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SOUND DOCTRINE
What is sound doctrine? Sound doctrine is a doctrine based on correctly divided word of truth and seen from the light of Christ. The emphasis of a sound doctrine is Christ himself, its purpose is to lift up Christ and not man, traditions, culture, morality and so forth. What makes it a sound doctrine is that it brings the saints into maturity and edifies the body of Christ, so the ultimate goal of a sound doctrine is for the edification of the body of Christ. This however can never happen until the doctrine is contextually, rightly and correctly divided according to the rules of scriptural interpretation, Paul admonishes the church to preach nothing less than sound doctrine.
Tit. 2:1-2
But speak you the things which become sound doctrine ;
That aged men be sober, grave, temperate, sound in faith, in charity, in patience.
Tit. 2:1 (N.I.V)
You, however, must teach what is appropriate to sound doctrine.
It is a command for ministers of God to teach what is appropriate for sound doctrine, no matter the manifestations of the spirit which includes miracles in a church or denomination , we must understand miracles are not the message they are only confirmations of the message, so the emphasis of the church should be sound doctrine and not miracles, while miracles is good and great its purpose majorly is to bring unbelievers to the faith (Jn. 4:48). Sound doctrine should be the core of any ministry and should be celebrated above miracles, signs and wonders. If the core ministry of the ministry gifts is to teach sound doctrine then we must of necessity be able to discern a doctrine that is not sound. It is important to note that a doctrine may be good but not sound, it is not about the intention of the doctrine but the end product, there are many doctrines that are good and serves good purposes but since they are not sound have led to more factions, divisions within the body of Christ, Paul calls such doctrines the “doctrines of men (Col. 2:22)”.

HOW CAN WE EXAMINE A SOUND DOCTRINE ?
A Doctrine can be examined to be sound or not if we understand the rules of scriptural interpretations. So we can examine any case doctrinally to see if it can stand as a truth in the body of Christ using the principles of scriptural interpretation.
LAWS OF SCRIPTURAL INTERPRETATION
Law of 3 witnesses
This law states that any matter is settled scripturally and doctrinally if it has minimum two to three witnesses. (2nd Cor. 13:1). No scripture stands alone, every scripture comes from the stem of another scripture, so for proper doctrinal examination, every scripture stands as truth when we have minimum of two to three witnesses. Even in the law of Moses before a person can be put to death, there must be a testimony of minimum two to three witnesses (Num. 35:30 , Deut. 17:6 , Deut. 19:15). It is best we have one from the Old Testament and two from the New Testament, it makes it a balanced case in scripture.
Law of Contextual Interpretation
This law states that no scripture should be lifted to mean anything, it must be understood contextually, so for proper doctrinal examination it is best to understand the context of which the writer is communicating the message. So we may have to read some verses before or even start from the beginning of the chapter, we need to put it at the back of our minds that scriptures were not written in chapters and verses, they were written as letters in a scroll, so chapter and verses are the editorial work of the translators for better understanding and any word italicized is not in the original manuscript, it was the translators that added it for better understanding. It is important we put all this in view for our examination of a doctrine.
Law of non- imaginative interpretation
No scripture should be interpreted with our imagination or intellect, scriptures were not given for our minds to absorb but for our spirit. There is always a great temptation to interpret scriptures with our imagination but as simple as the scriptures appears, we would be wrong if we do that, scriptures should only be interpreted with scriptures by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. Most of the wrong doctrines came into being by the neglect of this law, so we need to correctly divide the scripture with other scriptures as the Holy Ghost inspires, remember that the problem is not just the division of scripture but the right division of scriptures (2nd Tim. 2:15).
Law of no Neglect
No scripture should be neglected but all scriptures should be correctly interpreted. It simply means a doctrine cannot stand if there are other scriptures negating what the doctrine says. So when examining a correct and sound doctrine if we are able to find any scripture that negates what the doctrine states even after three witnesses, we cannot neglect it we have to correctly interpret it. Some New Testament preachers are most times guilty of sidelining some scriptures, calling it Old Testament; that is wrong. We cannot neglect any scripture because all scriptures are given by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, we need to correctly interpret it in the light of Christ before we can declare it as a sound doctrine.

