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by
D.A. Carson
There’s an old saying (I can’t remember where I heard it): “There is no doctrine a fundamentalist won’t fight over, and no doctrine a liberal will fight over.”
An example of a fourth-rank issue is the musical instrumentation used in worship or the number of angels that exist. Fourth-rank issues might be practically relevant or intellectually stimulating, but they are not theologically important.
By doctrinal sectarianism I mean any attitude, belief, or practice that contributes to unnecessary division in the body of Christ.
The Bible itself commends an attitude of eager responsiveness to God’s word in its entirety. Confusion may be an understandable response to some passages, and grief to others; but indifference should never be our response.
If you know this discussion at all, you know that preterism and partial preterism are very different. Partial preterism says that some eschatological events are already fulfilled (like the so-called great tribulation). Full preterism says that everything is already fulfilled (we are currently living in the new heavens and new earth, Jesus has already returned, and so on).
Some first-rank doctrines are worth fighting for because they mark a fault line between the gospel and a rival ideology, religion, or worldview (as with the virgin birth).
More simply: some first-rank doctrines are needed to defend the gospel, and others to proclaim the gospel. Without them the gospel is either vulnerable or incomplete.
The book of Galatians reminds us that there are hills to die on and that justification by faith alone is one of those hills.
Many of us don’t like to live with ambiguity. We like to have things nailed down. We want to know, once for all, what number to assign to each particular issue so that we can function in light of that judgment. Unfortunately, real life is more complicated than neat categories allow. Many doctrines defy a once-for-all classification without consideration of context.
