"Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage - with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine". 2 Tim 4:2-3.
Over the years my 'pursuasion' has definitely moved from the fundamentalist end of the spectrum to the liberal end. I have never been an 'off the scale' fundamentalist and nor have I become a rabid liberal. But I have moved.
I am often concerned about the possibility of trashing sound doctrine. But what is sound doctrine? Maybe this warning could be just as much a warning to those who take a very narrow view of the scriptures, sifting it through their own narrow worldview and, in so doing, coming up with an unbiblical, harsh and judgemental viewpoint, as it is to one who becomes so liberal that they don't actually end up believing anything.
If we are prepared to put our own preconceptions to one side and forget what we personally might prefer God to be saying through the scriptures and, in turn, try to envisage what message God is attempting to get through to his world, then we will have the best chance of discerning his word.
We might be surprised to find that the Bible actually says something very different to what we have been taught.
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