Law of legality
Legality simply means the boundaries in the constitution of the universe that can never be crossed by any being in the universe. Legality bounds the creator and the creature, legality keeps the integrity of God intact. God in his omnipotence cannot break the law of legality, it defines the boundaries of God who is the creator of the world, legality is the highest law in the realm of the spirit that explains what we cannot understand by all the laws we have mentioned earlier. When there is no clear explanation to any case legality is the last law that either redirects our search or explains why some things cannot be. For example, when man sinned even though God loved man, God couldn’t just tell man to go and just forgive him right away. Man has broken the legal grounds of the constitution so God has to redeem man also through the legal grounds of the constitution, which is simple reason God had to wait that long before he came himself as a man to pay for sins. According to legality stand, man sinned and only man can pay, Angels cannot pay for him, and God cannot pay for him. So God had to be a man to be constitutionally legal to pay for man’s sins.
Therefore for any doctrine to stand as a sound doctrine in scriptures, it has to undergo the scrutiny of the laws of scriptural examinations and be found worthy to be called a sound doctrine. This applies also to all revelations any minister receive from God, it must be scrutinized before accepted . There is nothing called a personal revelation that cannot be scrutinized, no matter the vision, revelation , dream or encounter, it must pass through the scriptural examination.
2nd Pet. 1:20
Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.
Every revelation of scripture anybody receives may be private but it is for edification of the body of Christ, it is for public manifestation, we therefore need to be careful of whatever we call our conviction, every conviction must be a truth that has been thoroughly examined, the word is final say and every dream, vision, encounter must be subject to the authority of the word. When believers start developing a mentality that “it was what the Holy Ghost revealed to me, I don’t care if it is in the word or not”, “it is a personal dealing” and all that they are gradually going into heresy. It is safe to stay on the word of God.

Let us examine thoroughly some doctrinal cases.
Case 1:
Doctrine of wearing of trousers for a lady is a sin
Deut. 22:5
The woman shall not wear that which pertains to a man, neither shall a man put on a woman’s garment: for all that do so are abomination to the Lord your God.
This is a major doctrine in the body of Christ and caused so much divisions and factions in the body of Christ, some denominations count those that wear trousers as sinners and they are going to Hell. Some even claim to have had revelations from God, and said God told them any one that wears trouser will go to Hell. Off course I am not kicking against the belief of any denomination, am just here to establish the truth, so it is fine what they believe and I will try to be as neutral as possible but viewing their statement doctrinally and within the borderlines of correct interpretation of scriptures.

Can this doctrine stand?
First thing to observe “ it has only one witness”, so this out-rightly strikes it out as a doctrine. Therefore it cannot stand as a doctrine in the body of Christ but someone is saying God revealed it to me that it is an abomination, well! Am not saying God didn’t reveal it to you, remember even God is subject to the word and cannot break the word so it doesn’t matter what you saw, the word has final say. Let us take a deeper look into the statement and state more reasons why it cannot stand as a sound doctrine.
Deut. 22:5-11
The woman shall not wear that which pertains to a man, neither shall a man put on a woman’s garment: for all that do so are abomination to the Lord your God…
When thou buildest a new house, then thou shalt make a battlement for thy roof, that thou bring not the blood upon thine house, if anyman fall from thence.
Thou shalt not sow thy vineyard with divers seeds: lest the fruit of thy seed which thou hast sown, and the fruit of the vineyard be defiled.
Thou shall not plow an ox and an ass together.
Thou shall not wear a garment of divers sorts, as of wollen and linen together.

These were some of the laws God gave Moses to lead the children of Israel, and in the law the condition to follow it is that every thing must be obeyed.
James 2:10
For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.
This simply means you cannot obey one and disregard the other, then you are guilty of all. If someone tells me that God told him in a dream or vision that every lady that wears trouser is going to hell, then we must also put the other laws in the same scripture in perspective, remember we must be contextual.
So, every one that builds a house and doesn’t put battlement on the roof is going to hell, every one that plants two types of crops on his farm is going to hell, every one that plows two different types of animals (e.g ox and ass) is going to hell.
And lastly every one that wears a garment of two different materials (e.g linen and wool) is going to hell. You can see that it is a very serious case!
Remember you cannot pick one scripture and drop one, it will contradict the law of no neglect, my question now is this “how can there be two laws on clothing in the same chapter of scripture and you make one a doctrine and leave the other one”.
That is strange! The same way it is an abomination for a woman to wear a man’s clothing, it is an abomination for a man or woman to wear a cloth of two different materials. If everyone that wears cloth of mixture of two materials go to hell then who will go heaven, because I doubt if there is any cloth on earth today that is made of one single material. Also it is an abomination for a farmer to plant two different crops, e.g irish and corn on the same farm land, it then means all farmers are going to hell, because many of you plants even have up to five different crops on the same land.
Now you can see this yourself, nobody could fulfill the conditions of the law that is why Jesus came not to abolish the law but to fulfill it, now the law has been fulfilled in Christ Jesus, so if you are in Christ you are fulfilling the laws they couldn’t fulfill.
Since we have seen now that wearing trousers cannot stand as a doctrine, we need to correctly interpret what it means by revelation.

