What does a person need to accept doctrinally in the process of becoming a christian?
As has been mentioned before, what is written in the historic creeds is foundational, with the Nicene Creed as the foundational statement of faith of Christianity.
For years I assented to certain doctrines such justification by faith, but I found I wasn't a changed a person - even though I thought I believed the doctrines. What was wrong - I still struggle with this and wonder if I am born again or a christian at all, or if I am deceiving myself.
Seeking after tangible merits in our own life as a metric of our relationship to God and our salvation is a dangerous idea. Each and every one of us is a sinner, and so the daily struggle against sin, the flesh, and the old man will remain for the entirety of this mortal life. That is what St. Paul describes in Romans ch. 7. In Lutheranism we speak of the paradox of simul iustus et peccator, Latin for "at once both saint and sinner"; that through faith we have received righteousness from God as a gift, and are thus justified fully and freely by the grace of God in Christ; but we remain still in this "body of death" as the Apostle calls it, and thus are still sinners. Thus we are righteous by grace, sinners by nature, looking not to our own abilities, efforts, strengths (etc), but instead to the promise and mercy of God.
How does doctrine function in becoming a christian?
This is probably a daft question but does it move from the head to the heart , or the heart to head? I have heard people in churches talk about the need for people to "get it down to their heart" - how does that happen? Does one try to bring their experience into line with what they hold in their head doctrinally, or does one have an experience of God and that gives rise to what one holds to doctrinally?
At a very basic level I think it's simply psychological--what we believe shapes us. If I believe that my neighbor is made in the image of God, and that Christ died for them, and God loves them then how I view my neighbor will be significantly different than if I believe my neighbor doesn't matter, and all that really matters is my own selfish wants.
If we believe that God became man, that Jesus is indeed the very Word of God made flesh, who comes in humility, weakness, and the foolishness of the cross as St. Paul says, then we believe that God has chosen to identify with the weak, the foolish, the lowly. And thus our craving for power, success, glory, etc is wrong, and indeed, in opposition to the cross.
Theology shapes our perception of God, ourselves, and the world around us. Good theology rightly reflects the truth of the Gospel, and the mission of the Church, and thus our place in creation, in society, and in relation to all God's creatures. Bad theology disrupts, distorts, and perverts those things.
Others I have read say head and heart are terms used to reflect the modern split in man, what some refer to as the Cartesian / Kantian split.
So does one need to be healed of this split to become a christian, because I just feel that no matter how much theology I know, its just sitting at the top of my head - in fact I think I am a hypocrite to be honest. Even when I have thought I had got it down to my heart I am not sure I have. So in many ways I feel I have ended up in something like hypocrisy - as my heart doesn't seem to be changed.
We're all hypocrites. Because our behavior does not conform to our faith; that is part of the paradox of being both a sinner and a saint. But the key is to recognize our hypocrisy, confess our sins freely, repent, and even as we trust the grace of God, we keep pushing forward. We will fail, falter, fall--but God has provided us with the upward calling that is in Christ, that our faith might be nourished and sustained, as God continues His work upon us. God is faithful even when we are faithless. So even as we struggle and fumble, God is unrelenting in His kindness toward us. Don't give up, endure, keep fighting, keep running--don't let the stumbling and the fumbling and the faltering turn you away from Christ, but always have your gaze upon Jesus and trusting upon His sure and certain word.
Francis Schaeffer says its very important that a person has the right concept of truth before becoming a christian
Nobody enters the Church with all their i's properly dotted and t's properly crossed. We come to the font of baptism as broken, shattered, helpless beggars. The Church is not the country club of saints, but the hospital for sinners. But as we hear God's word, as we are sustained and nourished by the Sacraments, as we are fed and sustained and maintained by the works and promises of God through the Holy Spirit, we are, indeed, God's workmanship. We are clay upon the potter's wheel, being shaped, and God is the potter--it is enough that we trust the Potter, the final product not being seen or known until the Last Day.
But what does it mean to believe something to be true? Take any proposition, what does it mean to believe that proposition to be true? I have heard family members saying about the Bible "we have to believe this is true" You have to hold to a particular concept of truth - that I am not sure I hold anymore. I wish I knew were the rot began with me. I just don't hold what I used to hold - and I went through some shifts in my thinking philosophically over the years. I wasn't living by faith, I was living by thinking during this time, and it has seemed impossible to get back. Something happens when you pass out of the modern conception of truth and reality - I became terribly confused - lost touch with reality. I am not sure what my conception is now, just living in my own truth I suppose. Over the last 25 years going to back to church nothing seems to have helped.
I have tried to talk to counsellors about it, but it some cannot understand how anyone cannot see that A is A.
Whatever my view is I have been told it isn't really postmodernism - but I cannot now recall my process through the philosophies as its years ago.
Is there a way out of this?
Doctrine matters, it is the essence of our bold confession of Christ in the midst of the world--but it seems that much of this struggle of yours is built upon the proposition that your individual salvation depends upon your ability to grasp or understand the propositional truths of faith. But salvation does not depend on you being able to pass a theology exam, salvation depends upon the God who so loved the world that He sent His only-begotten Son. So even if you are struggling with matters of theology, and points of doctrine--you can still trust completely and utterly upon Jesus Christ who saves you.
He saves you. Christ died
for you.
Jesus has your back. You can trust Him.
-CryptoLutheran