Sound Doctrine Formation

Building biblical doctrine through comprehensive study of God's entire revealed word and teachings.

Core Principles for Sound Doctrine

Doctrine must be built from the entirety of God’s revealed Word. No theological teaching can be considered truly biblical unless it summarizes and integrates all that Scripture teaches on that subject. This requires more than citing a single verse-it requires listening to the whole counsel of God (Acts 20:27). Scripture must produce doctrine, not impose it, and it must encompass both the clear and the complex, the foundational and the reinforcing. One of the most faithful ways to form doctrine is through topical Bible study, which traces a subject across the entire Bible by identifying word parallels, idea parallels, and doctrinal parallels. For example, the doctrine of justification must account not only for Romans 3:28-“justified by faith apart from works of the law”-but also James 2:24-“justified by works and not by faith alone.” Topical and contextual study helps us see that Paul is refuting legalism while James is confronting dead orthodoxy. We must hold both together, as neither contradicts the other.

Doctrinal error often arises when partial truths are isolated from the rest of Scripture. The interpreter must allow Scripture to interpret Scripture, carefully comparing and correlating passages until a full and consistent picture emerges. Right doctrine does not rest on fragments-it rests on the full voice of God through the unified, Spirit-inspired Word.

It should also be noted that while this process of doctrine formation is inductive, the overall structure of this document is deductive: it presents a series of interpretive rules derived from scriptural principles and proceeds logically from them. That deductive framework is designed to guide interpretation, but the formation of doctrine must always begin with the data of Scripture itself-not with a theological system or tradition. Right doctrine does not rest on fragments or proof texts. It rests on the full voice of God through the unified, Spirit-inspired Word.

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