First of all we must understand that the Old Testament was a shadow, it foreshadowed Christ, so it wasn’t reality in itself, it was pointing to something (Christ). Paul tells us by revelation that the law was a shadow.
Heb. 10:1
For the law was a shadow of the good things to come and not the very image of the things,…
A shadow can never give accurate description because it is always dark, you cannot detect colors in shadows. Christ is the message of the law, so we must see the law in the light of Christ, all the laws were not talking about things in themselves, it was pointing to Christ which is the message.
Gal. 3:24
Wherefore the law was our school master to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
The words “to bring us” was italicized in the king James, so for proper rendering, it will read this way.
Gal. 3:24
Wherefore the law was our school master unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith
The law was our school master that was pointing to Christ, Christ was the message but it was shadowed in the law.
What was God communicating to Moses in that verse of scripture?
Deut. 22:5
The woman shall not wear that which pertains to a man, neither shall a man put on a woman’s garment: for all that do so are abomination to the Lord your God
This scripture is simply talking about Authority.
1 Cor. 11:3
But I would have you know , that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man ; and the head of Christ is God.
The head of the woman is the man, so it is a dishonor for a woman to put on the garment of the man, because the man serves as the priest over the home. Like it was an abomination in the law for a person to put on the garment of a priest also it is an abomination for a woman to wear the garment of her husband, it simply means she doesn’t respect him as the head, It is also a dishonor for the man as the priest to put on the garment of the woman, because priests are sacred in the law and should carry themselves in such a manner. The scripture is not talking about clothing but authority, honor and respect.

Case 2:
Doctrine of covering of hair is a sin
This has been a very controversial doctrine over the years in the body of Christ, we need to examine this case doctrinally to see if it can stand as truth in the body of Christ.
First observation: It has no witness in scriptures, it is a product of wrong interpretation of the bible. Paul never said it is a sin to uncover your hair, we are not taking any position on this case yet, we would observe the scripture commonly used to see what Apostle Paul was talking about.
1 Cor. 11:5
But every woman that prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head: for that is even all one as she was shaved.
Paul uses the word head and not hair, some one may be asking what is the difference?
There is a lot of difference because Paul puts the two in perspective (hair and head) in his letter to the Corinthians, so we musn’t assume what Paul didn’t say. It is better we let scriptures speak for themselves, remember one of the laws of interpreting scriptures is that scriptures must not be imagined to mean anything, it must only be interpreted with scriptures because our imaginations may be wrong.
Can a woman pray with her head, yes ! it is possible, Paul explains it in the next verse that this is when a woman is shaved (either very low cut, or bald head).
So explain this contextually lets go back two verses before verse 5, because Paul uses head two times in the same verse 5. So we to know which one is which.
1 Cor. 11:5
But every woman that prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head: for that is even all one as she was shaved.
1 Cor. 11:3-5
But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man ; and the head of Christ is God.
But every man praying or prophesying with his head covered dishonors his head.
But every woman that prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head: for that is even all one as she was shaved.
From chapter 3 we can see Paul giving us the authority chain, between the woman, man and Christ.
Head of Man = Christ
Head of woman = Man
So now let us examine verse 4
But every man praying or prophesying with his head covered dishonors his head.
Who is the head that is dishonored? Christ.
let us examine verse 5
But every woman that prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head: for that is even all one as she was shaved.
Who is the head that is dishonored? Man (or her husband).
Another thing to critically observe from the context of which the writer is communicating the message to us is that the Man and the woman in question here are married, the issue is between husband and wife.
Let us use a simpler version to explain the point better.

