people really believe thattheir favorite evangelist is some greatman. They will continually praise him likethis:

"Oh, I heard Oral Roberts (or RexHumbard, or Jimmy Swaggart, or etc.)and he was terrific and he was wonder-ful!"

If you want to give them an interestingthought, ask them just an hour or a dayafter they have heard his latest sermon,what their favorite preacher said. And doyou know, nine times out of ten, they donot know what he said!

A friend of mine did this, using RobertSchuller as the TV evangelist, and theywrote me a letter about what happened. Afriend with whom he worked was atremendous fan of Robert Schuller, andhad often made the remark that Schullerwas probably the greatest preacher thathe had ever heard. Bill, the man on mymailing list, then told him, "Well, I'd beInterested in knowing more about BobSchuller. When you listen to him nexttime, would you write down the verses outof the Bible that he uses in his sermonand then .bring and show them to me?"

The friend said he would and the nextMonday at work the fellow said, "He neverread the Bible!"

Bill's friend discovered for the firsttime, after listening to this man hethought was such a great preacher, thatSchuller did not use any Bible passages!And if you have ever listened to him, youknow he very seldom does. Many TV evan-

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gelists are the same way. They preach insuch a way that when they are through,the glory goes to the speaker, not to GodAlmighty.

There was a book, published someyears ago, titled “How to Be A BishopWithout Being Religious.” If you read thebook, you realized that the title reallymeant "how to be a minister without beinga Christian." And one of the things in theinstructions was what kind of sermons topreach to build a large ministry. This bookwas an instruction to men either goinginto the ministry or who had already beenin the ministry.

The author of that book, in that onechapter, stated at least three times inthree different ways: do not exalt God.Exalt the people! Praise the people. Makethem feel good, but do not exalt GodAlmighty. And he made it very plain in thebook that if you exalted God Almighty, youwould not have this thousand or two thou-sand or five thousand people in yourchurch, because people like to come andhear themselves praised. They like to bemade to feel emotional about themselvesand about the church. THAT is why theykeep coming back in great numbers.

But Jesus teaches the very opposite! If,after you hear the minister preach, youpraise the minister, then there is some-thing wrong about the man's preaching.There is something wrong because whathe should preach is that which praisesGod Almighty. Then it is evident that he isprobably preaching true doctrine.

Let us look at the passages in the OldTestament where the word "doctrine" isused. One passage is found in the Song ofMoses and it is introduced in the lastverse of Deuteronomy 31:

“And Moses spake in the ears of all the

congregation of Israel the words ofthis song, until they were ended.”

Deuteronomy 31:30

And then it goes on into the Song ofMoses:

“Give ear, O ye heavens, and I willspeak; and hear, O earth, the words ofmy mouth.“My DOCTRINE shall drop as therain, my speech shall distill as thedew, as the small rain upon the ten-der herb, and as the showers upon thegrass:”

Deuteronomy 32:1,2

This doctrine that he was going topreach was going to do something good forthe people. By the way, the word "doc-trine," in the Hebrew, according toStrong's Concordance, means INSTRUC-TION RECEIVED. Doctrine is instructionreceived or learning. In the very nextverse, he says:

“Because I will publish the name ofthe Lord: ascribe ye greatness untoour God.“He is the Rock, his work is perfect:for all his ways are judgment: a Godof truth and without iniquity, justand right is he.”

Deuteronomy 32:3,4

Why would the doctrines or the in-structions that Moses taught the peoplebe as the rain? Why would his speech dis-till as the dew — as the small rain on thetender herb? In other words, why wouldMoses' doctrine make the people grow andbless them and instruct them and teachthem? Because he praised God immedi-ately. He said "He is the Rock," "ascribe yegreatness unto our God," "I will publishthe name of the Lord." Whatever it wasthat he was going to teach the peoplewould be a benefit to them because it

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came to them with the praise and glorifi-cation of God — not of Moses.

You should read all of the Song ofMoses, which is 43 verses long. ManyChristians do not even know there is sucha thing in the Bible, in spite of the factthat in Revelation 16, it tells of the saintswho have "overcome the beast and hismark," who sing the Song of Moses. I haveheard a lot of preaching about the mark ofthe beast, but I have never heard a minis-ter talk about the mark of the beast andthe Song of Moses in the same breath. Yet,they are tied together in the book ofRevelation.

A Wise Man Desires Doctrine

There are five places in Proverbswhere Solomon used this same word. TheHebrew word is "leqach" (Strong's #3948)and is translated "doctrine" or "learning,"meaning, instruction received. InProverbs, it is translated "doctrine" once,and "learning" four times:

“The proverbs of Solomon the son ofDavid, king of Israel;“To know wisdom and instruction; toperceive the words of understanding;“To receive the instruction of wisdom,justice, and judgment, and equity;“To give subtilty to the simple, to theyoung man knowledge and discre-tion.”

Proverbs 1:1-4

After giving the reasons why he iswriting this book of Proverbs, he says inverse five:

“A wise man will hear, and willincrease LEARNING (Ieqach) and aman of understanding shall attainunto wise counsels:”

Proverbs 1:5

The Hebrew word for "learning" is,also, translated "doctrine" in otherplaces.In effect, he is saying that a wise man willhear these instructions or proverbs, whichwere from God through Solomon, ofcourse, and he will increase doctrine.

The emphasis is on a wise man want-ing more doctrine and increasing in wis-dom.

Obedience Brings Knowledgeof Doctrine

Proverbs four beginning in verse one:

“Hear, ye children, the instruction ofa father, and attend to know under-standing.“For I give you good doctrine, forsakeye not my law.”

Proverbs 4:1,2

This is Solomon speaking, of course,through the spirit of God, so Solomon isnot referring to his own law. He is refer-ring to God's Law. Therefore, good doc-trine has something to do with hearingGod's Law. Remember, Jesus said if youattempt to do his will, then He will revealto you whether the doctrine is the truth ornot.

“Give instruction to a wise man, andhe will be yet wiser: teach a just man,and he will increase in learning.”

Proverbs 9:9

The word "just" also means "right-eous." The last phrase could read "teach aRIGHTEOUS man and he will increase inDOCTRINE." Notice again, he is right-eous; THEN he increases in doctrine.

This is the same pattern that Jesustaught. Remember, Jesus said:

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“If any man will do his will (God'swill), he shall know of the doctrine,whether it be of God, or whether Ispeak of myself.”

