What are the Books that John speaks of here [Revelation 20:12]? Well, there is more than one. One book would be what is referred to as the Book of Life, but the other clearly has reference to God’s Word—the Bible—God’s doctrine.

You see, the standard of judgment for you and for me and for the rest of mankind will be the doctrine of the Bible. And each will be judged according to what it says there, and whether or not we have believed and have obeyed. Jesus said it this way: “the Word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day,” John 12, verse 48. It can’t get much clearer than that, can it?

So just how important is doctrine? Oh, my friend, that’s what we’re going to be judged by in that last day. We better know it, hadn’t we! We’d better observe it! We’d better obey it!

A fifth point: Doctrine is the basis for unity in the church. This is another reason why doctrine is so important because it forms the basis of Christian unity. Paul beseeches the early church in Corinth to be of the same mind and the same judgment, and to speak the same thing, 1 Corinthians 1, verse 10. [“Now I plead with you, brethren, by the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment”].

How can we possibly do what Paul was pleading for? When you consider the congregations of the Lord’s church which are scattered around (we have several in this community, there are many in this State, they’re all across this great nation from shore to shore, and we can go around the world and find congregations of the Lord’s people), how can each congregation speak the same thing, especially when you consider the diversity that exists in each local congregation? For example, right here in this congregation we have various age groups, we have various education levels, we have different kinds of ethnic and social backgrounds—just all kinds of differences. You know, we have different tastes when it comes to the food that we eat, to the clothes that we wear, to the cars that we drive. You name it, we have many differences. So how is it, I ask you, that we can fulfill this admonition of Paul to “speak the same thing” [1 Corinthians 1:10]?

Well, we may not all agree on the kind of chili we prefer, “red chili” or “green chili.” But when we’re talking about spiritual things, when we’re talking about religious matters, when we’re talking about our faith—THAT unity must come from a single source, and THAT IS the doctrine of God’s Word.

Peter tells us, as he writes in his first epistle, “If anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God,” 1 Peter 4, verse 11. Oracles… now there’s an interesting word that we don’t hear or use much these days. What that word means, according to one writer, is the “utterances of God presented through a teacher.” Also, we can go back to a Greek lexicon to learn the Greek origin of the word, and we see that this word “oracles” means “a divine response or utterance.” Such things that constitute, or fit into, this definition would be the contents of the Mosaic Law, Acts 7, verse 38. [“This is he who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the Angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our fathers, the one who received the living oracles to give to us.”]

Also, the utterances of God were written, being recorded by the Old Testament writers, as we read in Romans 3, verse 2. [“Much in every way! Chiefly because to them were committed the oracles of God.”] And then also, the utterances of God are the substance of Christian doctrine, Hebrews 5, and verse 12. [“For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food.”]

The church can only be united when each congregation follows the doctrine of Christ. When men change the doctrine of Christ—the very oracles of God—by adding to it, or by taking away from it, divisiveness and division result. Jesus prayed that the church—His followers—would be one, just as He and the Father are One, John 17, verse 21. [“that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me.”] There is no division between Jesus and His Father. There is no divisiveness there. They are united, and this is the kind of unity that Jesus desires within His Body.

Well we must strive to achieve and to maintain such unity. Thus, we cannot minimize the importance of doctrine—the doctrine found in God’s Holy Word, the Bible. How well we know it and how well we follow it will determine the unity of the church here on the earth now. It will also determine where we will spend eternity.

We certainly live in an age when people seem to be unimpressed and, well, even uninterested in Bible doctrine. Paul describes such a time and people as he writes his second epistle to that young evangelist, Timothy. 2 Timothy, chapter 3, verse 10, “But you have carefully followed my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, love, perseverance.” Notice there that Paul had instilled his doctrine in this young man, Timothy. How did Paul do this? He did this through his direct teaching, through the epistles that he wrote to him.