Lost In Translation?? When the Gospel Gets Lost In Human Doctrines

From antiquity, the message of  God's Gospel promise has been effectively passed down from person to person, generation to generation orally.  Yet in recent postmodern times many people cringe at the idea of the church speaking and confessing with scripture as its rule and norm.  The song of the church in the liturgy has become offensive and traded in for "relevant" bubblegum pop songs.  The Creed and the rest of the chief parts of the faith as confessed in Luther's Small Catechism continue to collect dust. Our postmodern culture asserts that truth can not be absolute.  Contemporary words don't necessarily need to carry much meaning as long as experiences can cultivate and gratify a sense of individualistic wisdom.  Unfortunately, these ideas have infiltrated the church and caused many to be ashamed pure doctrine and a faithful confession.  Ultimately this leads to being ashamed of the Gospel.

For example, what are we to make of comments like this?

"How often do we get so caught up in our own church-speak that 

the Gospel gets lost in translation?" 

"Just talk Jesus not doctrine"

Huh? What?  

I've heard these coined new phrases a lot lately.  Yes, I get that often times those who make such comments have good intentions.  They just want to get the Good News out there.  But we want to be sure we're getting the right Good News out there, yes?  Absolutely! We believe Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6) we want others to know.

Cliches and platitudes like those above seem to assert that we should disconnect what we confess and teach with doctrine and theology when talking about the faith with those outside of the Body of Christ.  Or when passing down the faith to young and new believers. Such phrases insist that we should contextualize what we believe to make it more palatable or understandable as we witness.  Now we should not depend on abstract academic, philosophical dogmatic rhetoric.  Most of the time that approach is pretty overwhelming to the listener.  Yet, we should not throw in the towel so quickly when speaking the language of the faith as the church has always done.  

The doctrine of man vs. God's doctrine

Let's stop and consider the many doctrines of man.  All world religions have doctrine and teachings.  All societies seek knowledge and understanding of humanity in relation to God.  If you talk to a Buddist they will speak to you in terms of their doctrine.  It shapes their worldview.  Even an atheist holds to some kind of doctrine, that God does not exist.  When speaking to the world about God they will have their own doctrine and dogmatic rhetoric. They will not shy away from it. People have the general intelligence to understand words of doctrine.  It's insulting to those we want to reach to assume they can't understand.  It's a denial of the work of the Holy Spirit if we think the faithful teaching should be watered down.  God's word is efficacious.  God's Word does what it says and will not come back void.  Why should we shy away from the doctrine we confess to be true?

If we toss aside our doctrine (teaching) and theology (words about God) what are we left with?  Our logic, human reason and philosophies. The doctrine of man.  See, it's all about which doctrine becomes the expression of our faith.  Do we use the doctrine God gives us, the language of the faith, revealed to us in His Word.  Do we remain steadfast in our heritage? Or are we going to express ourselves through our man imagined doctrines, buzz words or fluffy platitudes?

What happens to the faith in the midst of human doctrine? 

When we choose to water down our "church-speak" are we not basically "tossing out the baby with the bath water"?  What are we left with?  What god are we talking about?

Often times we arrive at  a general god.  A "Bruce Almighty god".  A Hollywood god defined by the culture.  This is a god who basically just asks for a little obedience here and little more there, a few well-spun prayers and you can earn a "blessing".  The more you dedicate and work to appease this god the more "best life" you have, right?
Or, this god is capable of miracles like "parting tomato soup" but when it comes to parting the Red Sea, we are better to explain that with science.

We might make use of a historical apologetic to prove His existence.
Now, this argument may have some value but it does not get to the why of Jesus.  In this context we get prideful, the tendency is to leave Jesus defeating sin, death, and the devil on the back burner.  The teaching begins to should like this:  As long as we can follow His example we are good.  My buddy Jesus is a much more friendly manifestation anyhow.
His touch can be easily felt through personal experience, nature, mysticism, churchy entertainment.  That light show was cool, that guy in the skinny jeans is so hip, yeah man... We just have to keep up with the Jesus's Jones's trying to be God.

Human doctrines push us to look for signs.  Sure we can "part tomato soup too" yeah it's a little messy but we can get the job done.  All we have to do is huff and puff a little harder with each challenge.  After all this god doesn't dish out more than we can handle in life right?

In this context the evangelist many times comes off as a "holy than thou" arrogant jerk to the ears of the listener.  The message they carry is: "get your life together, look how good I'm doing, you're just not doing it right, god can't help those who won't help themselves. Rededicate, just give your heart to Jesus.  That sin isn't really a sin, but that one is.... be more pure, be less wordily, take up a new 40 day plan, you have to show God how good you are, he loves you, you can do it, just pray harder!"

Huh... that pride quickly turns to despair when the path becomes rocky.
The way, the truth and the life has not been passed on, faith fizzles, hope is lost in this cultural translation.  This postmodern context of no absolute truth is an artificial light that is still darkness at the crossroads of a moralistic, mystic, legalistic journey.

The Kingdom of God is confessed though pure doctrine

The 2nd and commandment demands of us to honor the Lords name when we speak of Him. God can not me molded to the whims of human doctrine.  It is our duty to fear and love God so that we honor the Word and teaching He has revealed to us, as we gladly hear, learn and share it.  When we mold God into the doctrines of man we despise the very revelation He has freely bestowed to us.

Pure Biblical doctrine starves the lies of the-the devil and feeds us with the truth.  We have to rely on a confessional expression of doctrine, to express The Holy Trinity.
An almighty Father who creates and sustains. A Savior incarnate, Word mad flesh, who dies and rises from the dead, sits at the right hand of God, and promises to come again.  And a Holy Spirit who creates faith within us.  Forgiveness, grace, mercy, hope, eternal life are all free gifts from this ONE TRUE GOD.  When speaking to the world we can only truly comfort with the language of faith.  We cling to a clear foundation rooted in scripture. Law and Gospel rightly divided.  Doctrine prepares us to give a reason for the hope that is in us. It guards us against being tossed about by idolatry and the false gospels of the world.  All other human reasoning and doctrines are sinking sand.

How can they know if the have not heard?