Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 11144. Disagreement and division sound like near neighbours, and in a tense church meeting they can feel indistinguishable, but the Bible treats them as genuinely different things, and confusing them causes real damage in both directions. I have watched churches wound themselves by treating every disagreement as an act of rebellion that must be…
Reading Time: 9 minutesQuestion 09071 The word ecumenism, and the ecumenical movement that carries it, has become one of those terms that generates more heat than light. To some it means everything good about Christians laying down their weapons. To others it means everything bad about churches abandoning the truth in order to be liked. Both reactions contain…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 47. Doctrinal disagreement between sincere Christians reading the very same Bible is a question that troubles many thoughtful believers, and it deserves a more careful answer than either of the two lazy responses it usually receives: that doctrine doesn’t really matter since everyone disagrees anyway, or that anyone who disagrees with you simply is…
Reading Time: 9 minutesQuestion 00048. The claim that doctrine divides but Jesus unites is one of the most quoted slogans in the modern church, and one of the most quietly corrosive things a believer can be handed. It sounds humble, it sounds loving, and it lands a soft blow against anyone who dares to care about precise belief….
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 0029. Sooner or later every believer who takes both truth and relationships seriously has to ask whether a disagreement is worth breaking fellowship over. You find yourself genuinely at odds with another Christian over a matter of belief or practice. The difference feels significant. But is it significant enough to part ways? This is…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 0027. Few questions expose the fault lines in the modern church as quickly as whether unity can exist without doctrinal agreement. On one side stand those who say doctrine divides while love unites, so we should keep doctrine to a minimum for the sake of getting along. On the other stand those who treat…