What Doctrines Are Essential? (Part 3)
February 8th, 2008
(By John MacArthur)
V. The Fundamental Doctrines Are All Summed up in the Person and Work of Christ
Paul wrote, “No man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 3:11). Christ Himself embodied or established every doctrine that is essential to genuine Christianity. Those who reject any of the cardinal doctrines of the faith worship a “christ” who is not the Christ of Scripture.
How are the fundamentals of the faith personified in Christ?
With regard to the inspiration and authority of Scripture, He is the incarnate Word (John 1:1, 14). He upheld the written Word’s absolute authority (Matthew 5:18). Christ Himself established sola Scriptura as a fundamental doctrine when He upbraided the Pharisees for nullifying Scripture with their own traditions: “Rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, ‘This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far away from Me. But in vain do they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.’ Neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men.… You nicely set aside the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition” (Mark 7:6-9). Our Lord had much to say about the authority and infallibility of the Word of God.
In the doctrine of justification by faith, it is Christ’s own perfect righteousness, imputed to the believer, that makes the pivotal difference between true biblical justification and the corrupted doctrine of Roman Catholicism and the cults. That is what Paul meant when he wrote, “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes” (Romans 10:4). It is also why Paul wrote that Christ is become to us righteousness (1 Corinthians 1:30), and it is why Jeremiah called Him “The Lord our righteousness” (Jeremiah 23:6). The Lord Himself, Jesus Christ, is our righteousness (Jeremiah 33:16). That is the very essence of justification by faith alone, sola fide.
Of course, all the fundamental doctrines related to the incarnation — the Virgin Birth of Christ, His deity, His humanity, and His sinlessness — are part and parcel of who He is. To deny any of those doctrines is to attack Christ Himself.
The essential doctrines related to His work — His atoning death, His resurrection, and the reality of His miracles — are the very basis of the Gospel (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:1-4; Hebrews 2:3-4). Reject them and you nullify the heart of the Christian message.
The fundamentals of the faith are so closely identified with Christ that the apostle John used the expression “the teaching of Christ” as a kind of shorthand for the set of doctrines he regarded as fundamental. To him, these doctrines represented the difference between true Christianity and false religion.
That is why he wrote, “Anyone who goes too far and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God; the one who abides in the teaching, he has both the Father and the Son” (2 John 9). Far from encouraging union with those who denied the fundamental truths of the faith, John forbade any form of spiritual fellowship with or encouragement of such false religion (vv. 10-11).
So What?
It has not been my purpose here to attempt to give an exhaustive list of fundamental doctrines. Such a task is beyond the scope of this article. Furthermore, the attempt to precisely identify and number such a list of doctrines would be an extremely difficult thing to do. However, a reasonable list of fundamentals would necessarily begin with these doctrines explicitly identified in Scripture as non-negotiable: the absolute authority of Scripture over tradition (sola Scriptura), justification by faith alone (sola fide), the deity of Christ, and the Trinity.
But what are we to do with this understanding? First of all, we should resist any temptation to wield these doctrines like a judge’s gavel that consigns multitudes to eternal doom. We must not set ourselves up as judges of other people’s eternal fate.
On the other hand, we must recognize that those who have turned away from sound doctrine in matters essential to salvation are condemning themselves. “He who does not believe has been judged already” (John 3:18). Our passion ought to be to proclaim the fundamentals with clarity and precision, in order to turn people away from the darkness of error. We must confront head-on the blindness and unbelief that will be the reason multitudes will one day hear the Lord say, “I never knew you; depart from Me” (Matthew 7:23). Again, it must be stressed that those who act as if crucial doctrines were of no consequence only heap the false teacher’s guilt on themselves (2 John 11).
We have no right to pronounce a sentence of eternal doom against anyone (John 5:22). But by the same token, we have no business receiving just anyone into the communion and fellowship of the church. We should no more forge spiritual bonds with people whose religion is fundamentally in error than we would seek fellowship with those guilty of heinous sin. To do so is tantamount to the arrogance shown by the Corinthians, who refused to dismiss from their fellowship a man living in the grossest kind of sin (1 Corinthians 5:1-3).
We must also remember that serious error can be extremely subtle. False teachers don’t wear a sign proclaiming who they are. They disguise themselves as apostles of Christ (2 Corinthians 11:13). “And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. Therefore it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness” (vv. 14-15). In view of the current hunger for ecumenical compromise, nothing is more desperately needed in the church right now than a new movement to reemphasize the fundamental articles of the faith.
The only problem (which is largely unavoidable), I have in defining essentials, is after reading, most seem to then take several “essential” pages of the Bible as non-negotiable, but then take an almost post modern attitude with the rest of Scripture that can now mean whatever you like as “it’s not essential doctrine”. Now, I know after reading the Truth War that John MacArthur does not mean for people to do this. However it is what largely happens.
