Marsha's Musings: Doctrine

I was reading in Deuteronomy 32 today and was struck by what God says here:

Deut. 32:2 My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distil as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass:

Doctrine.  Many churches and people today cry out that, "Doctrine divides!"  They don't want to hear Bible doctrine because of this.  They want peace at all costs even if it means avoiding Biblical doctrine.

As I read this chapter in Deuteronomy, here are some of the doctrines I find here, and many of them  divide:

• God is the Rock
• God's work is perfect
• God's ways are judgement
• God is a God of truth
• God is without iniquity
• God is just and righteous
• Man has corrupted himself
• God made us
• God bought us
• Man forsakes God when his belly is full and he is prosperous
• Man lightly esteems the Rock of his salvation
• Man is unmindful of the Rock that begat him
• Man has forgotten God that formed him
• God kills
• God makes alive
• God wounds
• God heals
  

Now, that is a lot of doctrine in one chapter!  Think of all the doctrine in all the rest of the Bible and how much we would be skipping over if we were to ignore doctrine because doctrine divides.  Dear friend, doctrine is meant to divide!  It is meant to divide truth from falsehood.  It is meant to divide the sheep from the goats.  Jesus even said that he came to divide.

Matthew 10:34-40 "Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. "For I have come to 'set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law'; "and 'a man's enemies will be those of his own household.' "He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. "And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. "He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it. "He who receives you receives Me, and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me.

The question is, who will you follow? Will you follow those who want peace even at the cost of God's truth and doctrine or will you follow the God of the Bible and what He teaches us in His holy Word?