Does Doctrine Really Matter For The Church?




Text: John 3:1-17

In the name of Jesus. Amen. 

Today is Trinity Sunday, and with it being Trinity Sunday, we confess the words of the Athanasian Creed.  More specifically, we confess that we worship one God in Trinity and Trinity in Unity, neither confusing the persons nor dividing the substance.  We confess that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are coeternal with each other and coequal, so that in all things that we might worship our Triune God in unity. 

Indeed, today is the one day out of the year that we dust off that third creed that we subscribe to – the Athanasian Creed. 

But why bother confessing such a complex and seemingly confusing creed?  Why bother confessing such a wordy creed?  Why not just say that we believe in God and leave it at that?  Everybody knows that details and doctrine divide – right?  So, why sweat the small stuff?

Well, no, that is not right.  You see, throughout the history of the church, hundreds of thousands of Christians would disagree with the idea that doctrine is not important.  Yes, there are hundreds of thousands of Christian martyrs that would severely disagree, so much that they staked their life on the doctrines of the Christian faith. 

My friends, if we look throughout history and spot solid doctrine, we will generally find suffering and a trail of martyr’s blood.  The faithful Christians of our past were unwilling to compromise the doctrines of God’s Word, and they were unwilling to settle for vague and imprecise statements about the faith.  Those who came before us, such as our Lutheran forefathers, were quite willing to be burned at the stake for a right confession – for solid doctrine.  We could learn a lot from them.  

But today it seems that this way of thinking about the Christian faith has come to an end.  Today more and more people in the church cry out,  

“Doctrine doesn’t matter; just stick with Jesus.  He saves, not doctrine.  Just stick with the basics; yes, the basics.  We are Christians after all, and we all worship the same God.”

Now, while this sounds fairly reasonable, there are many problems in the details.  (As they say, the devil is in the details.)  For example, what are the basics of the Christian faith?  Who decides what the basics will be?  You?  Me?  Will someone else decide for us?  Maybe the world will decide what the basics will be?  Will the basics of the Christian faith be reduced to moral stories?  If so, we really don’t need the Christian faith but can instead watch reruns of Mr. Rogers.  Will the basics be reduced to simple coffee mug slogans: keep the faith, believe in God, be still, just keep praying, and so forth?  If so, we really don’t need the Christian faith but maybe a Starbucks Coffee membership.  Will the basics be sticking with Jesus?  If so, who do we say Jesus is?  Is He a social justice warrior, a therapist, a political inspiration, a mascot, or something else?  

What does all of this mean, though?  It means that we cannot talk about God without talking about doctrine.  Without doctrine, we are basically making it up as we go along.  In fact, without Christian doctrine, we can’t have the Christian faith.  Why?  Because doctrine is just another word for the ‘teachings’ that our Lord has given us in the Word – that is the Bible. 

So, if we say that we don’t need doctrine, we are essentially saying that we don’t need the Bible.  And if we don’t need the Bible, we are left with ourselves and our ideas about God, which are more often than not pagan ideas.  Furthermore, if we attempt to reduce and diminish doctrine for the sake of embracing an easier life, then in time we will lose the clear confession of who our Lord Jesus Christ is.  And if not careful, we will eventually lose the Christian faith, as we substitute the doctrines of the Bible with the doctrines of mankind and culture, thus ascribing us poor souls to hell, while thinking that we are fine and dandy. 

Tragically, I hear the sad regret from pastors and parents about the children and young people falling away from the Christian faith after High School.  And everybody wants to know why.  Why are they leaving!?  Well, it isn’t the fault of the Holy Spirit.  But rather, statistics show us two things.  First, if parents are not bringing their children to church consistently in the first place and teaching them at home about the Christian faith, there is a 1% chance that they will continue in the church after high school.[1]  Secondly, a recent survey of 3,000 Christians conducted by LifeWay Research found that over half of Christians in America subscribe to ancient heresies.  We are not talking about minor doctrinal errors, but major ancient heresies that are condemned by the creeds we confess each Sunday – creeds like the Athanasian Creed.[2]  Bluntly stated, Christians in America do not even know the basics of Christianity and are often embarrassed to admit it.  The average Christian in America has no doctrinal understanding and is often opposed to learning. 

