Where Do Christians Draw the Line?

Several times in my posts, I’ve written something like, “That’s a secondary issue, so it’s not worth arguing about.” At some point I started to ask myself, “How did I know that it was a secondary issue?”

Is there an official list somewhere of essential versus non-essential doctrines of the Christian faith? If there is, I haven’t seen it, at least not an exhaustive one (although the list at Got Questions seems like a pretty good start). Plus I’m sure a detailed list like that would never receive universal acceptance—that’s basically why we have so many Christian denominations.

Grace to You has posted some excellent guidelines written by John MacArthur that we can use to determine what are the fundamentals of Christianity. Based on MacArthur’s guidelines, I can see that there are several gray areas, which is probably one reason why Bible scholars find it difficult to draw a line in the sand.

With all of that being said, I’m going to attempt the impossible: I’m going to make a complete list of the core tenets of Christianity. I welcome your comments and feedback if you disagree.

The following is a list of essential doctrines, meaning that they’re worth arguing about because having an incorrect view on any one of these puts your eternal salvation at risk. We must worship God in the Spirit and in TRUTH (John 4:24).

NOTE: I’m not saying that a person must know and fully understand all of these doctrines in order to be saved; full knowledge is impossible in this life, and a basic understanding of the Gospel alone is sufficient for salvation. Nor am I saying that a person who holds an incorrect view on any one of these doctrines is automatically outside the faith; it’s possible that he is merely spiritually immature and has not yet been properly discipled in that area. However, if that person refuses to change his views after being taught the truth, then we should consider him to be outside the faith.

1. Monotheism – Scripture is clear that there is only one true God (Deuteronomy 4:39, Isaiah 43:10, Isaiah 44:6, and Romans 3:30), and God commands us to worship Him alone (Exodus 20:3 and 1 Corinthians 8:4-6). God will not share His glory with a false idol (Isaiah 48:11).
2. Trinity – Although this term does not appear in the Bible, the concept is clearly taught. There is one God who exists eternally in the form of three co-equal persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. All three persons of the Trinity play a role in our salvation and are worthy of our worship (Ephesians 4:4-6 and Matthew 28:19). Each member of the Trinity is divine in nature, yet there is still only one God.
3. Jesus – Jesus is the second person of the Trinity and our Lord and Savior. He is the Messiah, the Christ. He is fully God and fully man. Every cult out there has a wrong view of Christ. The Bible makes it clear that if we don’t worship Jesus as God, then we aren’t a true believer (1 John 2:22-23 and 2 John 1:9).
4. Holy Spirit – The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity. He is not just a part of God, nor is He a different God. The Holy Spirit is not an impersonal force, nor is He another form of God the Father. Just as we cannot be Christian if we worship a different Jesus, in the same way we cannot worship a different Spirit (2 Corinthians 11:4).
5. Gospel – In 1 Corinthians 15:3-4, the apostle Paul succinctly summarizes the Gospel like this: Jesus Christ died for our sins, was buried, and resurrected on the third day in fulfillment of the Old Testament messianic prophecies. Paul also makes it clear that you cannot believe a different gospel and be saved (Galatians 1:6-9).
6. Salvation By Grace – Ephesians 2:8-9 clearly states that salvation is a free gift from God apart from anything we can do; it is not something that can be earned through good works. And since we didn’t earn salvation to begin with, we can’t lose it no matter what we do (Ephesians 1:13-15).
7. Exclusivity of Christ – There is only one pathway to salvation, and that is through Jesus Christ (John 14:6 and Ephesians 2:18); no other religion and no other false god can save us.
8. Bodily Resurrection of Christ – Jesus Christ died on the cross, was buried and rose again in a glorified, physical body on the third day. The fact that Jesus predicted his own death and resurrection matters for many reasons, but primarily it matters because it served as the proof that Jesus was telling the truth about His deity (John 2:19-22). It also matters because Jesus claimed to have a physical body (Luke 24:39). If Jesus were lying, then He would not be God, and our faith would be meaningless.
9. Incarnation and Hypostatic Union – Although Jesus is God and has always existed (i.e. He is not a created being), He does have a birth day. Although Jesus is omnipotent and self-sufficient, He did experience weariness, have limitations, and require food and drink to sustain Him. Although Jesus is eternal and immortal, He did die. Although Jesus is infinite and omnipresent, He somehow fit within a normal human body. The paradoxes created by the incarnation and hypostatic union cannot be fully explained or understood. However, we must agree that Jesus is both fully God and fully man or else we worship a different Jesus and are not truly saved.
10. Virgin Birth – Although Mary experienced a normal pregnancy and Jesus experienced a normal human birth, the way that Jesus was conceived was supernatural and unique. Mary and Joseph did not consummate their marriage until after Jesus had been born, so Joseph is not Jesus’s biological father. In fact, Mary remained a virgin until after Jesus was born, so Jesus does not have a human father at all. Furthermore, Luke 1:35 scrupulously avoids any hint of sexual union between God and Mary, reinforcing the fact that Jesus is the one and only God-Man and not some sort of demigod like Perseus from Greek mythology. The Virgin Birth is also one possible explanation for how Jesus’s lineage could include King Jeconiah without violating God’s decree that none of Jeconiah’s descendants would sit on the throne.
11. Messianic Prophecies – Many prophecies were written about the Messiah besides the Virgin Birth (e.g. He would be a descendant of King David, He would be born in Bethlehem, He would come from Egypt, etc.). Jesus had to fulfill them all to prove His credentials, otherwise God would be a liar. If we believe in a Jesus that does not fulfill all of these prophecies, then we believe in a false Christ.
12. Penal Substitutionary Atonement – Each of us has built up a record of sins in violation of God’s Holy Law, and as a just judge, God must punish us for being lawbreakers. However, God is also loving and merciful and desires to save us. Yet He can’t just forgive us or else He wouldn’t be just. The only way to resolve this tension is through penal substitutionary atonement. Jesus Christ, who is God, took the punishment that we deserve, and if we will repent of our sins and put our faith in Jesus Christ to save us, then God will cancel our debts and credit Jesus’s perfect, sinless life to our account. There is so much more to unpack here than we can possibly understand, but if we reject the basic idea behind this doctrine then we are outside the faith.
13. Divine Attributes – Believing in the one true God of the Bible requires that we also believe in His divine attributes as He has revealed them in Scripture. For example, God is love, He is eternal, He is unchanging, He is perfect, He is righteous and holy, and He is omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent. If we refuse to believe in God’s description of Himself, then we are worshipping a different god and we are not in the faith.
14. Second Advent of Christ – Jesus told His apostles that He would return one day in an event known as the Second Advent or Second Coming (Matthew 24:30). Jesus must return one day or else He would be a liar. Also, Jesus must return one day to fulfill the remaining messianic prophecies. His return will be a literal, visible reappearance and not a spiritual, invisible return (Acts 1:10).
15. Total Depravity of Man – Ever since Adam sinned in the Garden of Eden, all of mankind has inherited a sin nature. As a result, humans are unable of their own free will to repent of their sins and put their faith in Jesus Christ. If someone believes that humans are basically good rather than inherently sinful, then he doesn’t truly understand the seriousness of sin. If he believes that humans are capable of repentance and faith on their own, then he doesn’t truly appreciate Jesus’s role as “the pioneer and perfecter” of our salvation (Hebrews 12:2). It’s tantamount to saying that Christians play a role in their own salvation, which contradicts the Gospel.
16. Unconditional Election – The only people who get saved are those whom God has chosen based on His own sovereign will. If someone believes that there is something inherently worthy about those whom God saves, then it means that Christians play a role in their own salvation, which contradicts the Gospel.
17. Limited Atonement – When Jesus was hanging on the cross, He was only taking upon Himself the punishment for the sins of the elect—those whom God chooses to save. If Jesus was atoning for the sins of everyone, then Hell is full of people being punished for sins that Jesus already paid for. A god who allows that is unjust, so he is not the God of the Bible.
18. Irresistible Grace – For the elect—those whom God has chosen to save—the Holy Spirit will not fail to bring about their salvation. He will overcome any resistance and penetrate their hard hearts with the Gospel, opening their eyes to God’s goodness and drawing them in. A god who cannot reach sinners’ hearts with the message of grace is not sovereign, so he is not the God of the Bible.
19. Perseverance of the Saints – Once God saves people, they cannot lose their salvation. If they could lose their salvation, then they would. After all, we couldn’t earn our salvation to begin with, so what makes us think we could maintain it? If people have to maintain their salvation, then it means that Christians play a role in their own salvation, which contradicts the Gospel.
20. Moral Law – Although Christians will not attain sinless perfection in this life, God does expect us to make every effort to obey His moral laws. Some teach an idea known as Carnal Christianity which says that since Christians are under the New Covenant rather than the Old Testament Mosaic Covenant, then we aren’t required to obey any of God’s commandments and can just live any way we want. A person who believes that obviously doesn’t know the first thing about the Gospel.

