All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. 2 Timothy 3:16-17
Charles G. Finney believed that Bible
teaching without moral application could be worse than no teaching at all and
could result in positive injury to the hearers. I used to feel that this might
be an extreme position, but after years of observation have come around to it,
or to a view almost identical with it.
There is scarcely anything so dull and
meaningless as Bible doctrine taught for its own sake. Theology is a set of
facts concerning God, man and the world. These facts may be and often are set
forth as values in themselves; and there lies the snare both for the teacher
and for the hearer.
The Bible is more than a volume of hitherto
unknown facts about God, man and the universe. It is a book of exhortation
based upon these facts. By far the greater portion of the book is devoted to an
urgent effort to persuade people to alter their ways and bring their lives into
harmony with the will of God as set forth in its pages.
Actually, no man is better for knowing that
God in the beginning created the heaven and the earth. The devil knows that,
and so did Ahab and Judas Iscariot. No man is better for knowing that God so
loved the world of men that He gave His only begotten Son to die for their
redemption. In hell there are millions who know that.
Theological truth is useless until it is
obeyed. The purpose behind all doctrine is to secure moral action!
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