“A set of flags and parameters that individual units of a side use to help decide what to do, typically to fill in details that are not specified explicitly by the units’ orders.”
I was having a conversation with a friend of mine tonight, and we got talking a little bit about doctrine. When I googled the word, I found the definition above. Which I kinda like! I’ve always had the belief that the doctrines of a church are not the most important thing about it, but when I found that definition I just thought… cool! I interpret it as meaning that the doctrines of a church etc are simply guidelines that we use to help us live out our faith practically, because God doesnt give us 100% answers on everything. Its like that verse in the Bible that talks about when the leaders of the church meet together to decide if the Gentiles had to be circumcised etc to be proper Christians… they came out saying ‘it seems good to us and to the Spirit…’… not a difinitive answers, just that it seemed right. I like it!
I think you always need to be careful on this point though. Different things can ‘seem’ right to different people, the important thing is to always look for the Truth. There are certain things about our faith which the Lord has laid out for us, they are written plainly in scripture and as such they are immovable.
I like this definition: The teachings of scripture (fundamentals, practices of ) [1 Tim.4:13-16 2 Tim.3:16]. The fundamentals.
Of course there are those things that arn’t so clear, and then we should seek the Lord and His wisdom in those situations, and through His spirit hopefully He makes these things ‘seem right to us’. 🙂
It kinds depends what you are talking about really, Doctrine is usually the fundemental things we believe, but then there’s church tradition etc..
Sorry, that was way too long a comment 😛
Your new wordpress blog is great! 🙂