Do We Really Know our Doctrines?
I am told that Adventists were once called people of the Book. It is said that you could pull just about any member aside and ask that one for a text that teaches the Adventist understanding of the Sabbath, State of the Dead, or Sanctuary and any could give that to you. I was listening to a preacher who seems to be living in those days when this were true. That preacher said that today you could grab any Second Advent believer and that one could still do this. The preacher further stated that Adventists spend too much time worrying about and thinking about the doctrines of the church. They said that Adventists can quote the text, but do not know the author of the text. The preacher then concluded that we need to know Jesus more than we need to know the doctrines.
While I do not know every Adventist, I doubt very seriously that you could go into many Adventist churches in America and get just about any to tell you why they believe what they claim to believe. It is true that Jesus needs to be the center of all our doctrinal teaching. But the preacher has given a missed diagnoses of the problem for the days of Biblical literacy in and outside of our church are long gone. So what can we do?
Steps to Biblical Literacy
Preachers need to preach from the Bible. I think that the common preaching type that we have learned from our “evangelistic sermons” is to jump all around the Bible. We read a text here and a text there. Certainly this can be good and needed, but do not use too many texts. What happens is that the people leave without a solid understanding of any one of the texts. Take one text, explain it, use a few texts to help explain the major text.
I was reading somewhere where more and more churches are emphasizing the reading of the scripture. One way to combat the illiteracy is to read and explain the texts. We need solid preaching, but we need more than sermonizing. In addition to sermonizing we need teaching. Wednesday night can become an evening of prayer and study. Sabbath School can become a real learning experience rather than a way for novice preachers to preach to a captive audience.
You know, One of the great components of the Black Preaching Tradition is that it has a tendency to preach the great stories of the Bible. Our White brothers and sisters are more inclined to use the didactic portions. The nice thing about the stories is that they go deep into your head.
Stop The False Diagnoses
AS long as we continue stating what is not true, we can never deal with the true ailment. Adventists do not know the doctrines at the expense of our relationship with the Master. Adventists need a closer relationship with the Master as well as need more knowledge of doctrines and the Bible. If we keep telling the people untruths we will keep stunting the growth of our own church.
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“Sabbath School can become a real learning experience rather than a way for novice preachers to preach to a captive audience.”
you got that one right!!
nice sermons you have my brother,
may we grow in the Lord….
This is very true. I hate to say it, but by and large we are no longer a people of the book. I would say that most SDAs cannot show why they believe what they claim to believe. Not all of course, but most. We need to study now more than ever.
I heard somebody say one time, that: “If you cannot show why you believe a particular doctrine, then you don’t really believe it”.