1 Cor. 11:3 -5 (N.L.T)
But there is one thing I want you to know: A man is responsible to Christ, a woman is responsible to her husband, and Christ is responsible to God.
A man dishonors Christ if he covers his head while praying or prophesying
But a woman dishonors her husband if she prays or prophesies without a covering on her head,…
If the doctrine even holds at all, the issue is between husband and wife, so my question is this “if a young lady uncovers her head in prayer or prophesying, who is she dishonoring ?” If as a young girl, you uncover your head, my question is where is your husband? Paul gives a detailed explanation of this in the subsequent verses, the only reason God wants a woman to cover her head is not because of him but for the angels (obviously the angels are attracted by women when they are shaven or have very low hair on their head), so Paul tells a woman to cover her head as a sign she is under the authority of a man to the angels.
1 Cor. 11:10 (N.L.T)
So a woman should wear a covering on her head as a sign of authority because the angels are watching.
Paul in this same letter tells us the difference between head and hair, because most people say Paul said cover hair, no he never said that, he consistently uses the word cover head, then he finalizes his statement in verse15.
1 Cor. 11:15
But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her: for her hair is given to her for a covering.
This is a very straight and plain statement, her hair has been given to her by God for a covering, Paul is saying the covering for the head is long hair and not scarf or any other thing.

Case 4:
Doctrine of Eternal security
The Doctrine of eternal security is an unbalanced truth in the body of Christ, it’s a truth pushed to the extreme.
LET’S EXAMINE
First observation : The doctrine has three witnesses but we need to examine the witnesses to see if the doctrine can stand.

Psalm 37:28
For the LORD loveth judgment, and forsaketh not his saints; they are preserved for ever: but the seed of the wicked shall be cut off.
The key word here for their doctrinal stand is “a saint is preserved forever”
John 10:28-29
And I give them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand
My Father which gave them to me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my father’s hand.
The key word here is “ they shall never perish and no man can plucked them out of my hands.
Hebrews 10:14
For by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified.
The key word here is “perfected forever”.
With 3 witnesses it has passed the first test.
QUESTIONS TO ASK
Do we have scriptures that negates this claim? Yes there are! So we must carefully observe them.
SCRIPTURES THAT NEGATE IT
1st Timothy 4:1
Now the spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, …
Revelations 3:5
He who overcometh , the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name from the book of life…
Hebrews 3:12
Take heed brethren, lest there be any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God
Matthew 7:21
Not everyone that saith unto me lord, lord shall enter into the kingdom of heaven …
We have minimum of four scriptures contradicting the claim that a believer is eternally secured, so we cannot neglect them , we have to correctly interpret them.
The word DEPART is from the Greek word APHISTEMI which means to fall-away. Withdraw, to be removed.
Depart is the opposite of the word PHISTEMI which means to be established. The word APHISTEMI is used 7 times in the New Testament, 3 times in the gospel (the book of luke), 4 times in the epistles of Apostle Paul.
So if it’s possible to depart from the faith, it simply means it’s not possible to establish this doctrine. The word Overcome used in Rev. 3:5 is from the Greek word Nicao, which means to conquer or be victorious, and interpreting that word with scriptures by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
1st john 5:4-5
For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.
Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God ?
We can clearly see here that an overcomer is he that believes.
Revelations 3:5
He who overcometh (believeth till the end) , the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name from the book of life…
So if a believer does not believe till the Jesus can blot out the person’s name from the book of life, this directly contradicts the claim of eternal security for a believer.
Also Jesus said “Not all that call me lord ,lord will enter the kingdom of heaven”. Those that called him lord , lord where once born again. Remember nobody can say Jesus is lord except by the Holy Ghost (1 Cor. 12:3).
Surely all this tells us that a believer can lose his salvation.
Let’s look at contextual interpretations of the scriptural witness of the doctrine of eternal security.
1st witness
Psalm 37:28 has got conditions attached, which is from verse 37 (which is to depart from evil)
Ps. 37:27
Depart from evil, and do good; and dwell for evermore.
Second Witness
Jn. 10:28-89 also has conditions attached, if we start reading from verse 27
The conditions are, you have to be a sheep, you have to hear his voice and you have to follow him.
Third Witness
Hebrews 10:14 has conditions attached to it too, the condition is that those who are perfected forever must be purified from sin. It is called sanctification.
In conclusion, the Doctrine of eternal security is only true for them who are sanctified and detest iniquity, so eternal security is doctrinally established on the condition that the believer stays in the word.
There are many other doctrinal cases to treat, but we cannot treat all, this is one reason we put the procedures for examining a true doctrine and giving common examples. It is the joy of Christ that we walk in the truth (2nd Jn. 2:4), so it is so important we cross examine what we believe in the light of the truth of Christ Jesus.

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