Will Christians Still Be Here for the Seven Years of Tribulation?

Theological Triage

This is a term that is used to explain the process of discussing theological disputes. At the heart of it, what it does is assign a level of importance to issues within the faith that helps us to be able to judge them. Now, what do I mean by judge? Well, to understand that, let’s look at the term itself.

Triage.

Does anybody know what that word means?

The word triage is often used to describe a part of a hospital. In the ER there is something called triage, which is a place where they determine what patients have the most need, and therefore get the first treatment, while they also work to stabilize the people there until they can be seen. It’s like this...

If you go to the ER because you broke your finger, and someone else shows up who has been shot 6 times, who do you think needs attention first? Even though you may be next up to be seen, when that person shows up, they are going to be seen first. It doesn’t mean that your broken finger doesn’t matter, but rather there is a more pressing issue that needs more attention.

Well, this same thing is true about doctrine. There are some things that people believe that are different than what some other people believe. We see that on a large scale with something like different religions. We have different beliefs than Muslims, or Mormons. We also see this on a more medium scale with things like denominations. While Baptists and Presbyterians have different beliefs about things, we are both still protestants. An example of that is baptism. We believe in what is called “believer’s baptism,” while they largely believe in infant baptism. And we also see this on a small scale, within our own church. An example of that could be something as simple as worship styles, or it could be as significant as what you believe about the end times, which is what we’ll be discussing tonight.

So, when we use the term theological triage, what we are doing, similar to the triage in a hospital ER, is we are asking ourselves how important that doctrine is. In other words- if you believe in Islam, then we have entirely different understandings of God, His will, His truth, and our place in life. So, those differences are so huge, (meaning we have assigned a GREAT deal of value to that doctrine), that we cannot fellowship together as believers.

What about the second tier issues? Well, that’s where things start to open up. You see, for topics that are secondary, and especially topics that are tertiary, we can fellowship together. Now, there may be some divides, and that is why we have two categories (second and third tier), but at the end of the day, we are fundamentally aligned enough to fellowship together.

That’s something that we’re going to discuss tonight...

Will Christians Still be Here for the Seven Years of Tribulation?

Maybe...