| Status of Topics Touching the Message of Salvation | | Scientific (Retroductive) Method and Human Reason | | Scientific Method and the Interpretation of Language | | Theological Method | | Theology and Hermeneutics | | Theological Method and False Doctrine | | Hierarchy of Bible Doctrines | | The Top of the Pyramid | | The Second Tier | | Ecumenism and Tribalism |
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Theology and Doctrine
by
Ronald R. Shea, Th.M., J.D.
A HEIRARCHY OF BIBLE DOCTRINES
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THE SECOND TIER
The second tier of doctrinal priority are doctrines which, though not essential for salvation, are nevertheless central to the Christian faith and practice. These would include:
Holiness. Although we are not saved by our works, sin is nevertheless so grave that God, apart from the work of the Savior, even the smallest sin is sufficient to separate us from God. However, just as doctrine itself must be prioritized, we must do the same with regard to Christian conduct. And although holiness is a conduct, it is based on a doctrinal understanding of God's demand on our lives.
According to Scripture, all sin may be sufficient to separate a man from God, but all sin is not equally wicked. The Bible uses the terms "innocent" and "wicked" in a relative sense. And no one with a brain can equate the slaughter of six million Jews and another six million Gypsies, Christians, inferior "slavoc" races, political discenters, homosexuals, and physically disabled (a drain on the public pocket book, you know) as the moral equivalent to the failures most of us expereince on a daily basis. Nor are all of those ,moral falures equal in gravity and consequence. A pastor should guide his flock in holiness, and have the maturity to distinguish between his "hobby horses" and God's hobby horses.
The Trinity
There are cults which teach that Jesus is God, but teach an ancient heresy known as "modalistic monarchianism" (the monarch comes in different modes.) Our Trinune God is not three persons in one God, but one person in one God. Scripture never claims that the doctrine of the Trinity is essential to our eternal salvation, and certainly, such persons can be saved. Admittedly, God waited for a long time in human history to reveal this truth to man. Nevertheless, we worship a Triune God. We should put His personhood at the top of the list.
Bibliology
A Christian who is not taught that the Bible is the Word of God, and his spiritual nourishment, will never grow to maturity in his faith. Hopefully, this includes a balanced diet that addresses the doctrine of inspiration, inerrancy and authority, cannonicity, enough apologetics to satisfy the appitite of an individual congregant, enough text criticism to understnad that there are different translations and different underlying texts. Just as important, the local church must foster a program that enourages daily Bible reading by every believer. And infallable Bible that gathers dust on the shelf is nothing more than a paper weight. And a new believer is a target for wolves.
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Black Holes and Worm Holes.
In cosmology, a black hole is a star (or collection of billions of stars) that have collapsed into such a dense mass with so much gravity that no light can escape. There are doctrines that, in and of themsleves, are not as important as holiness, the Trinity, or the doctrine of Scripture. Therefore, correcting error in these doctrines would not be intuitively so grave. They appear, on their surface, as third, fourth, or fifth tier heresies of no great urgency.
We learn of their gravity not from Scripture but from church history. And from history (ancient or modern), we learn that once a Christian gets involved in certain false doctrines, they get "sucked in," and seldom, if ever, escape. Their growth as Christians, and their usefulness to God, is irreversably stopped in its tracks. These are doctrinal black holes from which there is virtually no escape.
I have many friends in the Charismatic movement whom I love dearly. Of them, there are only a few who have remained balanced in their Christian lives, and remain useful to God. For most, it is a one way street into a black hole from which there is no return. For Christianity from the twentieth century onward, the Charismatic movement is is, and will probably remain, the greatest black hole in Christendom.
When viewed from the outside, pretending to have the "gift of tongues" or pretending to have the "gift of healing" are minor errors. Once one passes the event horizon, however, imagined signs and talisman drive Christian practice more than the Bible, or any doctrine therein, and the servile devotion to self annointed miracle workers becomes an intoxicant. Few ever return.
Worm Holes
In cosmology, a worm hole is a theoritical entity which connects two different dimensions, or two distant regions of space. Many science fiction movies depict worm holes as portals by which space craft can travel hundreds of light years in a few seconds.
Whether or not worm holes exist in nature is subject to debate. But the do exist in theology.
A worm hole is a doctrinal aberation, which, on the surface, appears to be a "third tier" or "fourth tier" heresy, or even lower. Error, yes, but nothing about which to be concerned. A worm hole, however is a theological gateway by which seemingly minor errors somehow worms their way from minor, fourth or fifth tier doctrinal aberations keeps finding its way to the top tier, dening a tenent of the message of salvation.
Theological worm holes are not necessarily black holes. Not every Christians who get into worm hole disappears beyond the event horizon. And many never reach up to become first tier heretis who deny the gospel. But when a doctrinal aberation from the fifth tier finds its way to the first tier with metronimic regularity, it can not be dismissd as a minor error.
The most prominent theological worm hole of contemporay Christianity is know as modern Calvinism.
In themseves, the doctrines of Calvinism appear to be minor areas of disagreement. And many fine Calvinists avoid preaching a gospel of salvation by works. It is not a black hole. But it is a magic pathway. All too often, one begins dabbling in Calvinism, and voala! They magicly appear in the top tier, preaching salvation by works.
It is important that, in other cultures, or in the next decade, other doctrines ma arise which, though third tier in theological urgency, become black holes and worm holes. Scripture informs of of sound doctrine. And from Scripture, we can prioritize doctrine. But it is not Scriture that informs us of how or where or when a minor doctrinal aberation will become a worm hole leading to major doctrinal error, or a black hole from which there is no return. It is a study of history, an awareness of the currents and eddies of modern culture, and eternal vigilence, that must be ready to identify theological black holes, and theological worm holes before they can arise and consume the bride of Christ.
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The Second Tier |
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