Here is a very interesting (long) article on the 'Dumbing Down Of Doctrine' http://evangelica.de/articles/doctrine/the-dumbing-down-of-doctrine
and here is a snippet from the article.
How does this apply to our ministry?
I think it worthy of deep study that in the Suffering Servant passages of Isaiah, where God’s chastisement is laid on Christ on our behalf, the word ‘chastisement’ is the very term under discussion here i.e. moosahr which also means ‘doctrine’. God’s doctrine was laid on Christ. What can this mean? In allowing His Son to die for us in this way, God the Father teaches us the full doctrine of salvation. According to God’s doctrine, he does not start by telling us that we should love Christ as if we had never sinned. On the contrary. He tells us that because we have sinned, we are doomed to death and there is no love at all for God in us and only the wrath of God can be expected for us! Sin has separated us from God, so how can we love Him as if we had never sinned? God is not there to be had this way! The way back to God can never be through our love because God would not be there to be loved even if we could love him. The awful truth is that we cannot possibly love God! We have neither the ability not the capacity. However, God, in His love to us, laid our chastisements upon His son. He laid His doctrine of salvation on Him. It was our death that Christ took upon himself. By His stripes we are healed. He did this to make us loveable, and did this to show us His love. It was to work out divine doctrine that Christ bore our sins and it was divine doctrine that rehabilitated His elect.Christ put Himself under the law, under doctrine, so that we might be redeemed from the law’s curse and God’s doctrine would not eternally damn us. In other words, doctrine is the essential feature of the history of salvation and to reject divine doctrine is to reject salvation itself and deny the efficacious work of Christ on the cross. Talk of dumbing down doctrine? Preachers who do, so do at their own peril and the peril of those God has entrusted to them!
and here is a snippet from the article.
How does this apply to our ministry?
I think it worthy of deep study that in the Suffering Servant passages of Isaiah, where God’s chastisement is laid on Christ on our behalf, the word ‘chastisement’ is the very term under discussion here i.e. moosahr which also means ‘doctrine’. God’s doctrine was laid on Christ. What can this mean? In allowing His Son to die for us in this way, God the Father teaches us the full doctrine of salvation. According to God’s doctrine, he does not start by telling us that we should love Christ as if we had never sinned. On the contrary. He tells us that because we have sinned, we are doomed to death and there is no love at all for God in us and only the wrath of God can be expected for us! Sin has separated us from God, so how can we love Him as if we had never sinned? God is not there to be had this way! The way back to God can never be through our love because God would not be there to be loved even if we could love him. The awful truth is that we cannot possibly love God! We have neither the ability not the capacity. However, God, in His love to us, laid our chastisements upon His son. He laid His doctrine of salvation on Him. It was our death that Christ took upon himself. By His stripes we are healed. He did this to make us loveable, and did this to show us His love. It was to work out divine doctrine that Christ bore our sins and it was divine doctrine that rehabilitated His elect.Christ put Himself under the law, under doctrine, so that we might be redeemed from the law’s curse and God’s doctrine would not eternally damn us. In other words, doctrine is the essential feature of the history of salvation and to reject divine doctrine is to reject salvation itself and deny the efficacious work of Christ on the cross. Talk of dumbing down doctrine? Preachers who do, so do at their own peril and the peril of those God has entrusted to them!
