Doctrine Matters

Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits (Matthew 7:15-16).

Doctrine is teaching about what something is. One's understanding of something will determine how they will understand what is needed for one to act. The doctrine of Salvation is the most important doctrine for EVERYONE. It is about how to escape from God's righteous wrath, for which the sentence for the person is rightfully an Eternity in Hell. There is no question that the doctrine of Salvation is the most important doctrine of all. It is about where one spends Eternity.

The most fundamentally important doctrines of the Bible are that:

1. All humans have sinned against God. 
2. The wages of sin is death, or an Eternity in Hell.
3. Sin is transgression of God's Law.
4. Hell is God's righteous, just punishment for guilty sinners.
5. God the Father, Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit are part of the Holy Trinity
6. Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is the unforgivable sin. All other sins can be forgiven including blasphemy against God and Jesus. 
7. God sent His Only Begotten Son to die for the sins of the world because God so loved the world. His death served as an atonement for our sins. 
8. Jesus rose from the dead physically and spiritually. He defeated death.
9. Salvation ONLY comes through Jesus. Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father EXCEPT through Jesus.
10. Salvation is by grace ALONE. Grace is unmerited favour from God. It is a free gift.
11. By no works can any person be saved.
12. Only the righteous and holy can enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

One's acceptance of doctrines will determine how a person acts to escape from Hell. The biggest problem of humanity is SIN. Thus, one's understanding of what sin is will determine one's eternal destiny despite that no one is saved by keeping God's Law or doing good works. One MUST understanding of what sin IS in GOD'S EYES, and have knowledge of their OWN SIN. To understand sin is to understand that one stands guilty before God and deserves God's punishment. This is extremely hard for many to accept since people tend to love to think they can be good, to make up their own standards and have their own beliefs. The Law of God is indeed like bitter medicine that is offensive to the taste of the unregenerate sinner. However, it is like an X-ray that informs the unregenerate sinner as to his true spiritual state. He would most likely be shocked or offended because he most likely thinks he is a good person, but he is not. No one is good by God's standards. One may be good by human standards, but human standards are not the Laws that God uses to judge the world. The unregenerate sinner is spiritually blind. He cannot see or understand anything that is spiritual. All he can see is the natural. Satan blinds the unsaved (2 Corinthians 4:4). This is not at all to imply that the unsaved can blame satan as he know God's Law which is written on his heart (Romans 2:15) and he knows God exists (Romans 1:20). 

The Word of God is like the lighthouse that leads ships in the dark from running aground. Darkness is the absence of light. Light is diametrically opposite of darkness. Any false doctrines that deviate from the true Word of God is not a lighthouse as it is based on darkness. Any ship that follows it will run aground.