Where do we draw the line on Christian essentials?

“In essentials, unity. In doubtful matters, liberty. In all things, charity.”

This quote purports to tell us exactly where to draw these lines. And it does so rather well. What this famous quote doesn’t do is tell us which matters are essential, and which matters are doubtful. Nor does it tell us exactly what charity looks like. Perhaps most important, the quote does not define for us what liberty looks like.

We start with the ancient creeds of the church. One advantage of these ancient creeds is they were written, in large part, to answer, what are the essentials? They provide not my list of essentials, not your list, and not the other guy’s list. Instead they provide the list of the church through the ages. I am committed to the Reformed faith, a Calvinist to the core. I believe husbands are the heads of their homes. But, to join Sovereign Grace Fellowship you need only confess two truths. First, you must affirm your belief in the Apostles’ Creed. Second, you must affirm your dependence upon the finished work of Christ alone.

Here, on this second affirmation, Luther gave us much wisdom. He affirmed this is the article on which the church stands or falls. (I would affirm that the Protestant understanding of how we have peace with God is actually present in the creeds. It’s just not very clear. That is why Rome and Eastern Orthodoxy can “affirm” these creeds, even though they adhere to a false gospel.) We are unified along those essentials, and those alone.

This means, by the way, that we are not in union not only with Rome, but hard-core “Protestants” who, for instance, deny the resurrection of the body, or the future return of Christ. Full preterists, who believe there is no future prophecy yet to be fulfilled, deny the creed, and so we have no unity with them. This means that Oneness Pentecostals who could have a clear view of justification by faith alone, are not one with us because they deny the Trinity.

On the other hand, this also means that Baptists, dispensationalists, Lutherans, and any other evangelical body are in union with us, despite our disagreements over this issue or that. This is where both charity and liberty come in. While we disagree with our brothers on this issue and that, we disagree as brothers. We do not seek to bind the conscience on these matters, though we always seek to inform the conscience, even as they, in charity, seek to inform ours.

Charity also applies this way- it can help keep us from playing Six Degrees of Condemnation. That is to say, for instance, that while I am appalled that Dr. John Stott saw fit to suggest that the unredeemed do not suffer for eternity, that doesn’t mean I should judge with equal fervor someone else who believes in hell, but isn’t as unhappy with Dr. Stott as I am. In like manner, though I was rather seriously non-plussed and disappointed at several of the men who signed Evangelicals and Catholics Together more than thirty years ago, it is not my solemn duty to condemn loudly and publicly those who weren’t as troubled as I was.

The Bible gives us some interesting wisdom on these matters. Read through the New Testament epistles and you will see both patience with error within the church, and strong condemnation of certain errors that were plaguing the church. From these we seek to draw out principles such as those that inform this famous quote, and from these we in turn seek to fill in what we mean by essentials, and by doubtful matters.

This is the thirty-second installment of an ongoing series of pieces here on the nature and calling of the church. Stay tuned for more. Remember also that we at Sovereign Grace Fellowship meet this Sunday February 23 at 10:30 AM at our new location, at our beautiful farm at 112811 Garman Road, Spencerville, IN. Please come join us.