Much of our understanding of the Bible is based on teaching, and teaching is based upon doctrine. Doctrine is a belief (or system of beliefs) accepted as authoritative by some group or school. In Christianity doctrine is a systematic way men have that describes what the Word of God says about a certain topic. We can think of a doctrine as represented by a window through which we look at a portion of the Word of God. One window may open on one area while another views a different area. Each window looks at a different area; Some windows cover only their own area while other windows overlap the area other windows also view. Some larger windows can include smaller windows.
One doctrine may be about marriage, another about Creation, another about proper and improper conduct.
There are elements within the Word of God that can be taken and used as building blocks for doctrines. Yet doctrines taken individually cannot represent all of what the Word of God says to us. Some doctrines can use one or more elements of other doctrines. It is possible many doctrines linked together can approximate much of what the Word of God says.
The Word of God is always larger than the efforts of men to classify or explain it. Given the limitations of our flesh, God has told us (mankind) more than we can comprehend, understand, or explain.
In the world of technology by comparison: no single man can comprehend fully all the knowledge wrapped up in a microchip. God has made His Word greater than microchips.
Doctrine classifies and simplifies God’s word so that we can understand and apply it to our lives. Trouble comes when doctrines take what God said simply and makes it so complex that men become discouraged or go wrong. Trouble also comes with the notion that God's word is so complex that men must simplify it by doctrine for doctrine can be wrong, either partially or wholly.
Some doctrines help us, and others hurt. We must carefully weigh what each proclaims. To do the weighing we need scales, and the only true scale is the Bible.
