Doctrine is Important Enough to Argue About Online

Thanks to Todd for the link to John Piper's "Desiring God" website. In it, I found a quote about the value of blogging about significant theological issues. [Assumption: the preceding discussion of communion has indeed challenged you and caused you to think. I threw that third link in only to see if you would read it. It did indeed lack depth = it was spray.] Piper contends that this is a healthy thing that three brothers (and ever so seldomly a father) engage in online! :)

"The increasing abandonment of truth and moral absolutes in our culture, as militant diversity threatens all firm conviction, has dramatically influenced the evangelical mindset. The political spin doctors who specialize in deflecting attention away from truth onto feelings and relationships and styles have their counterpart in the evangelical tendency to avoid doctrinal disputes by casting issues in terms of demeanor and method rather than truth. Serious disagreements are covered over, while vague language and pragmatic concerns preserve hollow unity at the expense of theological substance and Biblical clarity and power."

(John Piper, God's Passion for His Glory, p.24)

Soooooo, keep on challenging me for my growth, and listening to my arguments and the arguments of others, and be free enough with your brotherhood to say, "that last one is spray". I need to know that I cannot get by with shotty arguments or "unity at the expense of theological substance" reasoning. That stuff won't fly here! Just remember to do it respectfully and be driven by honest truth pursuit and not one-upmanship or vainglory.

Let us be given to non-vague language and thinking,
Mike