A question arrived in my inbox asking: "If Christ took away all sin from mankind, which He did. Could you explain Matt. 12:31-32"

Now, the first issue is to address the claim that Christ took away all sin, since people do indeed continue to break not only the 10 commandments but Jesus' commandments as well as other biblical precepts.

WHAT IS SIN?

The study of sin is called Hamartiology. Sin in the most simplistic form is disobedience to God's desire, which does not require a stated command. This was the point of many of Jesus' lessons; that people could keep the letter of the Law but were breaking the intent or desire of God. God should not have to write out every little thing that constitutes a sin.

The Bible is Thematic, meaning despite any verses that may SEEM to contradict each other, the over all theme of the Bible must be considered. The question is; what is the theme of Bible? Does it just have one theme?

This issue is most important when it comes to interpretation. For centuries, one sect of Bible readers has accused another sect of "not following the Bible". Notice I say, sect of Bible readers, rather than Christians. I mean to include the entire spectrum of people who read and rely upon the Bible as a main source for their beliefs; be it Roman Catholics, Protestants, Evangelicals, Mormons, and so on. Who gets to say what the Bible is saying? This is the reason many people approach the Bible as a hodge-podge of anything goes, since there are so many interpretations and we are often told we must allow for or tolerate that any of the interpretation might be the correct one. In that case, why even try. Most people want to know exactly what something means. If the Bible is merely a hodge-podge of gray; then why mess with it.

The usual claim is that doctrines like the Trinityⁱ or forensic Justificationⁱ by faith alone are "new" doctrines. That is, that these doctrines didn't exist at the time of the apostles or within the early Church. Depending on the honesty of the individual, the claim will be that these and other doctrines are completely new doctrines or that they are "developed" doctrines. By developed, they usually mean that the doctrines were there all along in the Bible but had to be better developed or understood by subsequent generations of Bible readers.

So, we Christians have all been in the situation where we are either sitting under the guidance of or know of a pastor who is teaching bad or wrong doctrine. What is our obligation as "laymen"? Perhaps it depends on the severity of the bad doctrine. Maybe we will be told that we would need to go through an official process such as an elder board, but not all church structures even have an elder board. Sometimes the pastor is the end of line.

Scripture says:

"Do not entertain an accusation against an elder unless it is brought by two or three witnesses." -- 1 Tim 5:19

But is this really speaking of challenging a pastor on bad doctrine or rather on bad behavior. Verse 20 goes on to say:

"But those elders who are sinning you are to reprove before everyone, so that the others may take warning." -- 1 Tim 5:20

So, clearly the "accusation against an elder" is in reference to his sinning.