On Christian Doctrine and Practice
Being an examination of
Doctrine and Practices
in the Christian Church
From a Biblical perspective

By Neville Salvetti
The purpose of man
is to bring Glory to God
and to allow God
to use Him to serve Him
and expand
His Kingdom on earth.
Anything else is idolatry!

The Bible

The Bible is God’s guide book that tells us:

What God desires us to believe
How we are to live
What we are to do for Him
The rewards He has for those who are faithful to His Bible

If you do not believe any of what He desires you to believe in His Bible then you cannot use His Bible as you consider the part you do not believe is in error.  This means you also cannot rely on any other part of The Bible as  you do not know what else is in error.  You cannot really follow Jesus as He desires you too as what The Bible says about Him may be incorrect.  You also cannot rely on it for salvation as it may not be correct in what it says.
Your belief in the Bible has to be all or nothing as anything else is not certain of that bible being truth and able to detail salvation as well as what is required to live it and keep it.
What is said in this book only applies to those who believe The Bible wholly, who believe it is infallible and God’s revelation to man.  If you do not believe this then it does not matter what you believe as you then become responsible for finding what God desires you to believe and you must look elsewhere than The Bible for this.
If you do not believe that The Bible is 100% true then it is a waste of time your reading this book as The Bile is the yardstick used for the comparisons of truth made in this book and as you cannot rely on The Bible for your truth then you cannot use the comparisons in this book.

The Tests used in this book

In this book I will use the following two tests to examine Christian Doctrine and Practice.
There are only two possible scenarios to examine:

The Bible either commends or condemns the activity, belief or prctice, or
It is either apostolic practice from before 101 AD (when the apostle John died) or practice from a period after that.  If it is not in The Bible it cannot be doctrine so only practices need be looked at in this second test. Any beliefs based on tradition will also need to be examined but the belief also cannot be doctrine or it would have been dealt with by the first test.
These practices will need to pass the following three parts of the second test:

(a) Does the activity or belief promote The Lordship of Jesus or bring Him Honour, praise or Glory or result in Him being worshipped or adored as God, and/or.
(b) Does the Activity or belief break the Law of Love that Jesus gave, or
(c) Does the activity or belief lead to idolatry or cause a weaker brother or sister to sin. This really a restatement of (a) and (b) above.

All beliefs or practices examined in this book will be tested using the above criteria.
As this book is on Christian doctrine I will not examine practices from religions that do not believe either that Jesus is divine, that He rose from the dead or that He is not necessary for salvation except where it is deemed necessary to do so to prevent others following their errors.  Some of their practices and beliefs may be touched on but that is purely as I am looking at overall practices and beliefs and not specifically singling out at any denomination, cult, religion or sect.
The exception is The Catholic Church.  This is because there is little wrong with many of their beliefs if the attitude of the people in this church is such that it passes the second test (where the Bible does not cover the matter being examined).  People unjustly criticise some things in The Catholic Church when in reality they do not offend God as they pass the second test and are not mentioned in The Bible.
There can be no argument about doctrine as that is set in stone in The Bible but practices and beliefs that are not covered by The Bible are a different matter.  This is why I devote a section to The Catholic church so that that which is of eternal consequence can be separated from that which is practice of The Catholic church.
Practices of the Catholic Church will feature in this book, Not because they are being singled out but because they have had the most time to develop error in their doctrines and beliefs.  Other denominations will be mentioned as appropriate, if not by name then by what they believe that is erroneous.
Length of existence is not necessary for the development of doctrinal error as protestant, Charismatic and Pentecostal denominations also have error in them (as I will show when I examine some of their practices and doctrine later on in this book).
Jesus did not come to condemn (Jn 3:17) and I cannot condemn and do not desire too Anyway. All I desire to do is detail truths that will show up any error so people can decide for themselves what they want to do about the error.  What they do is between God and they.
Salvation is individual as is the acceptance or rejection of error.
When you die you will be judged with what you did with what you knew and not what others believed you should have known. This is why many will go to heaven (Catholics being an example) because they love Jesus and desire to please Him with all their heart but have error in their belief as they have not been shown the truth.  In their heart they do not want to disobey Jesus, but to please Him in all they do in the way they have been taught too.  This is what Salvation is.  A heart belief in Jesus as Lord as well as confession of Him and the will to die for Him and His things because you love Him so much (Rom 10:9-10, Rev 12:11).
Do not judge the salvation of another as only God knows their heart attitude towards Him and it is this heart attitude that saves and not the observance of laws or ritual.
This book written for those people who love the Lord Jesus, but have error in their doctrine and practice in the hope this will help free from these errors so they will be able love the Lord Jesus even more
Neville Salvetti

Preface
Satan has fostered a culture of ignorance in the Christian church to hide the truth of God that would defeat him and his plans.  People do not know what the Bible really says at times, because they have being told what it says when they are trained to be ministers or leaders so when they do Bible study they find only what they have been told is there.
This is how Satan hides his presence and tactics as well as misleads people about The Kingdom and what the Christian life really is.  Through this he hinders the work of The Kingdom while having Christians believe they are living what is required of them.  This is why revival starts outside of the church system with people who have not been trained in the Christian ministry and who can be shown by The Holy Spirit what the Bible actually says.
So there has developed a tradition of Bible interpretation you cannot deviate from because if you do you are called a troublemaker or heretic and disciplined and/or cast out of the church. This tradition in the way theology and Christian practice, being based on the teachings of predecessors and the blocking off of anything that contravenes or deviates from these, is perhaps the greatest hindrance to revival and to people living as they should as citizens The Kingdom of God.
This tradition has two prongs:

The tradition of historical Christian practice
The Tradition of Theological interpretation

There is a security in tradition and comfort and it is this that prevents reformation and correct interpretation of the Bible.  People often do not want to see the truth as they are comfortable and do not want to change.  
The true follower of Jesus will change into what Jesus desires them to be regardless of the cost to them as they love Him more than themself or any comfort they have in their life.
Only as you are willing to give up all to Jesus will you change and mature as He desires you too.  He will then be able to use you as He needs too for the purposes of His Kingdom.  Only as you look to Jesus and his Perfect Will for you will you escape the tyranny of tradition (either in doctrine or practice) that stops you seeing things as Jesus does.