Essential Doctrines are doctrines that put you outside of the faith if you deny them. To reject these teachings means you are not a Christian, and the word “Heresy” is usually invoked for this category of error. Examples of essential doctrines are the deity of Jesus Christ, the Trinity, and believing in the bodily resurrection of Jesus.
Some Christian doctrines are weightier than others. When discussing Christian theology, many of us have heard the helpful quote attributed to Augustine, “In the essentials, unity, in the non-essentials liberty, and in all things charity.” There is much to be learned from this quote, but did you know that many Bible teachers identify four different categories of doctrinal weight?
Jesus said, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done without neglecting the others. You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel (Matthew 23:23-24)! In this passage, Jesus says that some teachings of Scripture have more theological impact than others.
One way to describe a doctrine’s weight is by understanding the consequences of being wrong about it. Believing the wrong thing about some doctrines could send us to hell, while being wrong about others has little impact on our spiritual life.
The categories have different names depending on who you ask, but they are essentially the same regardless of what we call them. Graham Cole names the four categories this way.
- Level 1 Convictions
- Level 2 Convictions
- Opinions
- Speculations
Those are valuable categories and might be what you have heard. My professor, Craig Hawkins, taught me the following: these are more descriptive.
- Essential Doctrines
- Cardinal Doctrines
- Non-Essentials
- Tertiary and Peripheral
Essential Doctrines are doctrines that put you outside of the faith if you deny them. To reject these teachings means you are not a Christian, and the word “Heresy” is usually invoked for this category of error. Examples of essential doctrines are the deity of Jesus Christ, the Trinity, and believing in the bodily resurrection of Jesus.
Cardinal Doctrines Are extremely Important and have significant ramifications in our lives, but Christians can disagree and still be Christians.
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