John 7:17

If a man does God's will, that makeshim a righteous man. In Proverbs,Solomon correctly-put the horse before thecart again, instead of the other wayaround. The implication is that obedienceis rewarded with learning, whereas wemay have incorrectly-thought that learn-ing was rewarded with obedience. To illus-trate this, many Christians have runacross a person who knows the Bible prob-ably a lot better than they; and yet, he isa very vicious, wicked person and mayeven use the Bible to his own personaladvantage, while he teaches it wrongly.

Jack Van Impe, by the way, is one ofthose who can quote the entire Bible frommemory! But, if you will investigate JackVan Impe's doctrine, it does not fit whatthe Bible says.

Another example is a local man whowas on the radio some years ago, whosenickname was 'The Walking Bible." Hewould preach at various churches aroundCalifornia, Arizona and other places in thecountry, demonstrating his memory of theBible by having members of the audiencegive the chapter and the verse, and thenhe would quote it. Or they would quote theverse and he would give the chapter andthe verse. He had memorized the entireBible — all 66 books! And yet, he taughtthat the Jews were Israel; that we wereGentiles; that the rapture was going tocome soon; that there were seven years oftribulation coming before Jesus Christwould return. He taught all the false doc-trines of the pentecostals and fundamen-talists, and yet he knew every word in theBible by heart and could tell you chapterand verse, where it was."

Thus, it is not a case of simply know-ing, and then the obedience coming later.Solomon said (Proverbs 9:9), you obey Godand then He will open up His treasures toyou. He will open up His wisdom and Hislearning to you.

“The wise in heart shall be called pru-dent: and the sweetness of the lipsincreaseth learning (DOCTRINE).”

Proverbs 16:21

Those who are wise are again relatedto doctrine.

“The heart of the wise teacheth hismouth, and addeth learning (DOC-TRINE) to his lips.”

Proverbs 16:23

Those who are wise will teach doctrine.Of course, you realize when the word "doc-trine" is used in the Bible, it means TRUEdoctrine. The only time you would sayFALSE doctrine is when you put the word"false" in front of the word. When it says"doctrines," it means God's true doctrines.

Israel Will Be Corrected ByLearning Doctrine

Let us look at one more passage in theOld Testament. Isaiah 29 and 30 are end-of-the-age prophecies — some of whichhave not come to pass, some of which arenow coming to pass. But anyway, he issumming up an end-of-this age prophecy:

“Therefore thus saith the Lord, whoredeemed Abraham, concerning thehouse of Jacob, Jacob shall not nowbe ashamed, neither shall his facenow wax pale.”

Isaiah 29:22

This is after Jacob Israel's deliverancein the end of the age. He Is not going to befrightened or ashamed of his God.

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“But when he seeth his children, thework of mine hands, in the midst ofhim, they shall sanctify my name, andsanctify the Holy One of Jacob, andshall fear the God of Israel.“They also that erred in spirit shallcome to understanding, and they thatmurmured shall learn doctrine.”

Isaiah 29:23,24

Now, think about that. He sums up thecorrecting, the turning, the redeemingand the saving of Israel in the end of theage; by saying that even those who are inerror, will get understanding and learndoctrine. They will come to the correctunderstanding of God's word as he savesthem in the end of the age. Evidently, itmeans, very simply, that teaching correctdoctrine will be done to those who are inerror. They will have to be taught by God,or by someone, to correct their error.

Three Important Questions

Now, here are three questions. Youthink of them carefully, and we will findthe answers in our study.

1. If a man or a nation is in error (thatmeans in sin and in disobedience to thetrue doctrines of God), which of the follow-ing will tend to correct the man or thenation?

a. An agreement among ministers not tocontend about differences in doctrine, butrather to be quiet about them and shut upon doctrinal differences so they can havefellowship.

b. A knock-down drag-out fight as towhich doctrine is true, forcing the peopleto listen to both sides of the question.

In other words, should we speak outand preach what we know to be true orshould we, simply, be quiet and attempt to

have fellowship? Which will teach themtrue doctrine? Which will convert themfrom error?

You think about that when you hearthe ministers say, 'Well, let's just keepthings quiet here. We know we have a lotof disagreements, but we shouldn't fightbecause, after all, we're all brothers."

2. Would the people even hear the truedoctrine if the ministers who knew itbacked off from preaching it for fear ofoffending the other ministers?

3. How many.of you have ever heard of aminister who preaches false doctrinebacking off from HIS doctrine for fellow-ship?

You see, THE COMPROMISE ISALWAYS EXPECTED TO COME FROMTHE SIDE THAT HAS TRUTH!

I have had some specific, definite criti-cism by people who tell me, "Oh PastorEmry, you keep preaching against theRapture and all you're doing is antagoniz-ing all of these wonderful pro-Raptureministers and preachers out there whodon't know any better." The implication isthat I should not show people it is a falsedoctrine because I hurt their feelings andthen they will not cooperate with me.

No one ever suggests that they quitpreaching the Rapture doctrine so they donot antagonize Emry! Now, you thinkabout that!

THE IMPLICATION IS ALWAYS ONTHE BASIS THAT THE MAN WHO ISPREACHING THE TRUTH IS THE ONEWHO SHOULD COMPROMISE. I thinkit is done in ignorance by Christian peoplewho know it is the truth, but they havebeen trained to think that fellowship ismore important than doctrine.

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There are many isolated families and Ifeel for them — and I understand theirsituation — who will say, “Well, we knowthe church is teaching false doctrine, butour children need fellowship." And so theywill go to some church where they knowthe minister preaches false doctrine, butthey want their children to have fellow-ship with other Christians. And what hap-pens? Their children grow up believingfalse doctrine because they compromisedwith falsehood, attempting to get fel-lowship instead of true doctrine.

You can begin to see the possibilitythat true doctrine is more important thanfellowship. And you will see this more aswe go back to the New Testament again.

Fellowship Must Have Doctrine

Let us go back to Acts two. This is THEchapter perhaps best known especiallyamong the Pentecostal people and amongmost fundamentalists, or people who havebeen in churches for some time. It is gen-erally taught that this was the beginningof "the church age" or "the Christian era"when the spirit was poured out atPentecost. And the people were converted,becoming, eventually, Christians, begin-ning what we call, the Christian era or theera of the Christian church.

We, who understand that we are theIsrael people, recognize it as the begin-ning of the calling out of Israel frompaganism. Israel was being turned awayfrom the false religions into the true doc-trines of Jesus Christ.

