Not All Doctrines Are Equal
This week we’re heading into our 4th ‘Pillars’ series called Salvation. Pillars first came about because I was concerned that we were grappling with some big issues in out culture without a basic Biblical framework. The purpose of the series is talk through the basics of what Christians have always believed so that we can have meaningful discussion.
However, sometimes talking about this means we do encroach on areas where there is lively debate. That’s where we get to this weekend. At the start of our series on Salvation, we have to talk about the very beginning of the salvation story - predestination. We’ll focus on what we all agree on, but it’s inevitable that we’ll get into territory where people have different positions.
With this in mind, I thought it might be helpful to share something to guard against unnecessary disagreement. It’s the idea that not all doctrines are equal.
When we’re talking about a point of theology, it’s good to think through just how important it is.
At the top level there’s dogma—core beliefs. There are about seven of them and they include things like the Trinity, the deity and humanity of Jesus, the resurrection, and salvation by grace through faith. To not believe these things is really to claim that you’re not a Christian. These core doctrines can be discussed but they can’t be doubted. I would die on a hill for these.
Next level down there are doctrines. These are important and will often define how our faith is practiced, how we interpret Scripture, or how a church is run. They include things like whether women can be Elders, whether Jesus will rule on earth for a literal 1,000 years, and you guessed it… predestination. Is it about God’s sovereignty or human will?
The point about these issues is not that they don’t matter. It’s just that they’re not worth falling out over. I have good friends who see each of these issues differently to me and we don’t fall out. We understand that there are intelligent people on all sides of the discussion and they don’t actually affect whether we’re included in the family of believers.
The final level is that of opinion. These are issues that we really don’t know about because God hasn’t made it clear. It includes things like the identity of the Two Witnesses in Revelation. We don’t actually know, we can try and work it out but it has no bearing on how we live or how we lead churches.
The problem is that some people try to load as much as possible into the core beliefs category while liberals relegate as much as possible towards opinion. The former make unnecessary divisions while the latter has nowhere firm to stand. Both are poor choices. Instead let’s affirm our unity around what is core and then, as brothers and sisters, have meaningful conversation with one another about everything else.
The truth is that sometimes these things can be a horrible distraction. There’s so much that God has made clear and I want to suggest that our focus should be more about putting what is clear into practice rather than getting too hot under the collar about things that aren’t.
Much love,
Simon
This post is part of the Senior Pastor’s weekly blog. Go to the the blog feed >>