Philosophy - Doctrine - Faith

   O.k so I am going to be writing an article that is on a more traditional blogging subject. My thoughts...... scary stuff there! I will be writing on Philosophy, Doctrine, &  Faith . I believe that if you aren't grounded in these 3 subjects that you cannot live a Godly, Christ-centered life. Also without a healthy knowledge of all 3 evangelism is impossible! So anyway here goes....
   Philosophy- Many Christians believe that philosophy in of itself is evil. They quote Colossians 2:8 "Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.". I disagree with this idea for one reason. THE VERSE DOESN'T SAY PHILOSOPHY IS EVIL! It merely states to beware of "philosophy & vain deceits". In other words beware of bad philosophy.
    Now that this issue is cleared up I can move on to the definition of Philosophy. The word Philosophy comes from two Greek words. Philo meaning love & Sophia meaning wisdom. So Philosophy is simply the love of wisdom. I go back to my previous point and ask " Is the love of wisdom evil"? I would assert an emphatic NO. Proverbs 2:1-6 clearly states that the love of wisdom is inspired by God!

1	My son, if thou wilt receive my words,          and hide my commandments with thee;
2	so that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom,          and apply thine heart to understanding;
3	yea, if thou criest after knowledge,          and liftest up thy voice for understanding;
4	if thou seekest her as silver,          and searchest for her as for hid treasures;
5	then shalt thou understand the fear of the LORD,          and find the knowledge of God.
6	For the LORD giveth wisdom:          out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding.

 I state again " Philosophy is NOT evil"

  Now I will get into the many uses of Philosophy. First & foremost Evangelism is practically impossible without philosophy. To evangelize is to recruit unbelievers to the Christian faith. How do you tell someone that they need to accept God into their hearts if they don't believe in God??? You have to prove to them that God must exist! The easiest way to do this is to meet them halfway. Secular authorities love to discuss philosophy so let them! It is far easier to prove God exists through Philosophy then prove he doesn't! Look at the works of Socrates. Known as the founder of western philosophy this man proved that God must exist, but that before we could know about him we must have someone sent by him to tell us. Socrates was Christianities first martyr.... this man who knew almost nothing about God died for his refusal to honor the traditional Greek gods!
 
     Now to get on to Doctrine-  Doctrine can be a believers most powerful tool! Repeat =A believers most powerful tool. Which is  Not a tool for evangelism!!! Many strong Christians go out to call unbelievers with zeal for Christ, but they consistently fail. Why? Well in part due to the sin curse and non-elect men & women that cannot accept Christ, but I believe there is a second reason. I believe that we( Christians ) are approaching these people the wrong way. We beat them over their head with their sin. Let me ask you a question " Would YOU accept a person you don't know walking up to you and pointing the finger of shame at you"? If so you are a very rare person. I believe that doctrine is meant to exhort & strengthen already believing Christians! 2 Timothy 3:16 states "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness". This verse places doctrine among other things such as "instruction in righteousness" which are relating only to born again Christians. We must use the tools God gives us for the purpose they were designed for. We do not have the authority to use his gifts for whatever we want. In the same way we must use our spiritual gifts for his purpose not our purpose. Use his gifts as they were meant to be used!

Faith- Again a very powerful aspect of our Gods religion. If you don't have faith then you are not a Christian. Christ calls the disciples "men of little faith", but not men of NO faith. To be a christian you must believe in Christ. You must have faith to believe for faith is just another way to say you believe in something. Faith is what brings us through the hard times of life. It gives something to lean on when their is nothing else. God is ALWAYS here & will never leave us. He will always encourage us & will help us to conquer every piece of sin that we have.

  So there is my thoughts on Philosophy, Doctrine, & Faith concerning Evangelism & the Christian faith.
Billy :D