But there are more essentials.
Jesus will say “Depart from Me” in Matthew 7, not to those who don’t understand the trinity but rather, to those who are unrepentant “workers of iniquity”.
Holiness is an essential doctrine as “without Holiness no one will see the Lord.” Heb 12:14
The principal of being a separate people and not being conformed to this world with it’s morality and values runs throughout the Bible and is essential doctrine, as James 4:4 says “You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”
Repentance is an essential doctrine: Luke 13:3,5; Rev 2:5. “No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”
Lordship Salvation is essential as Biblical love is marked by obedience.
Jesus said in John 14:15 ““If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”
John 14:21 “Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”
John 15:10 “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.”
John echoed this in 1 John 2:3-4 “And by this we know that we have come to know (intimately) him, if we keep his commandments. 4 Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep His commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him,”
And in 1 John 5:3 “For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.”
And the principal of loving God by doing His will runs throughout the Bible and is also in the Old Testament. Deuteronomy 6:5-16; 7:9; 10:12; 11:1, 13, 22; 13:3-4; 19:9; 30:6, 16,20).
Obviously we’re not saved by works but the saved persons lifestyle will be marked by good works. In fact it is the false teachers in Matthew 7 who are proclaiming a “wide road” that Jesus said are “ravenous wolves in sheep’s clothing”.
But Repentance, Holiness, and Lordship Salvation are essential fruits marked by lifestyle practices that one may do without even understanding, or even understand properly things like the trinity and what we call “essential”. (I’m not saying the Trinity is unimportant here).
However a Christian may perfectly well understand the trinity, yet if he’s lacking in the more essential fruits like Repentance, Holiness, and Lordship salvation then Jesus will say “depart from Me”.
I find it rather revealing that there are just a few comments concerning doctrine but at this writing now 97 comments concerning home school or public. Maybe it reveals our lack of interest in a substantive discussion of truth.
Ray B, I think there were 97 comments on the “homeschooling verses public school” post because many completely disagree with the position taken by Pulpit magazine on it.
However I believe there are not yet many comments on this piece, not because there is lack of interest in doctrinal truth but rather because I suspect most of Pulpit’s readership strongly agree with what John MacArthur has wrote on this.
It has not been my purpose here to attempt to give an exhaustive list of fundamental doctrines. Such a task is beyond the scope of this article.
I don’t disagree with Pastor MacArthur that giving an exhaustive list is in fact beyond the scope of this article, but that seems to be a common answer when we get to this topic. I know that different people are going to have different opinions, but I guess it’d be encouraging to hear someone go through, list them as best as they can decipher, and then support their “fundamentalness” Scripturally.
I’m not sure if Pastor MacArthur actually reads these posts (in fact I’m rather doubtful of it), but I would certainly buy a book that he wrote endeavoring to produce an exhaustive list. Maybe Nate or Jesse could pass that on to him.
Otherwise, his treatment of the texts in all three parts have been spot-on, and I’ve enjoyed them.
This is my fifth time to write. None of the previous ones have been posted?! Perhaps others write and are filtered also. For a more complete “list” on this topic, I was thrilled to read the doctrinal statement of John MacArthur’s church at their website. http://www.gracechurch.org Thank you for posting your comments! Perhpas this one of mine will be posted?!
I want to thank you for posting this series. There are so many professing Christians who do not believe in Sola Scriptura. The message has become so sugar-coated in todays contemporary church that doctrine is not valued. In fact, God is no longer seen as Holy, since He now accepts certain sins as being okay. God cannot tolerate sin and we need to get back to worshiping a Holy God! thank you again for this post!
I was not going to comment here. I usually read the articles only. However I have not read the “school” article because I simply was not interested.This article, all three parts have my interest more than the other.
Kevin is right. I agree with everything that was in the article. Maybe that is why I usually do not reply.
To All:
Is there any interest with the rest of you to use this article and for us to form a list of essential doctrines in our postings?
If so, as you submit something for consideration, please include the following: A brief, general title or category under which it would fall; a very brief summary of the essential doctrine; and, scriptural references as support.
Example:
SALVATION-
A person has to be born again in order to go to heaven.
John 3:7
As submission come in, the rest of us will have the opportunity to debate if it is actually an essential doctrine. After awhile, we could have a fairly good list.
Also, I am assuming that we all mean that an essential doctrine is one that must be believed and followed in order to go to heaven.
All, please read the following link:
http://elroy.net/ehr/aboutelroy.html
He writes: “Today I continue to believe in a loving God, but I can no longer claim the Bible to be his Word, nor can I claim myself to be a follower of the Christ most Christians follow.”
Later on he writes: “Before going into the Internet business I worked as the youth leader in several churches for nearly 15 years. I also worked at Young Life for six years.”
