I'm not sure if you feel this way or not, but maybe you know people that do, and I'd like to ask, why do some people fear doctrine/theology? Do you see it as something that forces you do to things against God's will? Is there not a single doctrine you can agree with?
It's not theology I disagree with. Certiain theologies (Jesus' incarnation; Jesus' sinless life; the work of the Holy Spirit; Grace as the method of salvation, etc.) are vital to our faith and I would not want to live in a world without them. The Bible has clearly spelled out these theologies, and it's only through criticism of the Bible's source, not its statements, that they can be questioned.
It's systematic theology (i.e. Calvinism) that gets to me. The idea of taking Scripture passages and forcing them together into answering all of the unanswerable questions about God just doesn't make sense to me. Calvinism and other systematic theologies seem to try to answer what isn't there. And answering what isn't there gets into personal opinions, biases, etc. . . . and before you know, there's crusades, witch trials, and burnings at the stake.
To me, it's just dangerous territory. I believe that there are certain issues God has specifically NOT answered for us, and we would do well to not answer them for Him. I'll quote from Philip Yancey in his book, Reaching for the Invisible God, "I have a book on my desk titled 'The Encyclopedia of Ignorance.' Its author explains that whereas most encyclopedias compile information that we know, he will attempt to outline the areas of science we cannot yet explain: questions of cosmology, curved space, the riddles of gravitation, the interior of the sun, human consciousness. I wonder if God has perhaps fenced off an area of knowledge, 'The Encyclopedia of Theological Ignorance,' for very good reasons. These answers remain in God's domain, and God has not seen fit to reveal them.
"Consider infant salvation. Most theologians have found enough biblical clues to convince them that God welcomes all infants 'under the age of accountability,' though the biblical evidence is scant. What if God make a clear pronouncement: 'Thus saith the Lord, I will welcome every child under the age of ten into heaven?' I can easily envision Crusaders of the eleventh century mounting a campaign to slaughter every child of nine or younger in order to guarantee their eternal salvation--which of couse would mean none of us would be around a millenium later to contemplate such questions. Similarly, the zealous conquistadors in Latin America might have finished off the native peoples for good if the Bible had clearly stated that God's overlooking 'the times of ignorance' applied to all who had not heard the name of Jesus."
My experience is that systematic theology does this very thing. A system of theology, by definition, cannot have major holes of God's behavior that are answered by "I just don't know." So to cover the areas that the Bible is unclear or otherwise silent, they develop theories (i.e. the beloved T.U.L.I.P., which I think borders on heresy) based on Scriptures that are taken out of their context or manipulated entirely.
On a personal level, my experience with God has been mysterious and ever-changing. The more I experience with Him and the more I learn about His nature, the more I realize He is an unpredictable, mysterious, undefinable being. God cannot be put in a formula. He's too big for that. He does what He does and we as finite, fallen creatures will never be able to comprehend all of the why's and how's. It's not our place to. Consider Job's complaint about his family and possessions being destroyed. You would think this book would be a great opportunity to explain suffering or why God allows bad things to happen to good people, but instead the main message is "God is God and you are not. Let's leave it at that." That may seem cruel or uncaring or downright illogical, but we know enough about God to know that He is not any of these.
Does God control every detail of the earth's movements, or does He randomnly intervene while generally letting things work themselves out? Does God create some people specifically to be condemned, or do we choose our own destination for eternity? Do we choose salvation, or does salvation choose us? Simply put: I don't know. And I don't think God has let us know. Scripture isn't clear enough to draw definite lines. Why? I don't know that either; I'll just add it to my list of questions to ask when I get to heaven.
One of the major tennants of our brotherhood in its earliest days is something I think Christianity would do well to observe: "Speak where the Bible speaks. Be silent where the Bible is silent."
It depends. I don't like praise teams with singers, mics, and a lot of instruments, b/c I've noticed that in many churches with this, if you take away the noise from the praise team, there's no volume coming from the actual congregation singing. It's also pushing the thin line between a worship service and a show. I don't mind the use of instruments in church services, but I'm not too keen on their being basically a band in front of church.
