So why another voice?
We’re calling it Faith & Fable.
1Tim. 4:1 “But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons…”
1Tim 4:6-8 “In pointing these things out to the brethren, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, constantly nourished on the words of the faith and of the sound doctrine which you have been following.
7 But have nothing to do with worldly fables fit only for old women. On the other hand, discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness;
8 for bodily discipline is only of little profit, but godliness is profitable for all things, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come…”
What’s so powerful about his passage is Paul instructs Timothy to stay nourished on two things:
Words of faith (I.e., the Gospel)
Sound doctrine
There’s a lot of podcasts (and “sermons”) that have little to do with doctrine anymore.
Theology is boring.
Activism is sexy.
Or, the church is just focused on things like “authentic community.”
Yet Paul’s burden is for Timothy to stay nourished on the Gospel AND sound doctrine.
This raises another point for us, on how so many pastors say we just need the Gospel, and don’t need to worry about theology.
And if they don’t overtly say it, their ministry and pulpit certainty confirm this.
Beyond that, many churches are completely geared toward unbelievers.
They view the church as a hospital for sinners, not a meal for believers.
Sermons are shallow, weak, void of doctrine, void of substantial truth, all because the unbeliever won’t like it.
Yet, this is the very point of Paul’s instruction to Timothy. He wants Timothy to instruct in the Gospel AND sound doctrine. More than that, he tasks Timothy with another mandate: point out errors out to His flock (v.6). (And why?) Because eternal life is at stake.
V.1 “For many will fall away from the faith (why?) because they’re paying attention to deceitful spirit and doctrines of demons.”
Notice, these spirits are deceitful—In other words, they don’t appear overtly bad on the surface.
No one in the church would agree they’re actively believing in doctrines of demons. And why? Because by their nature, they’re deceitful.
V. 8 – “but discipline yourself (lit. instruct yourself) in the realm of truth (why?) for it holds the promise of this life, and the life to come.”
Again, eternal life is at stake.
Doctrine and theology are done for the purpose of eternal life.
The Gospel is the means of salvation and brings a person to the light.
But the role of sound doctrine is God’s means of brings a person to the end.
So the very role of the pastor is not only to nourish the people on the Faith (the Gospel), but sound words (doctrine).
And one of the major ways of doing this is by pointing out the error.
Exposing the fables (v.7).
In other words, doctrine and theology become the very guardian of truth.
This has been the role of theology throughout the centuries of the church.
This is how we recognize whether new movements or ideas in the church are good or harmful.
Do they hold up to the test of historically affirmed truth?
Doctrine matters. It guards the truth, and helps the brethren recognize fables.
So this is a pastoral podcast.
We’re concerned about our people.
Our goal is to bring sound doctrine and expose the fables for our people.
To be frank, we live in our own context, so much of how we talk is the result of where we live and the issues we’re personally dealing with.
If people beyond our local churches are helped by this, that is great. However, this podcast will be the result of our unique burdens and issues that are effecting us.
So why another voice?
Because we have to combat the many voices that our people are constantly hearing.
We live in a an age where so much information and ideas are constantly coming at you. So while this is another one of those many voices, it’s geared at our people in particular.
We’re not going to satisfy all the critics, and those who may disagree with us, but to be honest, we really don’t care.
The nature of a podcast is you can’t say everything about everything. It’s more of a sound bite environment.
So if you have questions, we certainly invite you to submit questions, and thoughts, and we’ll do our best to answer.