Whew! That’s all I can think of as far as essential doctrines. What do you think? Did I miss any? Do you disagree with anything on my list? I have to admit, the list ended up being much longer than I thought it would be.

Before ending this post, I’d like to say a word about non-essential topics (ones that Christians can disagree on without breaking fellowship with one another). Some of these topics aren’t worth arguing about because no one knows the right answer (e.g. What is Jesus’s secret name mentioned in Revelation 19:12?), while others are just not important (e.g. Should we refer to Jesus as Joshua or Yeshua instead?). However, some of these non-essential topics are worth arguing about because the wrong view can lead to serious theological problems. Here are a few examples (this is not intended to be an exhaustive list):

1. Creation – You don’t have to believe in a literal seven-day creation to be a Christian. However, if you believe that humans evolved over millions of years from unicellular organisms, then you’ve just made a liar out of God (Exodus 20:11) and Jesus (Mark 10:6).
2. Women Pastors – You can be an egalitarian and still be a Christian. However, if you reject the plain reading of Scripture when it says that only men can be pastors, where else are you compromising God’s Word?
3. Homosexuality – You can believe that homosexuality is not a sin and still be a Christian, but again I worry what other Biblical passages you might be ignoring as well.
4. Hell – You can believe in annihilationism and still be a Christian. However, if you believe in universalism then you’re contradicting the Gospel.
5. Baptism – You can practice paedobaptism and still be a Christian. However, if you believe that a person MUST be baptized in order to be saved, then you’re contradicting the Gospel.
6. Sanctification – You can believe in entire sanctification and still be a Christian. However, if you teach Christians that they can achieve sinless perfection, then Jesus pronounces a curse upon you for loading people down with burdens they can hardly carry (Luke 11:46). Furthermore, if you think that you’ve achieved sinless perfection, then you clearly don’t understand God’s view of sin or the Gospel.
7. Continuationism – You can believe that miraculous signs and wonders are for today and still be a Christian. However, if you believe that God is still raising up apostles and prophets or that we should expect to receive a fresh word from God, then you are heading down a very dangerous path. Whenever someone claims to hear from God, they always allow their apocryphal message to trump whatever the Bible says, leading to spiritual abuse, distraction from the Gospel, and a proliferation of false teachings.

Because issues like these can be red flags, I would say that they’re definitely worthy of serious discussion. We shouldn’t break fellowship over these topics, but we certainly need to peel back the layers to make sure there aren’t more severe theological differences lurking beneath the surface.