Peter finished preaching the sermonabout Jesus to these men:

“Therefore let all the house of Israelknow assuredly, that God hath madethat same Jesus, whom ye have cruci-fied, both lord and Christ”

Acts 2:36

The summing up of the very first ser-mon preached by this disciple to thosepeople at Pentecost, at what we call thebeginning of the Christian era, was thatGod had made Jesus both Lord andChrist. Therefore, we must accept that abasic doctrine of our Christian faith isthat Jesus is the Lord, or the Redeemer, orthe Savior or the Messiah. You cannotturn away from that or you will throw outPeter's whole sermon in Acts two!

Then we read, starting in Verse 37:

“Now when they heard this, they werepricked in their heart, and said untoPeter and to the rest of the apostles,Men and brethren, what shall we do?“Then Peter said unto them, Repent,and be baptized every one of you in thename of Jesus Christ for the remissionof sins, and ye shall receive the gift ofthe Holy Ghost.“For the promise is unto you, and toyour children, and to all that are afaroff, even as many as the lord our Godshall call.“And with many other words did hetestify and exhort, (In other words, hekept on in that manner.) saying, Saveyourselves from this untoward gener-ation.“Then they that gladly received hisword were baptized: and the same daythere were added unto them aboutthree thousand souls.”

Acts 2:37-41

The pouring out of the Spirit on thisday of Pentecost was a marvelous thing inthe history of Christendom.

Along with it came the preaching ofthe doctrine establishing the basis thatJesus Christ was Lord and Christ over thehouse of Israel, and it began this new eraof the turning of the hearts of the peopleback to the fathers. The people received

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the doctrine gladly and many of themwere added to the group.

“And they continued steadfastly in theapostles' doctrine and fellowship, and inbreaking of bread, and in prayers.”

Acts 2:42

Did they abandon doctrine for fel-lowship or did they fellowship under thedoctrine? Do you see the difference here?It says "they continued steadfastly in theapostles' doctrine and fellowship." THEDOCTRINE WAS THE BASIS OF THEFELLOWSHIP — NOT THE OTHERWAY AROUND!

I do not think that the people who tryto convince us that we should nullify orcancel our doctrinal teachings so we canhave "fellowship" are all evil or wickedpeople. I think they have heard this themeof "fellowship" and it sounds good to them.After all, we are not a loner type of peopleto any great extent. We love other people.We enjoy other families and children, andwe are a gregarious people. It would seemthat fellowship is a great goal. Therefore,many people think, that we should com-promise on our Christian doctrines a littlebit. “What does that hurt?" they ask.

The answer to that question is that ithurts doctrine! As we have so often seen,if we insist on having fellowship withother churches that do not agree with allof our doctrines, pretty soon the samething happens there that we see in thedenominations. THE MINISTERS AVOIDPREACHING SOME OF THE DOC-TRINES BECAUSE THOSE DOC-TRINES OFFEND MEMBERS OF THEFELLOWSHIP!

You can see that fellowship can destroydoctrine, whereas doctrine will build truefellowship.

Christians Refused To StopPreaching Jesus And His

Doctrines

Here, in Acts TWO, is the beginning ofour Christian faith. This is the day whenit all began. It follows up by saying thatthey then had both doctrine and fellow-ship. What happened when they contin-ued steadfast in the Apostles' doctrine andfellowship?

“And fear came upon every soul: andmany wonders and signs were done bythe apostles.”

Acts 2:43

You see, they stayed true to the doc-trine and then God blessed what they did.I would say that very few churches orministers who compromise with their doc-trines, on the basis of needing fellowship,ever have any great work other than gath-ering a lot of people around them. Andthey probably consider that a great work.But, you see, that does not get the doc-trine preached to Israel!

In Acts five, the apostles have been outpreaching for a while and some miracleshave happened. Then we read, starting inverse 24:

“Now when the high priest and thecaptain of the temple and the chiefpriests heard these things, they doubt-ed of them whereunto this wouldgrow.“Then came one and told them, say-ing, Behold, the men whom ye put inprison are standing in the temple,and teaching the people.“Then went the captain with the offi-cers, and brought them without vio-lence: for they feared the people, lestthey should have been stoned.“And when they had brought them,

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they set them before the council: andthe high priest asked them,“Saying, Did not we straitly commandyou that ye should not teach in thisname? and, behold, ye have filledJerusalem with your doctrine, andintend to bring this man's blood uponus.”

Acts 5:24-28

What happened in a matter of a veryshort time with these people whoremained steadfast in the doctrine? THEYFILLED THE CITY WITH THEIR DOC-TRINE! And they brought upon them-selves the anger and the ire of the phari-saic religious/political leaders of their day.These leaders said, “We told you not topreach in Jesus Christ's name, and hereyou have filled the whole city with yourdoctrine.”

“Then Peter and the other apostlesanswered and said, We ought to obeyGod rather than men.“The God of our fathers raised upJesus, whom ye slew and hanged on atree.“Him hath God exalted with his righthand to be a Prince and a.Saviour, forto give repentance to Israel, and for-giveness of sins.“ And we are his witnesses of thesethings; and so is also the Holy Ghost,whom God hath given to them thatobey him.”

Acts 5:29-32

Now, I watched three preachers, dur-ing the fall of 1982, interview MenahemBegin (Israeli Prime Minister) in Israel,during the height of the slaughter inLebanon. Those preachers fawned overhim, telling him what a wonderful man hewas and how wonderful his people wereand so on. This went on for about an hourwith talk back and forth between he andthese three preachers.

At the very end of the interview one ofthe ministers asked Begin, very apologet-ically, if he could close in prayer and prayfor Begin and for his people. Begin noddedhis head affirmatively, and the three min-isters bowed their heads. While the minis-ter prayed, Begin sat over there on thecouch and just looked at him. He neverbowed his head or closed his eyes or any-thing. He just watched them during theprayer. And the minister prayed a verylong prayer, asking for God's blessingupon his people, the Jews, and for Begin,and so on. When he ended the prayer, heended it WITHOUT the name of JesusChrist. He just said, "Amen."

Now what did that man do? He obeyedmen instead of God. In Acts five thePharisees told Peter and the rest of theapostles in verse 28, "Did not we straitlycommand you that ye should not teach inthis name?” In other words, "You're not touse the name of Jesus Christ. We told youthat and here you've been using it righthere in Jerusalem among this people."

And Peter did not just answer, “Weought to obey God rather than men." Doyou realize what he did? He did muchmore. He preached a sermon about JesusChrist to those Jewish Pharisees! He didnot just tell his other fellow ministers anddisciples that they should obey Godinstead of the Jewish Pharisees. Hepreached a sermon to the JewishPharisees. It is only three or four verseslong, but he preached to them about JesusChrist.

