S.T.S. 1.6 [Closing Comments]

Ahhh . . . THEOLOGY . . . that dirty, 4-lettered “T” word in evangelical circles . . . you know, the one that tends to make folks a bit uncomfortable . . . the one that causes division. After all, it’s not that conducive to the current trend towards seeker-sensitivity. You’re right in one sense – theology can be divisive in nature in that it divides truth from error. That, brothers and sisters, is an extremely vital division that we must be making as modern Believers in the 21st Century. Don’t ever forget, your doctrine is at the most basic level of who you are (although not necessarily your “claimed” beliefs/doctrine). Your conduct naturally flows from your beliefs. I have included an excerpt from a piece dating back to 1978 that fleshes this point out a bit more, and which compliments Daniel’s exhortation to the Body of Christ. Please check it out below:

“Theory without practice is dead, and practice without theory is blind. The trouble with the professing Church is not primarily in its practice, but in its theory. Christians do not know, and many do not care to know, the doctrines of Scripture. Doctrine is intellectual, and Christians are generally anti-intellectual. Doctrine is ivory tower philosophy, and they scorn ivory towers. The ivory tower, however, is the control tower of a civilization. It is a fundamental, theoretical mistake of the practical men to think that they can be merely practical, for practice is always the practice of some theory. The relationship between theory and practice is the relationship between cause and effect . . . if a person truly believes correct theory, then his practice will tend to be correct. The practice of contemporary Christians is immoral because it is the practice of erroneous theory . . .
It is a major theoretical mistake of the practical men to think that they can ignore the ivory towers of the philosophers and theologians as irrelevant to their lives. Every action that the practical men take is governed by the thinking that has occurred in some ivory tower – whether that tower be the British Museum, the Academy, a home in Basel, Switzerland, or a tent in Israel. It is, therefore, the first duty of the Christian to understand correct theory – correct doctrine – and thereby implement correct practice. This order – first theory, then practice – is both logical and Biblical. It is, for example, exhibited in Paul’s epistle to the Romans, in which he spends the first eleven chapters expounding theory and the last five discussing practice. The virtually complete failure of the fathers in the home and the teachers of the professing church to instruct their families and/or congregations in correct doctrine is the cause of the misconduct and cultural impotence of Christians. Twentieth-century (now 21st) American Christians are children carried about with every wind of doctrine, not knowing what they believe, or even if they believe anything for certain. May it come to an end!”

- John W. Robbins, The Trinity Manifesto, October 1978 -