Posted on Feb 12, 2004 | by Kyle Smith

WAKE FOREST, N.C. (BP)--Sound doctrine that produces sound ethics for the spread of the Gospel is the foundation on which churches must stand, David Dockery said Feb. 11 at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C.

Dockery, president of Union University in Jackson, Tenn., said his message from Titus 2:1-10 is an important one for Christians because it goes against the notions of individualism and self-sufficiency so popular in American life.

"We have become lost in our own self-preoccupation," Dockery said, referring to the trend toward isolation of life in America today. "Titus 2 takes us in a very different direction than our culture."

The church today needs to stand united on sound biblical doctrine that will inform its actions, Dockery said, and it should do so with the motivation of bringing honor to Christ.

Dockery noted that the instructions conveyed in the Titus 2 text are applicable for the church today, including the injunctions for older women to encourage younger women and for men to conduct themselves in a manner that is beyond reproach.

"Older women are to practice the presence of God and allow God's presence to permeate their lives," he said. "Christian men are to be committed to the standard of chastity before marriage and fidelity afterward. This standard is in sore need today."

Dockery also championed the importance of the church adopting a worldview based on sound biblical doctrine rather than on society's standards.

"Sound doctrine is a Christian way of seeing the world, an understanding of the church as totally different than what we see around us," Dockery said. "Without this framework, the church will become more and more secularized in all it does."

But Christian living based on Christian doctrine will reflect positively on the church's message of the Gospel, said Dockery, one of the preeminent theologians in Southern Baptist life and author of more than 20 books.

"Christian marriages and Christian homes beautifully commend the Gospel," Dockery said.

"Those who don't [have a biblical worldview] bring it into disrepute. Our lives, our teaching and our churches can either bring attractive adornment to the Gospel or they can detract from the luster of it."
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(BP) photo posted in the BP Photo Library at http://www.bpnews.net. Photo title: DOCKERY AND DOCTRINE.