Now if those three ministers in thatinterview with Menahem Begin had want-ed to do what God intended them to do,when they finished their conversationabout the situation over in Lebanon andIsrael, regardless what they thoughtabout Begin and the people, they shouldhave given a witness and a sermon about

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Jesus Christ to those people. But, whenthey showed complicity to the anti-Christsthey demonstrated that they feared thosemen more than they did God. Now, if theyexalt and fear men more than they exaltand fear God, that is evidence that theremust be something wrong with theirpreaching.

Is it not probable that their followerswill do the same thing? Will not their fol-lowers also fear men above the fear ofGod?

Peter and the Apostles, of course,preached about Jesus. They said "the Godof our fathers raised up Jesus whom yeslew and hanged on a tree." In otherwords, they preached the resurrection."Him hath God exalted with his righthand to be a prince and a savior." Theypreached that Jesus was the savior andthe redeemer through his death and res-urrection. They, also, told the reason for it:"For to give repentance to Israel andrepentance of sins. And we are his wit-nesses of these things."

The apostles knew these doctrines tobe true and they would risk their lives topreach them right to the people who hadthreatened them with death for preachingsuch doctrines.

This is a very short sermon, but every-thing is in there. It is a composite of thewhole story of Jesus Christ and Israel injust three or four verses.

Paul Did Not Compromise True Doctrine

Acts 17 beginning in verse 16:

“Now while Paul waited for them atAthens, his spirit was stirred in him,when he saw the city wholly given to

idolatry.“Therefore disputed he in the syna-gogue with the Jews, and with thedevout persons, and in the marketdaily with them that met with him.“Then certain philosophers of theEpicureans, and of the Stoics, encoun-tered him. And some said, what willthis babbler say? other some, Heseemeth to be a setter forth of strangegods: because he preached unto themJesus, and the resurrection.“And they took him, and brought himunto Areopagus, saying, May we knowwhat this new doctrine, whereof thouspeakest, is?“For thou bringest certain strangethings to our ears: we would knowtherefore what these things mean.”

Acts 17:16-20

There is quite a lot in that passage.First of all, Paul saw the city given over topaganism - to the worship of false gods.Did Paul compromise with this in anyway? He did not just acquiesce to themand say, "Oh, it sure is wonderful to havefellowship with you people'" No! It saysthat he "DISPUTED" in the synagogueswith them. He, actually, got into argu-ments with them to show them they werewrong according to the true doctrine.

Secondly, the philosophers of theEpicureans and Stoics recognized that thedoctrine Paul taught was new. It certainlywas not like what they had been hearing.Why was it new? Because Paul preachedunto them Jesus and the resurrection!That is a new doctrine to any religion. Noother religion except the Christian faithteaches Jesus and the resurrection.

Paul did not try to fellowship withthese people. If you try to fellowship withthe Jews and the pagans and get alongwith them, one of the things you wouldhave to leave out would be the doctrine of

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the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Youmight even have to do that with some ofthe modernist so called Christian church-es. I understand that some percentage ofeven the United Methodist church minis-ters have stated that they not only DONOT believe that Jesus was born of a vir-gin; they DO NOT believe in His resurrec-tion.

Now, can you think of the ultimatecompromise between those who preachJesus and the resurrection and those thatthey might fellowship with, if it is not fel-lowshipping with the people who followthe religion of Judaism? Most Jewsabsolutely, totally-deny that Jesus was.resurrected from the dead. In fact, theyeven write books to claim that there wasdeceit and trickery surrounding Jesus'resurrection. They contend that the disci-ples stole the body of Jesus and hid it inorder to trick the people into believingthat Jesus was resurrected from the dead.

And yet we have, in America, atremendous number of ministers who saythey believe in Jesus Christ and the resur-rection, but they turn right around andtell their. flock that if they do not applaud,obey and help those people who denyChrist and the resurrection, then one wayor another God is going to curse them.NOW HOW INSANE CAN YOU GET INRElATION TO DOCTRINE?

These Judeo-Christians go to the ulti-mate to have fellowship in absolute, totalopposition to the true doctrines that are inthe Bible!

The question is, of course, should wehave fellowship AT ALL, IN ANY WAY,with those who deny Christ and His resur-rection?

Turn to Roman's 15. Paul is beginningto close his letter to Roman Christians:

“And I am sure that, when I come untoyou, I shall come in the fulness of theblessing of the gospel of Christ“Now I beseech you, brethren, for theLord Jesus Christ's sake, and for thelove of the Spirit, that ye strive togeth-er with me in your prayers to God forme;“That I may be delivered from themthat do not believe in Judea; and thatmy service which I have for Jerusalemmay be accepted of the saints;

Paul is really saying, “You prayNOT that I will fellowship with thesepeople who do not believe, BUTTHAT I BE DELIVERED FROMTHEM."

“That I may come unto you with joy bythe will of God, and may with you berefreshed.“Now the God of peace be with you all.Amen.”

Romans 15:29-33

Think of this: how important was thisfellowship with the unbelievers to Paul?He actually-asked them to deliver him"from them who do not believe in Judea."Now, we have a lot of people over in theancient land of "Judea" who do notbelieve! Should we not-as Paul did — praythat we be "delivered from them that donot believe in the land of Judea?" Insteadwe have ministers who say, "Oh, thosepeople who do not believe in the land ofJudea are the most important people onthe face of the earth. They're special. Theyare the apple of God's eye. And if you don'tdo everything you can to help them, Godwill curse you."

Now that is the exact opposite of whatPaul prayed for — what we just read inthe New Testament.

Whom did Paul want to fellowship and

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be refreshed with? He said "with you,"referring to the people he was writing to.And who were they? Well, let us readPaul's own definition at the beginning ofthe letter to the Romans, as he addressedthem and described what kind of peoplehe believed they were to whom he waswriting:

“Among whom are ye also the called ofJesus Christ:

And then he addresses the letter:

“To all that be in Rome, beloved ofGod, called to be saints: Grace to youand peace from God our Father, andthe Lord Jesus Christ.“First, I thank my God through JesusChrist for you all, that your faith isspoken of throughout the wholeworld.”

Romans 1:6-8

Paul wanted to be delivered from thosewho did not believe and he wanted tocome to Rome to be refreshed in fellow-ship with those whose faith was spoken ofthroughout the whole world.

Should it not be true that we, asChristians, would want to fellowship withthose who believe in Jesus Christ, His res-urrection, and the. truths of the HolyScripture instead of trying to fellowshipwith those who compromise and justify allsorts of evil that is in opposition to theWord of God?

