How to Disagree with Other Christians

Rule of Faith

While being a Christian is not based on your ability to understand God perfectly, there are some things you must believe to be a Christian

Circle with a dot in the middle

You can be wrong about some things (further from the middle) and still be a Christian

Eventually, though, you get far enough and you’ve broken the rule of faith and stepped into something fundamentally different

Examples — Gnosticism (material world is bad, enlightenment not forgiveness of sin, hidden God beyond the Creator), LDS church

You didn’t just overcook the steak, you brought me the wrong dish altogether.

Examples of things that break the rule — denying the resurrection, denying the Trinity, denying the trustworthiness of Scripture, spiritualizing/metaphorizing sin, etc.

Not trying to make you worry you’ll lose your salvation if you believe the wrong thing (e.g. speaking in tongues or not); the things that “break the rule” are ones that nobody who’s saved would believe for an ongoing period of time to begin with (although we all may struggle with things like doubting the resurrection at some point, there’s a difference between struggling with doubt and genuinely not believing in it)

To me, sexuality is something that nearly breaks the rule. I think a new convert could naively think things contrary to Scripture, but no one who is actually submitted to Jesus will go on thinking that forever.

The church with a drag queen preacher is something fundamentally different than the Christian faith.

The circle doesn’t make me doubt my salvation, it helps me navigate how I interact with others who claim the title “Christian,” determining if and how much we interact together on common ground

It is your job to determine what is the center dot (good theology), how much you’ll associate with those who are in the circle but further from the center (Christians with theological differences), and what things constitute leaving the circle How I do it (same church v. joint worship v. prayer v. nothing)