Much of the New Testament is given to give Christians direction with regard to how they should live their lives, as well as to what they should believe about Jesus and God. Heresy within the church was a major concern of the Apostles, as was the propensity of some to claim Christ but not live it out with holiness, service and love. We don’t want to be more narrow than God, but neither do we want to be broader than God. So, what are the essential doctrines we need to be in agreement on to work together, and which doctrines do we need to consider as secondary issues to agree to disagree on? Dan Kimball offers some suggestions and thoughts:
Essentials:
– The Trinity: that there is one God, eternally existent in three Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. the Trinity
– that the Bible is inspired (God-breathed) and what God wanted in the Bible is what we have in the original manuscripts and it is an authority and guide for our lives
– the deity of Jesus
– the virgin birth of Jesus
– we are sinners in need of a Savior
– salvation is through Jesus alone
– the substitutionary atonement
– the bodily resurrection
– the future return of Jesus
– there will be judgment and heaven/hell
– the future return of Jesus
– the Spirit regenerates us, indwells us and is our source of power to follow Jesus
– the lifestyle of repentance when we sin, we repent and ask God to help us change
– that God designed a beautiful covenant of marriage for a man and woman
– that a follower of Jesus will be transformed by the Spirit and in our lives the fruit will be seen in our minds, hearts, words, blogs etc. that are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
– that we are to love our neighbors as ourselves, pray for our enemies, and care about the oppressed, the poor and those experiencing injustice as God cares about them
– that Jesus said that a sign of being His disciple is if we love one another
Non-essentials:
– whether someone is an amillenialist or a premillenialist or if someone is a pre-trib or post-trib believer of how the end times will specifically play out.
– Whether someone is a 4 point or 5 point Calvinist or an Arminian
– Whether someone baptizes infants or adults
– Whether you hold a literal 6 day creation or a extended time period for creation