I put an article about Jerry Falwelland the Moral Majority in my newsletter.It stated that they do not open their meet-ings in prayer using Jesus' name and thereason given was “We do not want tooffend the Jews and other non-Christiansin Moral Majority meetings." What isthat? That is:

“Having a form of godliness, but deny-ing the power thereof: from such turnaway.”

2 Timothy 3:5

You see, they fear men more than theyfear God and the reason may be that theirdoctrine builds up men more than itbuilds up God; therefore, of course, theywould fear men more than they would fearGod.

You have no doubt heard the argu-ments for the necessity of fellowship withother church groups. These argumentsmay range from, "They agree with almosteverything we teach, so we should fellow-ship with them," to the ultimate of seek-ing union with the people of the so-called"Jewish" religion, who actually denyJesus Christ and the resurrection. At thatpoint, the argument is usually, “We haveto fellowship with them because they areGod's chosen people. If we don't associatewith them, God will curse us."

However, let US see. what the Biblesays on this subject. Which is most impor-tant — doctrine or fellowship?

The Holy Spirit Is GivenFor Obedience

In previous pages, we found thatobedience helps us to identify true doc-trine:

“If any man will do his will, he shallknow of the doctrine, whether it be ofGod, or whether I speak of myself.”

John 7:17

Perhaps the holy spirit is given in thesame way that true doctrine is given, It isgiven not to those who simply pray andask for it, but it is given to those who obeythe will of the father:

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“And we are his witnesses of these things;and so is also the holy spirit, whom Godhath given to them that obey him.”

Acts 5:32

Obedience is first; then God blesses uswith knowledge and the Holy spirit, whichleads us into truth.

Pentecostals preach that "the HolyGhost" comes to those who pray and askfor it. They have religious services wherethey lay hands on people and pray thatthey will "get the Holy Ghost," but Petersaid that God gives the holy spirit to themthat obey Him.

The same is true regarding doctrine.Obey God and He will open up His doc-trine to you. He will give you the spirit tocorrectly-interpret it. He will give you wis-dom and understanding, if you obey.

This does not mean that He will giveyou wisdom and understanding, if youobey every jot and tittle of the law.

However, with the understanding thatyou already have, if you turn and obey asbest you can, God will lead you furtherinto doctrine and obedience.

The Holy Spirit Will Lead UsInto True Doctrine

Let us read more about "the holy spir-it at this point" so that we understandwhat it was to do.

What follows are the words of Jesus.Using Webster's definition of "doctrine,"(as we learned earlier in this study) wesee that John 16 is DOGMA because it isJesus' doctrine. He is preaching about theholy spirit, starting in verse 12:

“I have yet many things to say untoyou, but ye cannot bear them now.

“Howbeit when he, the spirit of truth,is come, he will guide you into alltruth: for he shall not speak of him-self; but whatsoever he shall hear,that shall he speak: and.he will shewyou things to come.“He shall glorify me: for he shallreceive of mine, and shall shew it untoyou.”

John 16:12-14

Ministers, generally in Pentecostalgroups, often claim that they have "theHoly Ghost." What do they preach about?They preach about "the Holy Ghost" —and that is ALL they preach about. I haveheard whole sermons on '''getting the HolyGhost." Pentecostalists insist that "theHoly Ghost" is an actual person.

According to Jesus' dogma (doctrine) inJohn 16:12 -14, here are the traits of theholy spirit:

1. Verse 13 states that the holy spirit willguide you into all truth.

2. Verse 13, also, states that the holy spir-it shall not witness of itself. It does notlead ministers to go on and on about theholy spirit.

3. In addition, verse 13 states that theholy spirit will show things to come. It willopen up God's prophecies. And where willyou read God's prophecies? You will readthem in both the Old and NewTestaments; but it is the holy spirit thatwill show you these prophecies and howthey. are fulfilled.

4. Verse 14 states that the holy spirit shallglorify Jesus. So many of the professing"Holy-Ghost-filled" preachers do not glori-fy Jesus because they preach false doc-trines, and then turn around and glorifythemselves for having “The Holy Ghost.”You are supposed to think they are better

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than other people because they have “TheHoly Ghost.” Nonetheless, in John 16:12-14, Jesus said the holy spirit (spirit oftruth), would not speak of itself. It wouldgive you truth and it would glorify JesusChrist. This is Jesus' dogma!

So let us get this straight when weread about the holy spirit and what thepurpose of the holy spirit is to God'sChristian people.

Avoid Those Who PreachFalse Doctrine

“Salute one another with an holy kiss.The churches of Christ salute you.“Now I beseech you, brethren, markthem which cause divisions andoffences contrary to the doctrinewhich ye have learned; and avoidthem.”

Romans 16:16-17

It would seem as if the modern churchhas changed that to read: "Now I beseechyou, brethren, mark them which causedivisions and offenses contrary to the doc-trine AND ARRANGE SOME SORT OFFELLOWSHIP WITH THEM, ANDAVOID SPEAKING ABOUT DOC-TRINE."

That is, to a great extent, their so-called missionary work. They pander tothe unbelievers in any way they can.

About 10 or 15 years ago, BillyGraham had meetings down in Floridaand set up a youth seminar which in-cluded a rock band separate from themain auditorium. Billy Graham justifiedit by saying, “Well, this is the way we canget the youngsters. They'll come in to hearthe rock music and then we can preachthe gospel to them." So he justified this bysaying "if we can get to them some way,

then we'll preach the gospel and they'llhear."

You will not find that kind of doctrinetaught in the New Testament. In fact, inthe next verse, there is a separation.There is actually a call to the Christiansto separate themselves from those whowill not believe. Christians are to stayaway from unbelievers and fellowshipwith Christian people only.

“For they that are such serve not ourLord Jesus Christ, but their own belly;and by good words and fair speechesdeceive the hearts of the simple.”

Romans 16:18

Considering those three verses inRomans 16, should Christians fellowshipin ANY way with those who teach theJews are Israel? The answer, obviously, isNO because their doctrine deceives thehearts of the simple.

Those Who Preach FalseDoctrine Do Not Serve Jesus

Should Christians who know that thepretribulation rapture doctrine is false goto church with those who preach the pre-bibulation rapture? According to Paul,those people teach contrary to the doc-trine and "serve not our Lord JesusChrist."

