What Is the Difference Between Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Doctrines?
Question 0007
Not all doctrines carry the same weight. This is not to say that any part of Scripture is unimportant, every word of God matters, and we should strive to believe rightly about all of it. But the church has long recognised that some doctrines are so foundational that to deny them is to depart from Christianity altogether, while other doctrines, though significant, allow for disagreement among genuine believers without breaking fellowship.
Understanding this distinction is pastorally vital. It helps us know where to draw firm lines and where to extend grace to brothers and sisters who see things differently. It prevents us from treating every disagreement as a cause for division, while also ensuring we do not compromise on what truly cannot be compromised.
Primary Doctrines: The Non-Negotiables
Primary doctrines are those truths that define Christianity itself. To deny them is not to hold a different opinion within Christianity but to step outside Christianity entirely. These are the doctrines the early church councils and believers fought and sometimes died for, because they understood that the faith itself was at stake.
The Trinity
There is one God eternally existing in three Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This doctrine is woven throughout Scripture, from the plural pronouns used at creation; “Let us make man in our image” (Genesis 1:26), to the baptismal formula Jesus gave; “baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19), to the apostolic benedictions (2 Corinthians 13:14). Denying the Trinity leads either to polytheism or to a denial of Jesus’ deity. Groups like Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons depart from Christianity precisely here.
The Full Deity and Full Humanity of Jesus
Jesus is truly and fully God and truly and fully man, two natures united in one Person without confusion or mixture. The Gospel of John opens by declaring that “the Word was God” and that “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:1, 14). The early church fought against Arianism (which denied Jesus’ deity) and Docetism (which denied His true humanity). Both errors destroy the gospel, because only one who is both God and man can mediate between God and man (1 Timothy 2:5).
Justification by Grace Alone Through Faith Alone
Sinners are declared righteous before God not through works of the law but through trusting in Jesus and His finished work on the cross. Paul is emphatic: “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9). This was the doctrine recovered at the Reformation (though there have always been believers), and the Council of Trent’s rejection of it is precisely why evangelicals and Rome remain divided, rightly so, to this day.
The Bodily Resurrection of Jesus
Jesus rose physically from the dead on the third day. Paul states bluntly: “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins” (1 Corinthians 15:17). A Christianity without the bodily resurrection is not Christianity at all.
The Authority and Inspiration of Scripture
The Bible is God’s Word, breathed out by Him through human authors, and is therefore trustworthy and authoritative in all it affirms. Paul writes: “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16). Without this foundation, we have no reliable access to any other doctrine.
The Return of Jesus
Jesus will return personally, bodily, and visibly to judge the living and the dead. “This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven” (Acts 1:11). The details of how and when are secondary matters, but the fact itself is primary.
These doctrines form the skeleton of the faith. Remove any one of them, and the body collapses.
Secondary Doctrines: Important but Not Salvation Issues
Secondary doctrines are those truths that are significant enough to affect how we organise church life and practice, but disagreement on them does not mean someone is outside saving faith. These are doctrines where genuine, Bible-believing Christians have held differing convictions throughout church history.
Baptism: whether infants should be baptised (as Presbyterians and Anglicans practice) or only believers (as Baptists, including myself, insist). Both sides appeal to Scripture and take their positions seriously. But Baptists and Presbyterians recognise one another as genuine Christians despite this disagreement. The mode of baptism (immersion, sprinkling, pouring) also falls here.
Church governance: whether churches should be led by elders (Presbyterian polity), bishops (Episcopal polity), or the gathered congregation (Congregational/Baptist polity). These are not trivial matters; they affect how decisions are made and authority is exercised. But they are not tests of orthodoxy.
The charismatic gifts: whether gifts like tongues, prophecy, and healing continue today (continuationism, as I do and explained elsewhere), or ceased with the apostolic age (cessationism). This shapes worship and expectations of the Spirit’s work, but neither position denies the gospel.
Women in ministry: whether women may serve as elders or pastors. Complementarians and egalitarians both claim biblical support for their positions. This affects church structure and practice profoundly, yet both groups contain people who genuinely trust Christ and submit to Scripture.
