Learning to co-exist amongst disagreements

They might still be your brothers and sisters — Learning to draw the line between standing for the truth and practicing love.

I would like to point out that you will not find a perfect church today. Due to the fact that we are human and live in a fallen world, every church will have certain inconsistencies.

Our fellowship must not be broken as long as we are not dealing with any extremes related to the topics discussed in this book.

Some people may be genuine in their belief, but are unable to articulate their doctrines adequately, and this can be a happy inconsistency. In order to better understand the intents behind such people’s positions, you will need to have deeper conversations with them.

There are some people who may reject sound theology with noble motives. One preacher once commented on this saying;

Some noble Armenians may reject reformed theology because they would believe that the doctrine of election (as taught by calvinists) cast a shadow on the righteousness of God. So they are convinced that the doctrine of election it makes God look unjust and unfair and so, in their minds, they are fighting to defend the integrity of God (as the reformed argument seems to suggest to them that God has a bias towards choosing who goes to heaven or hell).

Since we don’t always know people’s motives, discussions must be conducted in a spirit of mutual trust and patience between the two parties.

I especially love what Dr Martyn Lloyd Jones said which speaks a lot about the spirit of unity that He had;

“I am a Calvinist, I believe in election and predestination; but I would not dream of putting it under the heading of essential. I put it under the heading of non-essential… You are not saved by your precise understanding of how this great salvation comes to you. What you must be clear about is that you are lost and damned, hopeless and helpless, and that nothing can save you but the grace of God in Jesus Christ and only Him crucified, bearing the punishment of your sins, dying, rising again, ascending, sending the spirit, regeneration. Those are the essentials… While I myself hold very definite and strong views on the subject, I will not separate from a man who cannot accept and believe the doctrines of election and predestination, and is Arminian, as long as he tells me that we are all saved by grace, and as long as the Calvinist agrees, as he must, that God calls all men everywhere to repentance. As long as both are prepared to agree about these things I say we must not break fellowship. So I put election into the category of non-essentials.

Lastly, not all members of a particular movement are heretics and unsaved, and some of them are still sound in their understanding of the gospel, and they have a good grasp of the essential doctrines of grace, as well as love Christ deeply.