“In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; and in all things, charity.” – Augustine
Doctrine divides! It divides truth from error. It divides the true teacher from the false teacher; the spirit of truth from the spirit of error; and the true Christ from the Anti-Christ.
In the Church, Christians hold differing views about important, yet non-essential matters. Let me explain. There are doctrines in the Bible that while very important, are not essential to salvation. For instance, whether or not someone believes in the baptism of infants or whether or not the biblical gift of tongues occurs in our own day, I think are very important issues; yet, what someone believes about these are not essential to someone being included or excluded from the kingdom of God. Someone is not a “false teacher” who takes a different position on these issues. The same is true for doctrines such as whether someone is “pre-trib,” “mid-trib,” or “post-trib” in their belief about the tribulation, or for those who take different positions on the millennium – “a”, “pre” or “post.” Sincere, godly, dedicated believers believe different things about these issues, but it does not mean that one person is saved and another damned because they have a different view.
Regarding the end times, what is a shock to many is that the current dominant view of the end times in the American church is the “new kid on the block” in terms of dominance in church history. Yet for many, what someone believes about this has become the essential test of Christian orthodoxy. That is theological ignorance, to put it kindly. When none of the theological titans in church history embraced the current prevalent view, rather than merely dismissing them all as ignorant, humility should at least cause us to pause long enough to ask “why would men of this caliber believe a different view to mine?” That does not mean they were always right about everything. They were not. Nor would they claim to be. The Bible alone is infallible. However, when collectively, without a single exception among them, they come to different conclusions to us, it is good to at least ask “why would they do so? Sadly, many do not stop to ask.
As Christians, what unites us, vastly outweighs what might divide us. In the essentials, such as the Deity of Christ, the Trinity, justification by grace alone, through faith alone, because of Christ alone, etc., we need to be in agreement. This is where ancient historical documents such as the creeds and confessions are so helpful to us. The Apostles’ Creed states, “He will come to judge the living and the dead.” These are words that should be affirmed by all Christians.
Hyper-preterists cannot affirm these words. They believe that Christ has already come and all prophecy has already been fulfilled and therefore cannot affirm these words of the creed. Hyper-preterism has always been rejected as heresy by the church at large, and rightly so. The Creeds and Confessions of the church serve us well in this. Truth divides, but also unites. That’s true of the Creeds and Confessions also. They unite those who hold to the essential elements of the Christian faith and express the commonality we share together as Christians.
As this quote, which historically has been attributed to Augustine states, “In essentials, unity.” We cannot compromise on these major issues of the Gospel. These are non-negotiables. In fact, to depart from these doctrines is to depart from the Christian faith itself.
Knowing the difference between the essentials and the non-essentials takes a great deal of maturity at times. Christians have been notorious for dividing over such very minor issues, and the Body of Christ has been less effective because of it. The boundary lines are drawn by the Gospel itself. We must be united in the Gospel for true Christian unity to exist. But where this does in fact exist, let us celebrate it, standing united for the cause of Christ.
Augustine went on to say, “in non-essentials, liberty.” Christians need to allow their brothers and sisters room to hold differing positions on some issues without breaking fellowship with them. This takes a great deal of maturity. Church history shows us that the Body of Christ as a whole has not been very good at this. We tend to disassociate ourselves from Christians who don’t have the exact same understanding of the spiritual gifts, the end times, Divine election, or even when a child is old enough to be baptized. These are important issues, of course. In fact, there is only one true biblical position on these issues – not everyone is right! There is a right answer and a wrong answer. In fact, there are many wrong answers. God is not confused on these issues, even if we are.
We should note too that God doesn’t ever give us the right to believe false doctrine. If there are two people with differing positions on an issue, at least one of them is grieving the Lord in terms of what they believe. Yet the point is that both people can disagree on a certain (non-essential) issue with a fellow brother or sister and yet believe the best of the other – that if the other person could be convinced by sacred scripture concerning the truth of the matter, they believe the other one would change their beliefs immediately. But disagreement on these important but non-essential things should not divide us, if we are united in the Gospel.
This is not to minimize doctrine. In a local Church it is entirely right for eldership to state in categorical terms, just what it is that they believe Scripture to be teaching. This is part of their function as elders. Yet, in doing so, we must all recognize our fellow brothers and sisters in the entire Body of Christ, and know that God embraces many who hold differing positions to us on some issues.
The scripture commands us to “maintain the unity of the Spirit” (Eph. 4:3) “until we all come to the unity of the faith.” (Eph. 4:13). For God to tell us to maintain something, it shows clearly that we already have possession of it. For instance, we cannot maintain a photocopier unless we first have the photocopier in our care. Christians are united and we are called to maintain this unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. This we are to do “until we all come to the unity of the faith.”
Augustine’s quote ends by saying, “in all things, charity (or love).” Let love be chief amongst us, His people. May we unite for the sake of the Gospel, while God, the Holy Spirit continues to lead all of His people into all of His truth.