The Damage of the Non-Essential Doctrine to the Gospel
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Two things:
- I don’t think The Fundamentals was a pure, cooperative project in the sense that you’re thinking of. I believe the editors simply arranged for individual authors to write articles. There was little to no collaboration between the authors at all, and I don’t believe the authors themselves were even aware of who else was contributing to the project. That’s the way Dr. Bauder presented it at a conference at Central a few years back, and I believe Beale gave the same account in his book.
- We really need to consider what a “non-essential” is. You wrote, “Today the situation has deteriorated so badly that not only do we now separate over such comparatively important (but arguably ‘non-essential’) doctrinal beliefs such as the proper mode of baptism or the timing of the Second Coming, we also separate (it sometimes seems even more vehemently) over what are comparatively trivial matters.” This is the kind of re-definition of “essential vs non-essential” that I feel is a problem - that was the point of the linked article, too.
- I think a more Biblical definition would be “things the Bible isn’t explicit or implicit about.” This doesn’t mean “things that good men disagree on.” Robert Reymond was a good man - a good Presbyterian. I read his defense of paedo-baptism, and I thought it was pretty bad.
Tyler is a pastor in Olympia, WA and works in State government.
What I mean is non-essential in terms of being necessary for salvation. We can disagree with others about when Jesus is coming again (as long as our disagreement is about “when,” and not “if”). We can disagree about the proper mode of baptism, and still anticipate that one day we will worship together in Heaven with those who hold to the opposing view. We can disagree about which translations of God’s word are in fact the word of God (I say that grudgingly–I personally despise KJVOism; I believe it’s a warped, distorted view of Inerrancy & Preservation). Nevertheless, on those types of things we can disagree with others with whom we will one day share eternity together.
Getting back to the early fundamentalists, I didn’t intend to allude in any way to the method of how The Fundamentals was compiled–just the shared purpose. (In retrospect, I may not have worded that aspect well.) The contributors held in common a belief in the “essential” doctrines (there I go using such a term again!).
Using paedo-baptism as a personal example, I am 100% against it. I see no scriptural basis for it, and I believe it’s wholly man-conceived, nothing more. Nonetheless, if a Presbyterian who practices it is a fellow true-believer in Christ, I personally am not convinced of the necessity to sever any & all ties with him. But that may be just me here.
Just a reminder…Paul explicitly defined the Gospel as of “first importance.” He prioritized and ranked the Gospel as #1, as essential, as first-level, however you want to say it. That certainly doesn’t mean he thought no other doctrines were important, but as has been said many times before…if everything is of first importance, then nothing is. And it appears he thought the Gospel was more important than baptism (1 Cor. 1:13-17).
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Greg Long, Ed.D. (SBTS)
Pastor of Adult Ministries
Grace Church, Des Moines, IA
Adjunct Instructor
School of Divinity
Liberty University
David Cloud published this article on his website on 12/09/2015:
http://www.wayoflife.org/index_files/in_essentials_unity.html
Four days later, on 12/13/2015, Kent Brandenburg published this article on his website (linked to in the OP above):
http://kentbrandenburg.blogspot.com/2015/12/the-damage-of-non-essential-doctrine-to.html
Not sure; I’ve literally never read anything by David Cloud! Brandenburg has written on this for a long time, however, on his blog and in print - so I doubt he’s channeling David Cloud.
Tyler is a pastor in Olympia, WA and works in State government.
NAU Matthew 23:23 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others.
Maranatha!
Don Johnson
Jer 33.3
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