Your Doctrine of God Informs Everything You Believe

If you were asked what is the most important thing you believe, what would you say? Such a question is not often asked but it is worth reflecting on. It is similar to other “ultimate” questions like “what is the meaning of life?”, “what is good and evil?”, and “what is wrong with the world?” These questions strike at the heart of a person’s fundamental beliefs. And our fundamental beliefs are the most impactful beliefs we hold.

Why is this the case? The short answer is that your fundamental beliefs influence and shape the rest of your beliefs. Think of a simple illustration. Imagine that a high school student believes that he is unable to do math well. Depending on how strongly he holds this belief, it will create a debilitating effect on his performance in math courses. It will shape his self-perception and heavily influence the course of his academic career. Now, it may be true that math is not his best subject. But if he holds a strong belief that he simply cannot do well in math, then this will hinder his efforts and motivation in study. This, in turn, will affect how he performs in class and on exams. 

Another example of this principle is found in the thought of many (not all) secular thinkers. Many skeptics hold that belief in God requires the abandonment of reason. They believe that there is no rational basis for belief in God and that reason (thinking) is opposed to faith in God (to be clear, this view is false). This fundamental belief informs how they think about Biblical faith and what it means to be a Christian. The principle here is that a belief that you hold can permeate the rest of your thinking. A similar idea can be found in Jesus’ parable regarding the kingdom of heaven where He states that “the kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and mixed into fifty pounds of flour until all of it was leavened” (Matthew 13:33). In context, Jesus was discussing how God’s Kingdom spreads even though it has small beginnings. Just as a small amount of yeast (leaven) mixes into a large amount of dough (and causes it to rise) so God’s Kingdom starts with a small group of disciples and yet (because of God’s work) it spreads to multitudes upon multitudes (cf. Revelation 19). While Jesus was speaking directly to the nature of His Kingdom, the image He uses can illustrate how ideas work in our lives. One idea (belief) may be small in comparison to all the beliefs you hold (like the leaven). But this one idea can have an enormous influence in your life because of how it informs your thinking.

There is much that could be said for this principle. However, one application of it is this: Your doctrine of God informs everything else you believe. What you think and believe about God permeates the rest of your worldview. A.W. Tozer is well known for his statement in his book The Knowledge of the Holy where he says “what comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.” This itself is a fundamental truth that Christians need to grasp. Our spiritual growth and witness is hindered when we operate out of false beliefs about who God is. Thus, we must abide in Jesus and His Word if we are to be rightly informed about God’s nature, character, and purposes. Spiritual growth as a Christian is directly tied to whether we are growing in our understanding of who God is.