Morning Musing
                                        Do You Have a Dogma?
                                           By Renda Brumbeloe

Do you have a dogma or an established belief?  You can be at ease when you know the truth. 

"And you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free." (John 8:32)
Chapters 8 through 12 of John record the certain word of truth spoken by Jesus.

In our society many have come to believe that “dogma” is a bad thing, a negative word.  Just maybe the word dogma has been given a bad rap.    A dogma - or settled doctrine - is believed because it is based on the Word of God.  It’s that simple.  But often we are taught to believe the opposite - that dogma is narrow mindedness and that certainty of truth is evidence of a closed mind.  Many people believe truth doesn’t matter as long as you have an open mind and are sincere.   They are at ease with a lie.     

New York Times columnist Anthony Lewis, twice winner of the Pulitzer Prize, recently said that a primary lesson of his entire career was that “Certainty is the enemy of decency and humanity in people who are sure they are right, like Osama bin Laden and John Ashcroft.”

Obviously, his statement is fraught with an underlying agenda.  His statement is not about truth, and belies rationality.  He is saying certainty is a bad thing and he speaks it as the certain truth.   

Anthony Lewis’s dogma is questionable.  Believing in certainty of truth is not indecent thought.   If certainty is the enemy of decency and humanity, then nothing certain can be good.  There can be no heroes, no heroic action or human decency.  
Lewis’s statement falls upon its own sword.  Dogma is not narrow mindedness because truth is certain.  Those who oppress Christian thought today would like us to believe otherwise . . .  that it is wrong to believe you are right.    

Another Lewis, C.S. Lewis said “Those who believe in nothing, will fall for anything.” 

Our society will certainly fall like a house of cards when certainty does not exist.  It is certain that murder is wrong.  It is certain that child abuse is abhorrent.   It is certain that night will come.

We must be clear.  The church will fall when certainty does not exist. 
Jesus continued the certain word of truth when He said . . . the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day” -John 12:4

Of that doctrine, I am certain.

Morning Musings are weekly publications based on studies of Biblical scripture meditations, and times of personal devotion.  A dialogue of truth, avoiding heresies, and rightly dividing the Word of God in the challenging days in which we live, is encouraged from any serious reader and student of the Word of God. Musings are Copyrighted© 2007 by Renda Brumbeloe.

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