How many of you have heard peoplejustify ministers, groups or churches whoteach false doctrine by saying, “Well, Iknow their doctrine is false, but they cer-tainly preach Jesus! They continuallymention Jesus Christ, saying how muchthey love Him. They teach that if you willcome forward and accept Christ, you willgo to heaven when you die." They seem tobe outspoken Christians.

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But Paul says, "You mark them! Youidentify them! You expose those whopreach contrary to the doctrine and youavoid them!" The reason you avoid them isbecause "they that are such serve not ourLord Jesus Christ, but their own belly;and by good words and fair speechesdeceive the hearts of the simple."

One of the tragedies I see amongChristian families are those families whoare isolated. They cannot attend a churchwhere the minister preaches true doc-trine, so in desperation they will go to anysort of a fundamental church. They willsay, “Well, our children need to associatewith Christian young people." And so thechildren do, and eventually end up marry-ing other young people from those church-es. These young people, and eventuallyTHEIR children, learn errors and grow upbelieving the doctrines of the false church-es instead of the true doctrines of thegospel of Jesus Christ.

What caused it? Well, Christiansthought they needed fellowship more thanthey needed true doctrine. But that is abig mistake! If your family is the only onein the area that will accept true doctrine,I guess you will have to not fellowshipwith ANY of them. You stay with the doc-trine of Jesus Christ and God will takecare of the fellowship. Something willcome up later if you are obedient to thiscall of marking them and avoiding them.Do not let them influence your children!

The Old Testament WasWritten For Our Doctrine

What right do we have to compromisewith ministers and churches who, by theirdoctrines, deceive our Israel brethren? Ican find no reason to compromise at all!And about that time somebody will say,“Well, Pastor Emry, you have to admit

that a lot of those preachers preach moreabout Jesus Christ than you do because,Pastor Emry, you're in the Old Testamentand the Prophets all the time."

And I DO get this criticism from somepeople. They, also, say something like,"Oh, Pastor Emry, you have to preachmore of Jesus like the Baptists do." Well,perhaps we can answer that charge byreading further in this same chapter ofPaul's letter to the Roman Christians.Here is what Paul says as he closes hisletter. starting in verse 25:

“Now to him that is of power to stab-lish you according to my gospel, andthe preaching of Jesus Christ, accord-ing to the revelation of the mystery,which was kept secret since the worldbegan,“But now is made manifest, and by thescriptures of the prophets, accordingto the commandment of the everlast-ing God, made known to all nationsfor the obedience of faith:“To God only wise, be glory throughJesus Christ for ever. Amen.”

Romans 16:25-27

What did Paul say in those last verses?He refers, in verse 25, to the "gospel andthe preaching of Jesus Christ" and to "therevelation of the mystery." And wheredoes he say the revelation of the mysteryis coming from? The answer is found inverse 26: "But now is made manifest (ormade known) by the scriptures of theprophets."

Old Testament Doctrine EqualsBelief In Jesus Christ

I have said this before and I will say itagain for emphasis: YOU CAN NOTUNDERSTAND THE NEW TESTAMENTUNTIL YOU UNDERSTAND THE OLD

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TESTAMENT! Paul quoted OldTestament passages 56 times in the letterto the Romans. You cannot understandthe letter to the Romans unless you goback and read the passages and the sur-rounding verses to see what Paul wasquoting. He was writing to Christians whoknew the Old Scriptures, which he wasquoting. So he would quote, perhaps, justa phrase or a sentence, but he was refer-ring to a whole passage. You can notunderstand the New Testament withoutthe Old Testament.

In Romans 16:25-27 Paul said that thismystery of the revelation of the preachingof Jesus, the gospel, and so on, is nowmade known "by the scriptures of theprophets according to the commandmentof the everlasting God, made known to allnations for the obedience of the faith."

We can more readily-understand whatPaul is saying here by turning to John 5.In verse 39 Jesus said to the Jews:

“Search the scriptures; for in them yethink ye have eternal life: and theyare they which testify of me.”

John 5:39

What testified of Jesus Christ? TheOld Scriptures according to the dogma(doctrine) of Jesus Christ, Himself.

Jesus said to the Jews in the last twoverses of that same chapter:

“For had ye believed Moses, ye wouldhave believed me: for he wrote of me.“But if ye believe not his writings, howshall ye believe my words?”

John 5:46,47

Jesus gave two doctrines in verses 46and 47:

1. If you believe Moses, you will believeJesus.

2. If you do not believe Moses, you will notbelieve Jesus' words.

Now those are New Testament doc-trines, are they not? They are dogmabecause they are from Jesus, Himself!

How foolish we are to say, as so manyministers do, that the Jews believe Mosesand the prophets, but they do not believeJesus Christ was the Messiah. JESUSSAID THAT WAS IMPOSSIBLE! If theydo not believe Jesus, then they obviouslydid not, never did and do not now believeMoses and the prophets!

If you want a double witness for thebelievers about this same doctrine, turn toLuke 16, which tells the story of the richman and Lazarus. The rich man askedAbraham to send Lazarus to him withwater and Abraham said there was agreat gulf. Then the rich man goes on inverse 27:

“Then he said, I pray thee therefore,father, that thou wouldest send him tomy father's house:“For I have five brethren; that he maytestify unto them, lest they also comeinto this place of torment.”

Luke 16:27,28

In the following three verses Abrahamis speaking but remember, it is Jesustelling the story. So I am reading the doc-trine of Jesus Christ as He puts thesewords in Abraham's mouth, as we contin-ue in verse 29:

“Abraham saith onto him, They haveMoses and the prophets; let them hearthem.“And he said, Nay, father Abraham:but if one went unto them from thedead, they will repent.“And he said unto him, If they hearnot Moses and the prophets, neither

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will they be persuaded, though onerose from the dead.”

Luke 16:29-31

Why did the Jews not believe JesusChrist? Well, according to these two wit-nesses in the New Testament, they did notbelieve Jesus Christ because they did notbelieve Moses and the prophets.

Yet, ministers teach that the Jewsbelieve Moses, that the Jews believe in thesame God we do, even though they havenot accepted Jesus Christ. Those minis-ters are liars whether they know it or not!They are liars because their doctrine isnot the doctrine of Jesus Christ in theNew Testament.

Those ministers who say that the Jewsbelieve in the same God that we do wouldhave us believe the only difference is justthat their eyes have not been opened toaccept Jesus Christ. However, we alreadyread in Romans 16:18:

“For they that are such serve not ourLord Jesus Christ, but their own belly;and by good words and fair speechesdeceive the hearts of the simple.”