So, if our children and youth are not going to church and not learning at home about the Christian faith, and if the average parent does not even know the basics of the Christian faith, it should not be a surprise to us at all why so many youths are falling away from the church. 

O Lord have mercy on us.  God forgive us.  Yes, God forgive every one of us. 

So, where do we go from here? 

Dear Baptized Saints, before we can begin to teach our children, we must know what we believe and why we believe it.  We must learn the doctrines of the faith.  And most importantly we mustn’t scoff at things such as the Athanasian Creed.  We mustn’t role our eyes at doctrine but in humility treasure and take up the teachings of things like the Athanasian Creed.  We must never settle for the blandness of vague Christian slogans on coffee cups.  We must know what we believe and why we believe it. 

Dear Baptized Saint, faithfulness of a church is not measured by numbers, emotional hype, or finesse.  But rather, the faithfulness of a Church is when we pass down the Christian faith – with all of its precious doctrines – to our children and grandchildren.  But if we are going to pass it down, then the time is now to be prepared to believe, teach, and confess the doctrines of the faith handed down to ‘us’ from our Lutheran forefathers – from the Christians who have gone before us. 

We must also be prepared to stand as a church.  Not as sticks in the mud or arrogant jerks, but as steadfast Christians anchored in Christ’s Word – ready to graciously reject errors and affirm truth.  But be warned, we will not be liked for being steadfast to God’s Word.  The devil hates those who refuse to join him in the bath of lukewarm indifference.

Dear Baptized Saints, doctrine divides, there is no way around it.  We cannot have it both ways.  Either it will be the Holy Christian faith drawn from God’s Word, or it will be a generic-meaningless-empty faith of somebody else’s opinion or fad.

Now, if you think this all sounds too harsh, listen to our Lord Jesus and the way He speaks to Nicodemus in the reading from the Gospel of John.  Jesus does not give a watered down generic answer to Nicodemus’ questions.  But instead, Jesus says,

“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” 

Jesus goes on to say,

“We speak of what we know and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony.” 

Our Lord is clear here.  He is specific.  There is one doctrine, one teaching, one way – His way. There is no compromising.  Jesus does not water down His teaching or bend it towards mankind.  The doctrine and teaching of Jesus will not compromise and accommodate to our ideas of easier paths or mushy indifference.

So, today we confess the Athanasian Creed.  Today we confess the doctrine of who God is in detail.  We confess it not as some dry religious exercise, but we confess it so that we might continue to stand on what we believe from God’s Word. 

Yes, we confess the Creeds and we learn doctrine because in so doing, we not only learn about our sin but also hear about our forgiveness, life, and salvation.  Indeed, Christian doctrine points us away from ours opinions, thoughts, and assumptions, to Jesus and what He has done for us.  And when you and I hear and learn about Jesus, we are given faith and assurance and confidence that we are Jesus’ now and forever.

May God grant us the steadfastness of faith to cling to Jesus and to His Word. 

May God grant us a hunger for His doctrine – His Word. 

May God Grant us boldness to confess Him – today, tomorrow, and forevermore.

In the name of Jesus.  Amen. 




[1] Matt Richard, “A New Discovery on how to Keep Youth in the Church,” PM Notes, http://www.pastormattrichard.com/2015/02/a-new-discovery-on-how-to-keep-youth-in.html (accessed May 26, 2018).
[2] LifeWay Research, “Americans Love God and the Bible, Are Fuzzy on the Details,” https://lifewayresearch.com/2016/09/27/americans-love-god-and-the-bible-are-fuzzy-on-the-details/ (accessed May 26, 2018).



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