Where are we going. . .

I read a while ago that the Church in Wales will be having a lesbian bishop -- a significant card to play in the diversity game.  At the same time, I also read where that church body has virtually nobody in the pews younger than 60 and will be dead in a generation.  The article pointed out the outcome of a non-dogmatic church body more concerned with cultural relevance than religious significance.  That said, it could be suggested that dogma remains the concern of the woke Christianity so entrenched with diversity, sexual freedom, social justice, climate change, flexible gender, and a host of other things.  It is simply that they are leading the doctrine to reflect their core values -- core values which are more sacred than anything else.

The real question is not whether or not to have doctrine but what leads.  Is the Church the follower led by the doctrines informed by Scripture and confessed through the ages as the standard of catholicity and orthodoxy OR is the Church the leader who shapes, changes, transforms, and defines doctrine according to another standard in its own wisdom and in the moment?   I do not find the liberal and progressive Christianity so concerning to be non-doctrinal.  It is hard-core doctrinal, wedded to the principles of modernity:  individualism, radical freedom, relevance, diversity, equity, and inclusions.  It is so hard core in this doctrine that it refuses to let Scripture or the faith once delivered to the saints stand in the way of this pursuit.  Lead where it may, this liberal and progressive Christianity must follow.  And so it does even to the emptying of the pews and the death of the very churches they serve.

In contrast, orthodox Christianity is not doctrinal for the sake of doctrine but precisely because it is Scriptural.  We believe in doctrines because Scripture reveals them and not because we are wedded to principles or positions.  Our opponents surely do not get this.  They must presume that if you do not ordain women you are misogynist or if you do not affirm same sex marriage you are homophobic or if you do not allow gender to be self-defined you are rigid.  Of course not.  We do not begin with presuppositions or sacred tenets which must be affirmed but follow where Scriptures lead, where the Word of God shines the light of its truth, and where the Spirit is at work calling, gathering, enlightening, sanctifying, and bringing to completion all of these in God's appointed time.  We are not doctrinal because we like rules or must adhere to set definitions of who God is and who we are and what God has done to free us from our own choice of sin and death.  No, we are doctrinal because we are Scriptural and Scripture leads us to doctrines that both inform us and confront us with His saving work.  Apart from Scripture, we are and cannot be doctrinal.  Ours is not a principle that defines us but a people of the Word who follow where that Word leads.

I fear that sometimes Rome is not simply misunderstanding of this in us Lutherans (in particular) and so tries to turn sola Scriptura into a simplistic principle rather than Scripture telling us about itself.  By inserting non-Scriptural sources into doctrine, Rome and modernity are parallel if not aimed the same direction.  Papal pronouncement or conciliar promulgation sound nice on paper but it is so easy to get the cart before the horse.  For example, did Nicea really define the Trinity or simply affirm what Scripture said?  Were Arius and his other versions of non-Trinitarian teachers wrong because the Church said so or because they were confessing an alien understanding of God not sourced and normed in the Word of God?  That is the issue.  We are doctrinal because Scripture is.  We are guided not by principle or perspective but by the voice of God speaking through His Word.  We cannot say more but we dare not say less.  For example, was Luther's problem with Transubstantiation really a rejection of the explanation of the Real Presence or was it the complaint that it went where Scripture did not go?  Along with such things as the prayers to the saints, purgatory, indulgences, papal primacy (and later infallibility), etc...

The most doctrinaire people of all are those who would impose upon both Scripture and God their own positions and sacred tenets which must be held even if it means letting go of what the Word of God says and the faithful of old have confessed.  Far from being doctrinaire, we are simply being people of the Word, following the Way, for in it is the only forgiveness, life, and salvation that can be known and trusted to everlasting life.