Sundae Conversations

Lately we have both had the continual pleasure of meeting people that we don’t have a lot in common with, leading to some really fantastic conversations.  As these conversations grow deeper, it seems that most of the time the subject of faith is brought up and personal preferences are discussed.  Sometimes they are common to our own and sometimes they are not. Sometimes they strengthen our beliefs and some times they create tension. These two options don’t necessarily correlate and are mostly related to doctrine and denomination.

Major Doctrine:

Major doctrine deals with the undeniable truths: our humanity, sin, pardon through Christ, and thus becoming a child of God. Simply put, major doctrine deals directly with salvation rather than the issues that follow it. This is important to understand because many tend to confuse other doctrines by placing them in this group. 

Minor Doctrine:

Doctrines which do not fit into the first category are considered minor, which are those ideas not directly influencing salvation. They deal with interpreted truths which are inferior to the major doctrine and last as long as the way in which you interpret them. Examples of this group could be thoughts on free will vs. predestination, baptism styles, or spiritual gifts. While these ideas are important to our spiritual life and our perspective of who God is, believing one way or another in these areas will not directly affect your salvation.

A New Perspective:

You might be asking yourself why that quick theology lesson was necessary.  Well, as mentioned at the beginning, we have enjoyed the pleasure of meeting people with different views on faith and doctrine than ourselves.  This can be a problem in the church when the differences lead to disputes among believers who make up the Body of Christ.  Like the As Cities Burn lyric says, “if we are the body, how did a pretty man get so ugly, how did he get all these spaces between each limb?”  The solution is we need to stop taking things so personally. We try to create change by forcing our minor doctrinal opinions on people, leading to disputes among believers. This is saying “you are wrong, I am right”, which is really just judging others. Instead of wanting to destroy denominational differences, we should learn to delight in denominational differences. We should understand that some people choose particular minor doctrines because of the type of person God created them to be, and find their own perspective of God through that doctrine’s eyes. In other words, God created us differently. These differences bring balance to our faith and hold us accountable to our own minor doctrines. This will bring us one step closer to what Jesus has in mind for the body of Christ.