With controversy raging in our society, it’s easy to be caught and blown about by a cultural gust. Emotions can quickly soar high and plummet low.
When we react to controversy, we may say something we shouldn’t, resort to social media instead of loving interpersonal action, silently steam, despair, or experience paralyzing inaction. St. Paul’s words are timely, “no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine” (Eph 4:14).
Doctrines blow all of us. A blog, a tweet, a news story. Gossip can quickly follow. Everyone is shaped by the doctrinal winds that blow about us. The question we need to ask ourselves is this—which doctrine will keep our feet planted? We need something strong, something deep, something true. We need true doctrine rooted in the truth of Scripture. Here is what the City Life Statement of Faith says regarding the doctrine of Scripture.
City Life Statement of Faith*
God has graciously disclosed his existence and power in the created order, and has supremely revealed himself to fallen human beings in the person of his Son, the incarnate Word. Moreover, this God is a speaking God who by his Spirit has graciously disclosed himself in human words: we believe that God has inspired the words preserved in the Scriptures, the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments, which are both record and means of his saving work in the world. These writings alone constitute the verbally inspired Word of God, which is utterly authoritative and without error in the original writings, complete in its revelation of his will for salvation, sufficient for all that God requires us to believe and do.
Although we cannot know God’s truth exhaustively, we affirm that, enlightened by the Spirit of God, we can know God’s revealed truth truly. The Bible is to be believed, as God’s instruction, in all that it teaches; obeyed, as God’s command, in all that it requires; and trusted, as God’s pledge, in all that it promises. As God’s people hear, believe, and do the Word, they are equipped as disciples of Christ and witnesses to the gospel.
Resources:
- What to Say When Someone Says, “The Bible Has Errors”
- Understanding Scripture: An Overview of the Bible’s Origin, Reliability, and Meaning
*This statement includes excerpts from other orthodox Christian statements of faith, including the Gospel Coalition .