Four full years...

The other day I was saying I'd been learning real biblical - orthodox - doctrine now for three years (then I paused and said...maybe even four years). I just now found a document I'd written in Oct. 2002 - exactly four years ago - that dates for me exactly how long I've been learning biblical doctrine now. Because I know when I wrote the document I found I was still in my 'Shepherd's Chapel' understanding (it was a document defending Arnold Murray against a Calvinist apologist of all people), and I happen to know it was in my email exchanges with said Calvinist apologist that I began to see real biblical doctrine and have a driving interest in learning it. I.e. I was already starting to see the five solas and doctrines of grace, but was just then 'turning' in a real way towards it.

So it's been four full years now. Not too long. It's not just a matter of reading books either. Understanding has to develop in the background and foundationally.

I take what may seem an uneconomical route with these things. I.e. chasing around and engaging a thousand scattered sources rather than sitting down with one good source and learning it complete. But, in the beginning you really don't even know what a one-good-source IS. This is also learning that involves guidance and illumination of the Holy Spirit. And reading the Word of God complete, over and over. So that takes time right there. Developing real understanding takes time, especially for the most foundational and serious of subjects: the Bible and biblical doctrine.

I also may have had the basics down in understanding after three or even two years. But it just feels complete now - four years.

As I recall, too, coming across biblical theology via Vos and then classical Covenant Theology added to my labors - and time - of developing understanding. They are hard subjects to get one's arms around when first encountered...