Doctrine is principle or body of
principles. A doctrine is a systematic attempt by men to describe
what the Word of God says about a certain topic. There are elements
within the Word of God that can be taken and used as building blocks
for doctrines. Some doctrines can use one or more elements of other
doctrines. Each doctrine is represented by a window through which we
look at a portion of the Word of God. Each window looks at a
different area; some windows cover only one area while other windows
overlap each other.
Doctrines, taken individually, can not represent all of what the Word says to us. It may be that many doctrines linked together can approximate much of what the Word says.
Doctrines can be wrong, either partially or wholly. Sometimes doctrines take what God said simply and make it so complex that men go wrong or become discouraged. Conversely, some doctrines take a complex communication from God and so simplify that it looses it's intended meaning.
The Word is always larger than the efforts of man to classify or explain it. Given the limitations of our flesh, God has told us (mankind) more than we can comprehend, understand, or explain.
Similarly, no single man can comprehend fully all the knowledge wrapped up in a microchip. It took thousands of men hundreds of years to discover electricity and the technology to harness it to produce power and to manipulate knowledge. There are geniuses, but no one man can comprehend it all.
So don't feel bad about not knowing everything; you can't; no man can.