Questions: Does this fellow have the essential doctrines? Has he denied what he is forbidden to deny? He denies the inerrancy of Scripture, he supports abortion, and gay marriage. Is he a Christian? Or was he never a Christian? Can anyone make a reasonable discernment as to his eternal status? Should anyone make a reasonable discernment about his eternal status? Does he need to really hear and be transformed by the True Gospel? Or is he just a wayward disciple who’s hit a bump on the road since Reform Christians believe in the Perseverance of the Saints and he’s a saint that’s a little off-track.
What say thee?
Truth,
I read the entire article. Much of what Elroy writes is sadly true.
In paragraph 4 … believing because of a personal experience? He is right this is an extremely sujective basis for determining the truth.
I am just a past middle age rancher’s wife living in the middle of nowhere. I am not a biblical scholar but my impression is that Elroy places too much importance upon man. He seems to be interupiting God from his experience with mankind and using this as his lense to determining the truth about God, Jesus and the Bible.
Even though he will not agree, he does need prayer to come to know who God is. Not through looking at man but reading about who God is from the only availabe source.
Thanks for your response Faye.
If I were to come from a Reform TULIP perspective, I would say that Elroy was never a Christian. Therefore, he couldn’t lose what he never had, i.e., eternal salvation.
If I were to come from an Arminian perspective, I would say that if Elroy didn’t repent of his heresy and apostasy, then he has lost his salvation. I don’t know if he has technically denied the doctrines that Dr. MacArthur has specified were essential or not, but by all appearances, it looks as though he has.
Tracking back to my posts in Part 2 of this series, he has denied inerrancy, he denies that abortion is a sin, and he denies that same-sex behavior is a sin. He also says that he’s lost his faith. And he served in youth ministry in several churches.
Wooh, re-reading my posts, I am sorry about all of the mis-spelled words. Please read through them. I really need my Websters clase by when I blog. Thanks.
I just found this today! It’s an example of how several pastors confront doctrinal error and false teaching of another pastor.
http://www.sovereigngraceministries.org/Blog/post/Rob-Bell2c-the-Pastore28099s-Task-of-Discernment2c-and-My-Heart.aspx
Thanks to all for your comments and links!
The prayer in the above link is key for me. I really appreciate it! Whether someone is saved or not, only God knows. We are commanded to treat brothers who are in sin as if they are non-believers…lovingly share truth and testimony.
Experiential Christianity has opened the doors to all kinds of bizarre cultic behavior! It used to be, non-believers would ask me about the Bible, Jesus or death, etc. Now, they all want to know what is up with the “Christians”, then they tell of some celebrity preacher’s book or TV show or some freaky church experience they had! I struggle to not say, “They are not Christians!” I need to pray so much more! We do not worship the same Jesus! I broke fellowship with some folks who say you can’t have the Holy Spirit if you do not speak in tongues. It is an evil generation that looks for a sign.
What is the “same gospel”? If someone believes they were good enough to keep themselves saved today, have they understood their sin, and need of a Savior? I grow weary of their legalism.
Jesus said He was God. He did miracles to validate His claims. He taught with authority that every man is a sinner in need of Jesus, the way to the Father. He invited everyone to come to Him in repentance. All the scriptures pointed to Him, just as he claimed. Below are links to two of my favorite booklets to keep me grounded in Who Christ Jesus is:
http://www.rbc.org/bible_study/discovery_series/booklets/31015.aspx
http://www.rbc.org/bible_study/discovery_series/booklet/31014.aspx
Thank you for your encouragement to be steadfast!
Here’s another resource that I just found today. It’s a 5-part blog series that advocates that Scripture doesn’t teach a demarcation between essential doctrines and secondary doctrines. Start from Part 1 at the bottom.
Pax.
http://kentbrandenburg.blogspot.com/search?q=Secondary+Tertiary+Essential
What I find ironically amusing is that the blog post on home schooling is attracting 100+ comments, and yet home schooling cannot be considered an “Essential” doctrine by Dr. MacArthur’s definitions in his 3-part series!
Why are these people arguing over a “Non-Essential” doctrine like home-schooling?
I’ve been interacting with the author of the 5 part series linked to above. He claims that doctrines should not be ranked as fundamental, secondary, and etc. He claims all doctrines are vitally important and dropping the ball on any point is cause for loss of fellowship and separation.
I stand against such extreme separation. Having come from an extreme fundamental Baptist background, I really appreciate MacArthur’s series of posts here. I’ve been debating this topic on my blog lately. My most recent post sums up the debate and links back to these posts:
The Concept of “Fundamental doctrines”: Modern Reductionism or Historic Protestant Doctrine?
Come check it out if you’re interested.
Blessings to all,
Bob Hayton
Truth ,
I made a similar comment in the home schooling discussion. It seems like doctrine is almost a bad word today. But doctrine can be challenging, interesting thrilling and very relevant.