Weekly Dose Of Lloyd-Jones

  Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls. And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.

    —Acts 2:41–42

The early Christians described in these verses desired, as we have seen, above everything else, to know more of this Christian teaching, “the apostles’ doctrine.” This is the exact opposite of what is most popular at the present time. Modern men and women have a rooted objection to Christian doctrine and Christian creeds. This is therefore a very serious matter.

There are people in the world who dislike Christian doctrine, and in a sense I have no complaint at all against them. I would not expect them to like it. They would not be where they are if they did like it. We cannot expect anything from the world except rejection of Christian teaching. There is nothing at all new about this. It was the world that rejected the Lord Jesus Christ and His teaching. It was the same world that rejected the teaching of these apostles. But what is new today—and this is what is alarming and tragic—is that the opposition to Christian doctrine is not confined to the world, but is at the very center of the teaching of the church herself. The church is now speaking against Christian doctrine. She is saying that doctrine is not what is needed and that it is no longer of any value whatsoever...

...The second point is, the astounding thing about these people is that they simply cannot see that it is their own attitude that in many ways has produced the moral problem about which they are so alarmed. Why has there been a declension in morals during the past years? There, surely, is the fundamental problem. And for me there is only one answer. It is not the two world wars, though I know that undoubtedly they have contributed. It is not the advance of knowledge. There are some of us who have had a little scientific training—perhaps more than these people who write so cleverly—but still believe this message.

I have no hesitation in saying that the main factor in the lowering of the moral tone and life of this country [England] has been the loss of the authority of the Bible. And the institution that has been most responsible for the lowering of the authority of the Bible has been the Christian church herself. For the last hundred years or so, “scholarship,” as it is called, has been attacking the truth of the Bible. The Bible has been watered down by Higher Criticism—there is no authority here any longer, they say. Modern theologians have simply put up their own suppositions, their own theories and speculations. The church has undermined confidence in the Bible. It is said that we must not take it as an authoritative word from God because we now know that the Bible is just a man-made compilation, like many similar books.

Or let me put it in another way, a way I find fascinating merely as a psychological study. During this present century in particular there has been a great reaction against the old evangelical preaching, the apostolic doctrine, and instead men have been preaching what was called, before the First World War, “a social gospel.” Preachers used to say, “That old Gospel of individual personal salvation is no good; what we need is a social message.” So they gave ethical teaching and said this was the only way to redeem society. But the interesting thing is that the more they have done that, and the less they have preached the apostolic doctrine, the more immorality and vice and ethical problems have increased. They themselves have aggravated the problem at which they are so aghast.

*Lloyd-Jones, D. M. (2000). Authentic Christianity (1st U.S. ed.) (119–120). Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Books.