Romans 16:18

If we try to fellowship with those kindof people, we will be a party to those whoare deceiving our Israel brethren withdoctrines that do not come from the HolyWord of God.

Romans 15:4 tells us:

“For whatsoever things were writtenaforetime were written for our learn-ing, that we through patience andcomfort of the scriptures might havehope.”

Romans 15:4

What was "written aforetime?" Mosesand the prophets, Psalms and the history

of Israel — ie. the Old Testament — was"written aforetime." And the word trans-lated "learning" in that verse is the sameone translated "doctrine" in other placesin the New Testament.

After reading these passages, couldyou possibly fellowship with a preacherwho claimed to believe in Jesus Christ buttaught that the Old Testament or the OldLaw has been put away? ONLY IF YOUBELIEVE FELLOWSHIP IS MOREIMPORTANT THAN DOCTRINECOULD YOU COMPROMISE YOURDOCTRINE.

God’s Law Is Against AnyUnsound Doctrine

The doctrine of the New Testamentstates specifically that the Old Testamentis doctrine given for us. We have readabout Moses and the prophets, and nowhere is a passage on God's Law, itself, in 1Timothy 1, starting in verse 1:

“Paul an apostle of Jesus Christ bythe commandment of God ourSaviour, and Lord Jesus Christ,which is our hope;“Unto Timothy, my own son in thefaith: Grace, mercy, and peace, fromGod our Father and Jesus Christ ourLord.“As I besought thee to abide still atEphesus, when I went into Macedonia,that thou mightest charge some thatthey teach no other doctrine.”

1 Timothy 1:1-3

Paul was writing to a young ministerof the Christian gospel and he said, "Youtell them that they teach no other doc-trine."

“Neither give heed to fables and end-less genealogies, which minister ques-

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tions, rather than godly edifyingwhich is in faith: so do.”

1 Timothy 1:4

I should comment on verse 4 because ithas often been used against those of uswho teach that we, the Anglo-Saxon andkindred peoples are the descendants ofIsrael. The detractors say, "Oh, don't giveheed to endless genealogies," implyingthat we prove our Israelite ancestry bygenealogies. But that is not accurate.

Obviously, we do not prove our Is-raelite ancestry or the gospel of theKingdom by genealogy. We prove it by ful-filled prophecy, by the covenants and bythe history of our people fulfilling whatGod said in His Word.

Paul continues in verse 5:

“Now the end of the commandment ischarity out of a pure heart, and of agood conscience, and of faithunfeigned:“From which some having swervedhave turned aside unto vain jangling;“Desiring to be teachers of the law;understanding neither what they say,nor whereof they affirm.”

1 Timothy 1:5-7

Then, Paul tells us the intention of theLaw:

“But we know that the law is good, ifa man use it lawfully;“Knowing this, that the law is notmade for a righteous man, but for thelawless and disobedient, for theungodly and for sinners, for unholyand profane, for murderers of fathersand murderers of mothers, formanslayers,“For whoremongers, for them that de-file themselves with mankind, formenstealers, for liars, for perjured

persons, and if there be any otherthing that is contrary to sound doc-trine;”

1 Timothy 1:8-10

The Law of God is against anythingthat is not SOUND DOCTRINE. So thepurpose of the Law is not only to bringjudgment on the law breaker, but it is,also, to teach doctrine.

Where do we find the Law? We find itway back in Moses and the prophets. Andthen Paul says that all of this he has justwritten is:

“According to the glorious gospel ofthe blessed God, which was committedto my trust.”

1 Timothy 1:11

We, also, read the following in 1Timothy 4, starting with verse 6:

“If thou put the brethren in remem-brance of these things, thou shalt be agood minister of Jesus Christ, nour-ished up in the words of faith and ofgood doctrine, whereunto thou hastattained.“But refuse profane and old wives'fables, and exercise thyself ratherunto godliness.”

1 Timothy 4:6,7

PAUL IS ADMONISHING YOU TOREFUSE FALSE DOCTRINE! Now thatmay mean that you must refuse the per-son who preaches it, does it not? Thismeans you may have to end some fellow-ship with some church or group of peoplewhere you refuse their doctrine.

Praise God that some of our good peo-ple, who have not left churches wherefalse doctrine was preached, did try andspeak up concerning the true doctrine.And then, finally, they were simply kicked

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out. So, whether they left or not, God tookcare of breaking the fellowship; and theyended fellowshipping with those whotaught false doctrine.

Paul continues in verse 13:

“Till I come, give attendance to read-ing; to exhortation, to doctrine.”

Next to verse 16:

“Take heed unto thyself, and unto thedoctrine; continue in them: for indoing this. thou shalt both save thy-self, and them that hear thee.”

1 Timothy 4:13,16

Notice the emphasis Paul is putting ondoctrine in this letter. Remember, he iswriting to a man who is a preacher. Soperhaps he stresses the doctrine morethan he did in the other letters. He istelling Timothy, "When you preach, payattention to the doctrine!" In other words,"Preach God's truth!"

Can People Be Converted ByFalse Doctrine?

Further in Timothy we read:

“Let the elders that rule well be count-ed worthy of double honour, especial-ly they who labour in the word anddoctrine.”

1 Timothy 5:17

Not double honor to those who laborfor compromise and false fellowship. Wehave a great number of ministers. andchurches who spend a lot of their time try-ing to build up fellowship.

They want more people in theirchurches. Because of this we find the min-isters, in some cases, back off from

preaching doctrine because they areafraid it will drive someone in the con-gregation away. So the minister is at fault.The minister who will not preach doctrinebecause he wants a great number of peo-ple in his church is a hypocrite. He wantsfellowship first and foremost at theexpense of doctrine!

He may sincerely believe that theimportant thing is to get those people intothe church and then he will let everythingelse take care of itself.

Some years ago, a friend and I went tosee a minister who preached the doctrineof the Pre-tribulation Rapture. Hepreached it on television every day and inhis church on Sunday. He had, also, writ-ten books on the subject. Within two min-utes after introducing ourselves andbeginning to talk about the Pre-tribula-tion Rapture, the minister admitted to usthat the Pretribulation Rapture was nottrue AND HE KNEW IT!

But he justified it by saying, "However,it does get them thinking about the endtimes and gets them into the church andgets them saved." So he justified his ownteaching of false doctrines on the groundsthat it attracted people into the churchand got people saved.

I say, THAT IS A FALSE DOCTRINEITSELF, WHICH TEACHES THAT PEO-PLE CAN BE SAVED BY FALSE DOC-TRINE!

This minister's reasoning was non-sensical and unscriptural. Needless to say,we did not ever fellowship with thatchurch.

