對教義漠不關心Indifferenceto Doctrine

作者：Burk Parsons  譯者: Maria Marta

https://tabletalkmagazine.com/article/2020/04/indifference-to-doctrine/

恰當學習教義，是一件非常不容易的事。學習教義需要時間，肯下苦功，還要恒切禱告。由於這些原因，許多人不學習教義。有些人不學習教義，因為他們認為這是專業人士的事，甚至有些牧師不學習教義，因為他們認為這只是學者的事。還有另一些人不學習教義，因為他們對教義漠不關心。他們滿足於靈奶的喂養，僅知道基本信仰，在很大程度上他們對追求信仰教義性的幹糧無動於衷。

我很難容忍自己和其他基督徒對待教義的冷漠態度。對關乎我們所信之事漠不關心，那是很可悲的，我們怎能對那些能夠拯救或譴責我們靈魂的重要真理無動於衷呢?   一位清教徒牧師說的好: 「冷漠是異端之母」。倘若我們對教義變得不感興趣，我們很快就會對聖經變得無所謂，最終也會對上帝冷漠疏離。

1929年，梅晨 (J. Gresham Machen) 離開一度持守純正教義的普林斯頓神學院，並在費城建立威斯敏斯特神學院。梅晨和和其他一些人之所以離開，原因不僅是普林斯頓存在自由主義神學的傾向，也不僅是教職人員否認某些歷史上公認的教義。從根本上說他們離開是因為普林斯頓神學院越來越忽視教義本身。梅晨曾寫道：「對教義無所謂，就不會有信仰英雄了」。

若教義無關緊要，就沒有什麽事是重要的了。我們生活在一種經常提倡冷漠的文化環境當中，許多教會支持這種冷漠，因為她們認為，教義難明，不吸引人，使人分裂。不錯，教義的確實區分真基督徒和假基督徒。但教義也使人合一，因為藉著上帝的聖靈，只有合乎聖經的正統的認信教義才能夠一群可憐的罪人合一，以致於我們有一位主，一個信仰，一種洗禮 (弗四5)。

在許多情況下，人們對教義漠不關心是因為他們沒有受到如何學習聖經的教導，或者他們受到那些誤解重要教義的人教導。但是許多教會人不明白符合聖經的教義，僅僅是因為他們從未真正去學習。倘若教會必須明白和認信純正的教義，拒絕不符合聖經的教義，消除不符合聖經的預設和教義上的誤解，首先我們務必要為我們漠視教義的態度悔改。沒有純正的教義，我們注定要失敗。

Indifference to Doctrine

by Burk Parsons

The proper study of doctrine is not easy. It takes time, a lot of hard work, and much prayer. For those reasons, many people don’t study doctrine. Others don’t study doctrine because they think it is just for professionals, and even some pastors don’t study doctrine because they think it is just for scholars. Still, there are others who don’t study doctrine because they are indifferent to it. They are content with being fed milk and knowing only the basics of the faith, but they are largely apathetic to pursuing the doctrinal meat of the faith.

I find it hard to tolerate this kind of indifference in myself and in other Christians. Indifference when it comes to what we believe is deplorable, for how can we be indifferent to those vital truths that can save or damn our souls? As one Puritan pastor said, “Indifference is the mother of heresy.” If we become indifferent about doctrine, we will soon become indifferent about Scripture and eventually indifferent about God.

In 1929, J. Gresham Machen left the once doctrinally sound Princeton Theological Seminary to help establish Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia. Machen and the men who left with him departed not simply because of Princeton’s liberal theological drift and not simply because its faculty denied certain historic confessional doctrines. They left Princeton, fundamentally, because of the growing lack of regard for doctrine itself. “Indifferentism about doctrine makes no heroes of the faith,” Machen wrote.

If knowing doctrine doesn’t matter, then nothing really matters. We live in a culture that often promotes indifference, and many churches have subscribed to this indifference because, they argue, doctrine is difficult, doctrine isn’t attractional, and doctrine divides. It’s true—doctrine does divide true Christians from false Christians. But doctrine also unites because by the Spirit of God, the orthodox confessional doctrines of Scripture alone can unite a bunch of wretched sinners so that we might have one Lord, one faith, one baptism (Eph. 4:5).

In many cases, people are indifferent to doctrine because they have not been taught how to study the Bible or because they have been taught by those who have misunderstood important doctrines. But many in the church do not understand biblical doctrines simply because they have never really studied them. If the church is to understand and confess sound doctrine, reject unbiblical doctrines, and dispose of unbiblical presuppositions and doctrinal misunderstandings, we must begin by repenting of our indifference to doctrine. Without sound doctrine, we are doomed.

Dr. Burk Parsons is editor of Tabletalk magazine and serves as senior pastor of Saint Andrew’s Chapel in Sanford, Fla. He is editor of Assured by God: Living in the Fullness of God’s Grace. He is on Twitter at @BurkParsons.