Some Comments on Doctrines

Some Comments on Doctrines

Thomas Allen

Discussed below are what makes the best doctrines, orthodoxy and heterodoxy, Old Testament Christians, Calvinism, and some views of Jesus.

Best Doctrines
Usually, most Christians seem to believe the Christian doctrines that have the weakest Scriptural foundation. Moreover, when verses seem to conflict, they believe that the many should be understood in light of the few instead of understanding the few in light of the many. Furthermore, some, if not many, doctrines seem to start with the premise, and then the Scriptures are forced to fit a preconceived conclusion. Calvinism and Catholicism are good examples.

Orthodoxy or Heterodoxy
Most Christians ignore, fail to realize, or refuse to accept that what one person considers orthodoxy, another person considers heresy. Likewise, what one person considers heresy, another person considers orthodoxy. Protestantism and Catholicism are good examples: Protestants consider Catholics heretics, and Catholics consider Protestants heretics.

What is the difference between orthodoxy and heterodoxy? My doxy is orthodoxy, and your doxy is heterodoxy. In other words, one person’s orthodoxy is another person’s heterodoxy, and one person’s heterodoxy is another person’s orthodoxy. Therefore, a heretic is someone who disagrees with another’s doxy. Heresy is perspective.

Old Testament Christians
A segment of Christianity teaches that the Old Testament laws apply to today’s Christians. Therefore, Christians are obliged to follow all the Old Testament laws with one exception. The laws related to animal sacrifices are the only exceptions since Jesus fulfilled them. Furthermore, nearly all Old Testament Christians believe the principle that Christians are forbidden to do anything that the Bible does not command or expressly allow. If the Bible is silent about a particular activity, that activity is prohibited. Do the Old Testament Christians sincerely practice these doctrines?

If an Old Testament Christian has a skin disease, does he seek a Levite priest, to heal his disease, or does he seek a capable physician? If his house has a problem with mold, does he turn to a Levite priest or a person skilled in removing mold to eliminate his mold problem? If he uses a physician or a professional house cleaner instead of a Levite priest, he is violating Old Testament law and is consequently sinning.

Further, the Bible does not specifically or even obliquely allow the use of computers, radio, television, telephones, etc. or even the use of any device that uses electricity. Do these Christians who believe that Christians are forbidden to do anything that the Bible does not command or authorize, use any electrical devices? If they do, they are sinning.

Moreover, Old Testament Christians would not use credit money of any kind, because nowhere does the Bible authorize the use of credit money. That is, they would not use banknotes (e.g., federal reserve notes), government notes (e.g., US notes), checks, cryptocurrencies (e.g., bitcoin), or a script of any kind. Instead, they would use gold, silver, or another commodity.

Calvinism
In Common-Sense in Religion: A Series of Essays (Boston: James R. Osgood and Company, 1874), James Freeman Clarke gives an interesting description of Calvinism (pages 68-69), although a Calvinist probably would object to it. Calvinists call God their father in heaven. However, according to Clarke, “their real god is not a Father.” About the god of the Calvinist, Clarke writes:

Their real god is an almighty power. He is an inflexible will. He is one who acts, not according to wisdom and love, as a good father acts, but according to some personal whim of his own. He has his favorites, whom he elects and chooses to make happy forever. He has those whom he dislikes for no reason except that he has taken a prejudice against them, and so rejects them and sends them to perdition. This is the essential idea of Calvinism according to Calvin; and Calvinism has another god before the God of Jesus Christ. Jesus worshipped [sic] a Father; Calvinism worships an infinite, arbitrary will.

(Years ago, I either read or heard someone describe how people view God as the heavenly Father. If their earthly father was harsh, stern, cruel, arbitrary, etc., then most likely, they see their heavenly Father as harsh, stern, cruel, arbitrary, etc. However, if their earthly father was kind, loving, caring, understanding, etc., then, most likely, they see their heavenly Father as kind, loving, caring, understanding, etc.)

Some Views of Jesus
Several views of Jesus follow (also, see “Some Christologies” by Thomas Allen):

Orthodox trinitarians (three equal Gods are one God), modalistic trinitarians (one God consists of three manifestations), and tritheistic trinitarians (three equal Gods): Jesus is a human God and a Messiah who is a God-man (Jesus is 100 percent God and 100 percent human).

Apollinarians: Jesus is a human shell that God inhabits.

Paleo-unitarians (Traditional Unitarians, Biblical Unitarians): Jesus is a divine man (the expression of God) and a human messiah.

Neo-unitarians (Modern Unitarians, Rational Unitarians), liberal Protestants, and secular humanists: Jesus is a good man, a wise man, a great teacher of ethics and morality, a reformer, a philosopher, and in the same class as Zoroaster, Confucius, Buddha, and Mohammed.

Jehovah’s Witnesses: Jesus is the Archangel Michael.

Talmudic Jews: Jesus is a blasphemer, a sorcerer, and a bastard.

Muslims: Jesus is a great prophet.

Gnostics: Jesus was God Himself and only appears to be human.

Other views of Jesus include that he is a myth, that he is a fraudster, or that he is a mushroom or some kind of hallucinating drug.

Copyright © 2022 by Thomas Coley Allen.

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