In 2 Timothy, chapter 3, we find thisfamiliar verse:

“All scripture is given by inspirationof God, and is profitable for doctrine,

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for reproof, for correction, for instruc-tion in righteousness:”

2 Timothy 3:16

"ALL scripture," spoken of in thisverse, which is "profitable for doctrine,"obviously-means, expressly, the OldTestament! The New Testament wasn'tpublished yet.

Yet some teach that the doctrine of lovetakes precedence over any thing else."God is love. Jesus is love. We must loveone another." And they will preach love lit-erally to the exclusion of preaching doc-trines of the Holy Word of God.

Their problem is that they are incor-rectly defining "love." Near the end of theNew Testament, in John's epistles, wefind the Biblical definition:

“And this is love, that we walk afterhis commandments. This is the com-mandment, That, as ye have heardfrom the beginning, ye should walk init.”

2 John 1:6

Now that is the BIBLICAL DEFI-NITION and the BIBLICAL DOCTRINEregarding love. Obedience to God's com-mandments is love, according to the doc-trine here.

John continues in verse 7:

“For many deceivers are entered-intothe world, who confess not that JesusChrist is come in the flesh. This is adeceiver and an antichrist.“Look to yourselves, that we lose notthose things which we have wrought,but that we receive a full reward.“Whosoever transgresseth, andabideth not in the doctrine of Christ,hath not God. He that abideth in thedoctrine of Christ, he hath both the

Father and the Son.“If there come any unto you, and bringnot this doctrine, receive him not intoyour house, neither bid him Godspeed:“For he that biddeth him God speed ispartaker of his evil deeds.”

2 John 1:7-11

Is doctrine Important? God's Wordsays DO NOT FELLOWSHIP WITHTHOSE WHO HAVE NOT THE DOC-TRINE OF JESUS CHRIST. So you thinkof that the next time you are tempted tocompromise with ANYONE who is not inthe doctrine of Christ and does not believein Jesus Christ according to the doctrinestaught in the Holy Scripture.

Glorifying God WithOne Mouth And One Mind

In Romans 15, starting in verse 4, weread this:

“For whatsoever things were writtenaforetime were written for our learning,that we through patience and comfort ofthe scriptures might have hope.“Now the God of patience and consolationgrant you to be likeminded one towardanother according to Christ Jesus:“That ye may with one mind and onemouth glorify God, even the Father of ourLord Jesus Christ.”

Romans 15:4-6

How are we going to glorify God, theFather of our Lord Jesus Christ, with onemind and one mouth if we compromise ondoctrine? We will have the same mish-mash that we have now, where thechurches are trying to get along in thisecumenical movement by literally layingaside an doctrines because they cannotget together on them. They say, “We justwant to have love and fellowship because

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we're all Christians." It is not long beforethey carry it a little bit further and bringin the Hindus, the Buddhists, the Jews,and everyone else. Why? Because they ini-tially compromised on doctrine.

According to Romans 15:4-6, in orderto glorify God with one mind and onemouth (in other words, with the sameteaching), we are going to have to teachthe same doctrine.

What doctrine should we teach? Itmust come from the Holy Word of God! Itcannot be something we make up becausethat could not possibly glorify God.

Conclusion

Let us close in Isaiah 29. After all ofthis study on doctrine, we should closewith the great and marvelous hope that inspite of everything the anti-Christs do —in spite of everything foolish Christiansdo, regarding doctrine — God has prophe-sied and promised that His people wouldlearn true doctrine:

“Therefore thus saith the Lord, whoredeemed Abraham, concerning thehouse of Jacob, Jacob shall not nowbe ashamed, neither shall his facenow wax pale.“But when he seeth his children, thework of mine hands, in the midst ofhim, they shall sanctify my name, andsanctify the Holy One of Jacob, andshall fear the God of Israel.”

Isaiah 29:22-23

That whole chapter is a prophecyabout Israel coming to understand whothey are, and that God has saved them(brought salvation to them through HisWord). Then they will turn to Him, theHoly One of Jacob, and will sanctify Hisname, Then in verse 24 is a promise:

“They also that erred in spirit shallcome to understanding, and they thatmurmured shall learn doctrine.”

Isaiah 29:24

In other words, it is not going to be upto us. We do not have to be responsible,ourselves, to teach all of Israel docbine.God has said THEY WILL LEARN DOC-TRINE!

Review

Even though I may have missed somepoints, I have listed below the things wehave learned about doctrine in this study:

1. Jesus' teachings are called doctrine.

2. Jesus' doctrine is from God.

3. Obedience helps one to know whetherthe doctrine is true.

4. Correct doctrine will glorify God, notthe carrier of the doctrine.

5. In Proverbs, we read that a wise manshould desire doctrine.

6. Obedience brings knowledge of doc-trine.

7. In Isaiah 29, Israel is corrected bylearning doctrine as God saves and deliv-ers them.

8. Early Christians fellowshipped IN doc-trine, not OUT of it.

9. Early Christians refused the Jews'order to stop preaching Jesus and His doc-trines.

10. Paul wanted no fellowship with thosewho were disobedient to the Gospel ofJesus Christ.

11. The holy spirit is given for obedience.

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12. The holy spirit will lead us into truth(doctrine).

13. Paul said we should avoid those whopreach false doctrine.

14. Those who reject truth and preachfalse doctrine do not serve Jesus Christ.

I suppose that is the hardest truth forus to grasp. If they mention Jesus, claimthey are Christians, repeat His name andthen preach doctrines which have a ratheremotional or good sound to them, we tendto think they are serving Jesus. Butaccording to the Bible, those who preachfalse doctrine do not serve Jesus, but theirown belly and they deceive the hearts ofthe simple.

15. The Old Testament was written forour doctrine.

16. The Old Testament doctrines must bebelieved in order to believe in JesusChrist.

17. The Law of God is against any thingthat is not sound doctrine.

18. We are not even to receive them intoour house who have not the doctrine ofJesus Christ nor bid them Godspeed.

19. We will glorify God with one mouthand one mind, when we come to an under-standing of true doctrine — the doctrine ofthe Holy Word.

These 19 Biblical points teach us thattrue fellowship must be IN doctrine. Letus lay hold of doctrine. Let us pursue truedoctrine, and God will take care of the fel-lowship.

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Is

Doctrine Important?

by Sheldon Emry

Is Doctrine Important?

by Pastor Sheldon Emry

A transcription of Sermon Tape #8309

Transcription courtesy ofPastor Ben Williams

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