In Essentials, Unity.

One of the great joys of evangelical Christian fellowship is the reality that we can disagree on non-essential doctrines and still maintain community.  The problem is that we also disagree on what is non-essential.  I have written on this previously, but as in most things, we need to have these issues brought to the fore, again and again.

Recently in several discussions various people have used the term with me: “It’s not a salvation issue.”  Actually that term is quite common in evangelical circles.  I wonder what they mean by that phrase.   At least in one instance they mean that this issue does not demean salvation by grace through faith.  I prefer the phrase that Dr. Albert Mohler has written on so well, e.g., “First-Level Theological Issues”.  By that he defines them as:

“First-level theological issues would include those doctrines most central and essential to the Christian faith. Included among these most crucial doctrines would be doctrines such as the Trinity, the full deity and humanity of Jesus Christ, justification by faith, and the authority of Scripture . . . These first-order doctrines represent the most fundamental truths of the Christian faith, and a denial of these doctrines represents nothing less than an eventual denial of Christianity itself.”

To use the term: “It’s not a salvation issue,” is to reduce the irreducible to an unacceptable level.  Secondly the term assumes that salvation by grace through faith stands alone.  It does not.  One would not be aware of salvation apart from the special revelation of God’s Word.  Salvation could not be accomplished other than through the Humanity and Deity of Christ.  Nor could it be accomplished apart from the Triune God.  Implied in all this is the incarnation, the Virgin Birth, sinless life, effectual atonement, physical resurrection and ascension of Jesus.  Nor is there salvation complete without the coming of the Kingdom and the restoration of all things new.

“First level theological issues” is a very helpful term.  We should consider it essential to our conversation.

In essentials unity, in non-essentials liberty, in all things charity![1]

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[1] Often attributed to great theologians such as Augustine, it comes from an otherwise undistinguished German Lutheran theologian of the early seventeenth century, Rupertus Meldenius. The phrase occurs in a tract on Christian unity written (circa 1627) during the Thirty Years War (1618–1648), a bloody time in European history in which religious tensions played a significant role. (http://www.ligonier.org/learn/articles/essentials-unity-non-essentials-liberty-all-things/)