Essentials Unity, Non-essentials Charity
Many of you have heard the saying, "Essentials, unity; non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity." I think this is a great saying because we must recognize that there are numerous essential and non-essential doctrines in the Christian faith. But I think that this saying is even more important when we consider Jesus' prayer for His disciples in John 17:23, "...that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me."
For Jesus this issue of unity among his followers was far more important than them just getting along. Notice that the unity of believers is to have evangelistic implications, Jesus prays, "...so that the world may know that You (the Father) sent Me..."
I was stunned to read recently that there are currently around 38,000 'denominations' in the United States! While I realize that many denominations have come about because of the range of non-essential issues, isn't it interesting that Jesus says that our unity should be a witness to the gospel. Christians should be so recognized by their unity around Christ as our Lord and Savior that the world should be caused to take notice, but that certainly does not seem to be the case today.
It seems that we have a tendency to forget just how important Jesus considered this issue of unity, which is probably why most of us get so hardened towards other doctrinal positions. Sadly many churches and pastors who affirm the exact same essential truths will not fellowship with pastors that hold to differing doctrines on non-essential issues. The main reason I bring all of this up is that I have been a horrible offender in this category, but this past year I have changed where I stand on many non-essential theological positions. This has been an incredibly humbling experience to say the least.
The thing that has shocked me the most on my recent theological journey is just how poor of a job many theologians do of thoroughly understanding and representing those with whom they disagree. I cut my teeth in a particular theological school and with it came all the presuppositions (core beliefs) of that school. When I wanted to understand why I didn't believe in the 'other' theological positions, (which as a side note is a horrible way to learn/do theology!) I would read someone firmly grounded in my camp and take their word for it. However, often times these writers didn't truly understand or represent the other side as well as they thought they did which left me with a drastically insufficient understanding of what 'the other guys' really believe. I must confess that I fell hook, line and sinker for their descriptions rather than checking things out for myself.
Thankfully our salvation is not predicated on perfect doctrine, but on a perfect Savior!
Because our salvation is not based upon our perfect doctrine, I want to spend the rest of this post asking a couple questions to see if you, as I was doing, might be putting more faith in your theology than in your Savior.
I know that at this point all of my Christian friends firmly agree that we need to be more focused on Christ as our Savior than on a specific branch or school of theology. However, if I say, "I am a Calvinist" there are a number of you that will instantly get a knot in your stomachs. Others of you might smile in agreement. On the other hand if I say, "I am Arminian in my theology" different feelings of uncomfortability would pop up. (How many of you read that and reacted?)
What is my point? Neither Calvinists nor Armenians are in disagreement on the essential doctrines. They stand side by side on the issues that really matter: Jesus is God the Son, come in the flesh, born of a virgin, lived a perfect life, died a perfect death paying for our sins, and rose again for our justification.
Both sides (and those who say they are in the middle) are all on the same page with Paul when he said in Ephesians 2:8-9, "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast." Now they certainly do have their different interpretations and applications of these verses, but the point is that if these 'camps' are in clear agreement on the essentials, why is it that we have a tendency to demonize 'the other guys?'
From my own experience I have been that guy who made the quips of, "I don't know what these amillennial guys do with this verse!" Rather than assume the worst about these fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, why not seek to understand their position? Instead of the put down why not truly study what they believe so that we can say, "Here is why they interpret this verse this way..., but based on our hermeneutic (the science of the interpretation of the Scriptures) we interpret this passage like this..."
Again, the most important thing for us to remember is that the only teaching that leads to salvation is the gospel. Speaking specifically of the saving power of the gospel in Romans 10:17 Paul says, "So faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of Christ." Let me repeat myself again, doctrine does not save people, only the preaching of the gospel is what the Holy Spirit uses to bring people to salvation.
Should we study doctrine and theology? Absolutely! Many that know me call me a nerd because of all the theology that I read. I love reading and studying theology, and I encourage you to do the same. Peter is clear, that we are always to be ready to give an answer for the hope that lies within us. That 'give an answer' is to give a legal defense, we should know why we believe what we believe, and theology is part of that. However, if our study of theology causes us to be bitter towards people that love and worship the God of the Bible while only differing on non-essential issues, then something is missing.
I believe that Jesus' heart for our unity is what is missing. Jesus prayed that His followers would be united so that the world would know that the Father sent the Son. Is this our heart when thinking and speaking about other believers that hold to different, non-essential issues? If not, it should be.
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ReplyDeleteWho or what decides what is essential/non essential christian doctrine?
ReplyDeleteHi Tom, great to hear from you, and great question. It would be easy to throw out the pat answer of the Bible (which is correct) but obviously men interpret the Bible so the answer is not as easy as we may think.
ReplyDeleteThere is a number of thoughts on this, but Norman Geisler agrees with the 14 essentials also found in the early Christian creeds. Here is a link to an article about it, at the bottom the essentials are listed: http://www.equip.org/articles/the-essential-doctrines-of-the-christian-faith-part-two-
He also notes that not all of these are essential for initial belief, but consistent Christians will learn to embrace all 14 doctrines if they are Biblical.
For my purposes in the article I intentionally avoided the specifics of what these essentials are because I wasn't wanting to write a technical/systematic theology post, and because I think there is a simpler approach. If you look through the list of essential doctrines listed by Geisler (and from the Christian creeds) you will find that they all tie back in to the gospel.
The core of essential Christian doctrine is the gospel of Jesus Christ. Man is fallen and unable to save himself, so God had to step into time to live as a man under the curse of the law as a man. As a man he lived a perfect life fulfilling the righteous requirement of the law, but He was also fully God which caused His sacrifice to be sufficient for all who believe. He died, was buried, rose again and ascended to heaven so that one day He will come back again. Or even more simply stated, He lived the life we should have lived and died the death we should have died.
Essentially if we get the gospel right and recognize that Jesus attested to the accuracy and reliability of the Scriptures, then the rest will fall in line as we continue to read and study the Word.
Hope that helps. Blessings.