Convicted churchianity starts to vainly fight back

Doctrine is the foundation. It can be practical in the sense that it's not merely philosophical or theoretical (though it mostly resides at the philosophical and theoretical levels when theologians and churchianity pastors and writers are discussing doctrine), yet doctrine is most certainly not the practical level doing of the Faith.

Look at this quote from John Owen (17th century Puritan) on the subject of doctrine (which has been in the righthand margin of this blog from the beginning):

"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

Doctrine indeed is more than mere words or theory or philosophy or something insubstantial that can only cause shallow division, etc.

This is not a revelation to a regenerate Christian.

Here is where the deception occurs: to boldly take the above position so as to suppress the practical level of the Faith, or defile the meaning of the practical level of the Faith, or to make light of the degree of real effort needed to do the practical level of the Faith, or to make light of the real struggle involved in the practical level of the Faith. This is how the devil operates at all realms of churchianity, not just the liberal realms.

Christian writer/pastor John MacArthur writes:

True doctrine transforms behavior as it is woven into the fabric of everyday life. But it must be understood if it is to have its impact. The real challenge of the ministry is to dispense the truth clearly and accurately. Practical application comes easily by comparison.

These are the words of a fool or a devil. The trite truisms he writes at the beginning of the paragraph (which passes for great wisdom and boldness in churchianity) aside. Yes, pastor, doctrine must be 'understood'. Well-stated. That it has to be taught by ministers is a vain statement. God's own, regenerated Christians, have both the ability and desire to find and learn and understand true - biblical - doctrine. (In fact it can ONLY be learned when one is motivated to learn it on one's own. If you rely on pastors for learning your doctrine you're not serious.) That is actually the easy part of it. You have it dead backwards. Maybe because you make your living writing trite truisms and packaging them in a thousand different ways. You make your money by laying the foundation of doctrine over and over and preaching that this is what Christianity is all about. Now you want to incorporate practice into your overall definition of doctrine, defiling what actual practical level effort in the Faith actually is and what it demands. God's elect know better. You can fool the fools, but you can't fool God's own.

I will write more on this subject and on this post by Mr. MacArthur in the future...