CHRISTIANITY AS A CIRCLE

'Christianity is not to be considered as a single point or a narrow, repetitive line, but as a circle which provides form but within which there is freedom to move in terms of understanding and expression. Christianity is a circle with definite limits, limits which tend to be like twin cliffs. We find ourselves in danger of falling off on one side or on the other; that is, we have to be careful not to avoid one sort of doctrinal error by backing off into the opposite one.

We must ask God to help us, and we must hep each other, not to fall off the cliffs. There is room for discussion within each circle, but we must not forget that there is a circle to be in.'

Francis A Schaeffer, The Church Before the Watching World, p.93.

DOCTRINE MATTERS

'There is no Christian doctrine that does not have a meaning in the existential, moment-by-moment, life. For example, the doctrine of the Trinity is affirmed in our Christian lives as we practise the reality, and the importance, or personality at this present moment. This is true both of the practice of personal relationship towards God and towards people.'

Francis A Schaeffer, The Church Before the Watching World, p.88.

ESCHATOLOGY DONE WELL

'...eschatological thinking that follows a biblical mode of thought really means allowing the final events, the end purpose of all things, to influence one's understanding of all preceding doctrines and events, including the form of the present life of the believer.' 

Brian Edgar, The God Who Plays: A Playful Approach to Theology and Spirituality, p.5. 

BELIEF & BEHAVIOUR

'There is an indissoluble link between conduct and conviction.'
Michael Green, 2 Peter and Jude, p.152. 

TRUE CHURCH UNITY

'It is often suggested that because doctrine divides, the best way to unite a church (or churches) is to dumb down and de-emphasize doctrine, because doctrinal distinctives will exclude some who cannot subscribe to them. This is true when the doctrinal distinction is secondary. It is untrue when the doctrine is justification by grace alone. Other distinctives create privileged or exclusive ghetto religion. But grace alone fashions a community which has no pride in its history, its privileges, its morality, its Bible knowledge, or anything that comes from within itself. It is therefore, a community that can live together in harmony and reach out with the barrier-breaking message of grace to a needy world.' 

Christopher Ash, Teaching Romans: Volume 1, p.177. 

KNOWING GOD

'Doctrines and structures are basically nothing but the fences around the garden where we can meet God.'

Henri JM Nouwen, Love, Henri, p.235.

THE IMPORTANCE OF APPLICATION

'We have given the first place to the doctrine in which our religion is contained, since our salvation begins with it. But, it must enter our hearts and pass along to our daily living, and so transform us into itself that it may not be unfruitful for us...'

John Calvin in Timothy Lane, Living without Worry,  p.115. 

DOCTRINE

'The purpose of doctrine is to ensure that those who bear Christ's name walk in Christ's way.' 

Kevin Vanhoozer in Jason B Hood, Imitating God in Christ, p.131. 

DOCTRINE

'Official Christianity, of late years, has been having what is known as "a bad press". We are constantly assured that the churches are empty because preachers insist too much on doctrine - "dull dogma", as people call it. The fact is the precise opposite. It is the neglect of dogma that makes for dullness. The Christian faith is the most exciting drama that ever staggered the imagination of man - and the dogma is the drama.'

Dorothy L Sayers, 'The Greatest Drama Ever Staged' in Creed or Chaos? p.1.

DOCTRINE

'When the heart is cast indeed into the mould of the doctrine that the mind embraceth - when the evidence and necessity of the truth abides in us - when not the sense of the words only is in our heads, but the sense of the thing abides in our hearts - when we have communion with God in the doctrine we contend for - then shall we be garrisoned by the grace of God against all the assaults of men.'

John Owen in John Piper, The Future of Justification, p.28.

DOCTRINE

‘...if some small mistake were made in doctrine, huge blunders might be made in human happiness.’
GK Chesterton, Orthodoxy, p.73.

BELIEF

'An imbecile habit has arisen in modern controversy of saying that such and such a creed can be held in one age but cannot be held in another. Some dogma, we are told, was credible in the twelfth century, but is not credible in the twentieth. You might as well say that a certain philosophy can be believed on Mondays, but cannot be believed on Tuesdays. You might as well say of a view of the cosmos that it was suitable to half-past three, but not suitable to half-past four. What a man can believe depends upon his philosophy, not upon the clock or the century. If a man believes in unalterable natural law, he cannot believe in any miracle in any age. If a man believes in a will behind law, he can believe in any miracle in any age.'
GK Chesteron, Orthodoxy, p.53.