Bible Doctrines – Foreword

Paul distinguished between the simplicities of the Word and its more profound truths. When writing to the Corinthians he said, “I have fed you with milk, and not with meat” (I Cor. 3:2).Certainly, newborn babes in Christ thrive on the sincere milk of the Word. With spiritual development, however, the meat of Scripture is masticated.

One wonders whether the prevalent carnality among religious people would have been prevented if only they had consistently listened to doctrinal preaching in their churches. We fear that much of the present-day preaching is not only simple but superficial. The surface of the Bible is skimmed, but its depths are ignored.

How grateful to the Lord we are for fundamental seminaries and Bible institutes all over the land, in which young people are taught to handle the great doctrines of the Word! The TennesseeTemple Bible School is one of the outstanding training schools of this kind in the land, and is fortunate in having a gifted teacher like Dr. Mark G. Cambron as its Dean. Dr. Cambron’smonumental work, Bible Doctrines, reveals how he has launched out into the deep of God’s Word, and is able to present, in a clear and concise manner, those glorious doctrines of which God in Christ is Author, Matter and End.

We bespeak for Bible Doctrines a wide circulation among pastors, students and Christian workers in this and other lands!

DR. HERBERT LOCKYER, D.D., LL.D.

PREFACE

“God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you” (Rom. 6:17). “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works” (II Tim. 3:16,17).

The crying need of the Church today is the knowledge of the Word of God. The Church is cold, indifferent to the one purpose for which God has left it here — and that purpose is to win the lost to Christ. But it seems that some of God’s choicest leaders are falling into the different isms of today; the cause: the lack of the knowledge of the doctrines of God’s Word. God’s children are backsliding into sin; the cause: the lack of the knowledge of the doctrines of the Word of God. Christians must feed upon the Word of God to grow thereby. Thus, the Truth of God will act upon Christian lives and conduct. The fact that man will not heed sound doctrine is a sign of the times — a sign that Christ is soon coming. “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils” (I Tim. 4:1).

There is not a field of service anywhere but which demands of its pastors and ministers the right dividing of the Word of Truth. Souls are saved, yet these souls depend upon the Word for growth. The Truth will shape them, and error will misshape them. There is a vast difference between a person holding the Truth, and the Truth holding the person. Therefore, in the study of the doctrines of the Scripture, may the student pray that not only shall he know the doctrines, but that they shall become a reality to his soul and spirit.