In Essentials Unity
The Rev. Louis B. Tiscione
Weatherford Presbyterian Church (PCA)
The great church historian, Philip Schaff, Union Theological Seminary, New York, October, 1882, attributed the statement: “In essentials unity; in non-essentials liberty; in all things charity” to a German Lutheran theologian, Rupertus Meldenius (Circa 1627). The saying has become a “rule of thumb” for fellowship and unity among believers.
The Bible reveals those doctrines that are essential for defining the Christian faith. In the early 20th century, the Presbyterian Church issued what is now known as the Five Fundamentals of the Christian Faith. These five doctrines are clearly taught in Scripture and are those things that the church has always held firmly. They are the fleshing-out of the words of eternal life of which the disciples desired.
These five fundamentals are: the inerrancy of the Scriptures, the virgin birth of Jesus Christ, the full-penal-substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ, the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ, and the authenticity of the miracles recorded in Scripture.
These fundamental doctrines were codified out of the Scriptures during the onslaught of the liberalism brought to the United States by followers of the German theologians of the Enlightenment. These fundamentals are not denominational distinctives. All Christian groups adhere to these fundamental doctrines.
They have been challenged since being published. Men are always seeking to make God into a being that can be controlled. So-called churches and leaders seek to twist the Scriptures to support all manner of perversions and call them blessed. One needs only to read the six woes that God declared and were recorded in Isaiah chapter 5. One is of particular interest to all of us. “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter” (vs. 20)!
The first of the five fundamentals is the foundation. The Scriptures are inerrant. God is true and He only speaks the truth. Truth is that which is real. Therefore, if you want to understand reality, it is necessary to view the world around us through the lens of the Holy Scriptures.
Now having said these things, I must clearly state that the Christian faith is not a legalistic exercise. The Christian faith is a revealed faith. It is supremely a revelation from God which details His means by which a sinner can have a relationship with Him. It is not a list of precepts that must be kept. However, God has given His word to His people as a guide for living in Christ. The Christian faith is given by God to those whom He chose before the foundation of the world. Faith in Christ is a gift. It is given by grace alone. God unconditionally choses those who are His. Those who receive His gift of faith profess trust in the person and work of Jesus Christ. The certain result is that God declares that sinner right with Him only for the righteousness of Jesus Christ which He imputes (covers, credits) to the sinner’s account.
All of this being said can only be stated while holding to the inerrant and infallible word of God! You may have noticed an “essential” in the above paragraph. I hope that you see it and embrace it. That essential is how a sinner can stand before a holy God. That essential is called forensic justification. “Justification is an act of God’s free grace wherein He pardons all our sins and accepts us as righteous in His sight only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us and received by faith alone” (The Westminster Shorter Catechism, Q/A #33). This doctrine is an “essential”. It was the material cause of the Protestant Reformation. It continues to distinguish those who are Christ’s from those who are not.
I pray that you are in a church that continues to hold the essentials of the Christian faith. This one, justification, is the essence of the gospel. Learn it, meditate upon it, search the Scriptures to continue to be able to articulate it. Paul wrote to a dysfunctional church, Corinth, and called the believers in the church to “examine [themselves] to see whether [they were] in the faith” (2 Corinthians 13:5a). Notice the use of the definite article “the” in describing faith. Surely, there is only one faith that is received by the grace of God. May you be in a church that enables you to study God’s word so that you might know that which is essential.
