Dr. John MacArthur as a guest blogger...

If you haven't read it already, check out Dr. John MacArthur's thoughts about Doctrine and the need for good doctrine over on Phil Johnson's blog Pyromanic.

A couple of teasers for you:

Moreover, the distinction between doctrinal and practical truth is completely artificial; doctrine is practical. In fact, nothing is more practical than sound doctrine, because there's ultimately no basis for godly behavior apart from the truth of God's Word.

So we have imposed an artificial meaning on the word doctrine. We've made it something abstract and threatening, unrelated to daily living. That has brought about the disastrous idea that preaching and teaching are unrelated to living.

The scriptural concept of doctrine includes the entire message of the gospel—its teaching about God, salvation, sin, and righteousness. Those concepts are so tightly bound to daily living that the first-century mind did not see them as something separate from practical truth.

I suggested to Phil that he could auction off a day of Dr. MacArthur posting on your blog as a great ministry fundraiser. I don't think that would ever happen, and I certainly don't have the cash to bid aginst some who might be in that auction, but it sure would be cool!