The Lord’s Supper: whether Jesus is physically present in the elements (Roman Catholic transubstantiation), spiritually present (Reformed view), or whether the meal is purely memorial (Zwinglian view, and mine). These differences shape liturgy and theology but do not determine salvation.
Secondary doctrines are serious enough that they often determine which denomination or local church we join. Baptists and Presbyterians do not share the same practice of baptism, so they organise into separate churches. But they recognise one another as part of the body of Christ and can partner in evangelism, missions, and fellowship.
Tertiary Doctrines: Matters of Christian Liberty
Tertiary doctrines are those matters on which Scripture either speaks less directly or where faithful interpreters have long held differing views without any breach of fellowship. These are issues that should not divide Christians even within the same local church.
The age of the earth: young-earth creationists and old-earth creationists both affirm that God created all things and that Genesis is true. They disagree on how to interpret the days of creation. This is not nothing, it affects how we read Scripture and understand science. But it is not a test of orthodoxy. A church can contain both and worship together.
The timing of the rapture: pretribulational, midtribulational, posttribulational, and prewrath positions all exist among genuine believers. I hold to a pretribulational view here, but we recognise that Christians who differ are still our brothers and sisters.
The millennium: premillennialists (that’s me!), amillennialists, and postmillennialists interpret Revelation 20 differently. These views affect our understanding of prophecy and hope, but they do not affect whether someone is trusting in Jesus for salvation.
Matters of personal conscience: as Paul addresses in Romans 14, issues like diet, observance of special days, and similar matters where Scripture gives freedom. “One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind” (Romans 14:5).
The point with tertiary doctrines is not that they do not matter, but that they do not warrant division. We can study them, debate them, and hold our convictions firmly, but with grace toward those who differ.
Why This Framework Matters
This framework is not about making some parts of the Bible less important. Every Scripture is profitable. But it is about recognising that Christians must stand together on the essentials while allowing room for disagreement on matters where godly people have differed.
The old saying is worth remembering: “In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity.” This maxim, often attributed to the seventeenth-century Lutheran theologian Rupertus Meldenius, captures the wisdom the church has learned through centuries of sometimes painful experience.
When we treat secondary or tertiary matters as if they were primary, we become sectarian. We fracture the body of Christ over things that should not divide us. We become like those in Corinth who said, “I follow Paul” or “I follow Apollos” and had to be rebuked for their divisions (1 Corinthians 1:12-13).
On the other hand, when we treat primary matters as if they were secondary, we become compromised. We allow false teaching to go unchallenged and put souls at risk. Jude urges us to “contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3). There is a faith worth fighting for and we must not pretend otherwise.
The key is wisdom and discernment. We must know which battles are worth dying on and which are not. We must speak the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15), holding firm to what cannot be surrendered while extending grace on what can.
May we have the courage to stand firm on what must not be moved, the humility to allow room for disagreement where Scripture permits it, and the love to treat one another as members of the same body, purchased by the same blood, and bound for the same eternal home.
“I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment.”
1 Corinthians 1:10 (ESV)
Bibliography
- Grudem, Wayne. Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine. Leicester: Inter-Varsity Press, 1994.
- Ryrie, Charles C. Basic Theology: A Popular Systematic Guide to Understanding Biblical Truth. Chicago: Moody Publishers, 1999.
- Packer, J.I. Fundamentalism and the Word of God. London: Inter-Varsity Fellowship, 1958.
- Carson, D.A. “Unity and Diversity in the New Testament.” In Scripture and Truth, edited by D.A. Carson and John D. Woodbridge. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1983.
- McGrath, Alister E. Heresy: A History of Defending the Truth. London: SPCK, 2009.
- Erickson, Millard J. Christian Theology, 3rd ed. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2013.
- Chafer, Lewis Sperry. Systematic Theology, Vol. 1. Dallas: Dallas Seminary Press, 1947.
- MacArthur, John. Reckless Faith: When the Church Loses Its Will to Discern. Wheaton: Crossway, 1994.
- Mohler, R. Albert Jr. “A Call for Theological Triage and Christian Maturity.” AlbertMohler.com, 2004.
- Stott, John. Evangelical Truth: A Personal Plea for Unity, Integrity and Faithfulness. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1999.
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