Jesus two millenium ago lived on the earth, and declared Himself to be the Son of God. He lived a perfect life, died on a cross, was buried, and on the third day was raised from the dead to substantiate that claim. His message was an invitation to relationship with His Father with His life and death an atonement so that relationship could exist. Within one century of His passing church fathers felt a need to codify their belief system with a document called the Apostle's creed. It was written in response to a number of spurious beliefs that began to arise and were thought to endanger Biblical Christianity. In the city of Nicaea in the year 325 church fathers met again feeling the need to further clarify their belief system due to a growing number of church centers with divergent beliefs developing. It was here the Nicene Creed was established declaring this was how we believed. In or around the 1500's the reformation was taking root and Martin Luther was nailing his 95 theses' to The Wintenburg door giving voice to how a protestant believed and beginning a time when Christians began to separate because of the beliefs they held to. In their minds a threat was growing and a response had to be made. With this, a mindset and a culture was developing where "how we believe defining us" (or as I like to call it "doctrinology") was finding its place in the spiritual landscape. In the 1600's through the 1700's Europe became the fertile ground for "The Enlightenment" and "The Age of Reason." From this mindset came the attack on orthodox Christianity and an antisupernatural bias stating that the church was intolerant and abusive. Fables to quiet the fears of men. Not the verifiable fact of science and reason.
Apologists of the church rose up to combat this form of thinking and to try and prove the validity of the scriptures and the legitimacy of Jesus as the Son of God. This gave way to a process where Christians began to define themselves by what they believe in order to distinguish themselves from the world and to a growing degree from the belief systems of one another. Thus "Doctrinology" began to take root. I believe in the importance of correct doctrine. To know what you believe about life and God and the way the world works is important. I don't deny that, but to then use those beliefs to identify ourselves and others leads us down a path I don't believe God intended for us to go down. We see this more and more the further we go down this road. Our statement of beliefs tells us who is in and who is out. We believe we are secure if we believe correctly.
What the Lord is leading me to these days is a return to relationship with Him. I don't know nearly as much as I thought I did. When I use my beliefs or yours to define our relationship, I cut off many and it causes me not to abide in His love. Defining men and women by their beliefs is evaluating by externals. Once the person is labeled, he is responded to by a predetermined set of responses and relationship is cut off. And with that there is no need to listen to the Lord. People who don't believe like me are evil and people who do are good. We do it all the time, but isn't it a bit simplistic and shallow. Love your neighbor as yourself can't happen when we submit to living in Doctrinology. It is a living abiding relationship with Jesus Christ that defines who I am. John 15:9 states "As the Father has Loved Me, so I love you, abide in My love." I am loved like the Father loves the Son and that is what defines me. I am a loved son. Learning to abide in His love defines me and not a list of things I do or don't believe. We have to find our way back to a living relationship with the Father that is then expressed in a loving relationship with one another. The world is waiting for a living example.....
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