Today's Christian faces the daunting task of strategizing which Christian doctrines and theological issues are to be given highest priority in terms of our contemporary context. This applies both to the public defense of Christianity in face of the secular challenge and the internal responsibility of dealing with doctrinal disagreements. Neither is an easy task, but theological seriousness and maturity demand that we consider doctrinal issues in terms of their relative importance. God's truth is to be defended at every point and in every detail, but responsible Christians must determine which issues deserve first-rank attention in a time of theological crisis.To help us navigate this minefield, Mohler provides a 3 level grid:
Level 1: These represent fundamental truths of the Christian faith. Denying these represent denying Christianity itself. The doctrine contained in this level can easily be identified via the Nicaean and Chalcedonian creeds. I contend that we should not be in partnership with those denying these.
Level 2: These are doctrines that come about as we organize ourselves into congregations and denominations. While we stand together as we face the world regarding first-level differences, we do not need not forced alignment on these second-level issues. In fact, we should not serve in leadership positions in each other's communities where second-level differences exist. At the same time however we should choose to learn from each other regarding these differences and we should honor each other based on our first-level bond.
Level 3: These are issues which we can agree to disagree on and yet have no bearing on our communion. An example might be the details of eschatology.
Net - all of this is said to ensure that we understand that while theological liberalism is not acceptable, we do not always need allow all disagreement to bring division.
Technorati Tags:
No comments:
Post a Comment