In recent years, we have witnessed the explosion in growth of nondenominational churches under such labels as community churches, fellowships, and mega-churches. Although some of these churches are excellent, some of these churches are not only rejecting denominational standards, they are also rejecting or ignoring well-established doctrinal standards as well. Some of these churches primarily market themselves to seekers who want to feel good without truth or doctrinal restraints. Even though doctrine is simply defined as “teachings”, some of these nondenominational churches, and even some denominational churches, portray doctrine as unnecessary, divisive, or worse.
However, doctrine cannot be avoided unless a preacher or teacher just quotes Scripture without making any summary or other comment. We need to determine how important is truth. We need to determine how important is sound doctrine. We need to determine which doctrine of salvation is best supported by Scripture. We need to determine how important it is to believe and teach the true doctrine of salvation.
Although I grew up in the Christian Reformed church with my family having deep Reformed roots, I moved to an area of the country which had few Reformed churches. For almost 20 years, I attended, was a member, and even a lay leader in a wide-range of churches from Assembly of God to Calvary Chapel to Baptist to a very large United Methodist church to a small nondenominational “fellowship” to “community” churches. Some of these churches did not label their doctrine as Arminian. I was disturbed by some of the sermons, but I could not pinpoint what was wrong. Often, I thought the problem was just the particular minister. Eventually, a friend asked me if I remembered “TULIP”, the acronym for the Five Points of Calvinism which is the most important part of Reformed Doctrine. I began to study the differences between Calvinism and Arminianism. I then understood that it was Arminian doctrine presented in some of these churches. I realized Calvinism’s importance, not only for how it made me appreciate God’s grace more, but for how Calvinism a/k/a Reformed Doctrine is the true doctrine of salvation.
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