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“The church will always be mixed and imperfect until judgment day, and much separatism comes from pride rather than holiness”

“Are there hills we are willing to die on? Are we willing to take a stand, come what may, on those doctrines that separate the gospel from the spirit of the age? If not, we are not faithful servants of Christ, and will not be effective in advancing his kingdom.”

“Our theology must have a category for the censorious tone of Paul’s letter to the Galatians and the grit and resolve of Machen’s polemics. We must not reduce gospel witness to a generic niceness that is accommodating in every circumstance. There is a time to fight. There are certain hills that must not be surrendered, even if the cost is losing our lives.”

“You can get a secondary or tertiary doctrine wrong and still have a fruitful life and ministry but the denial of a first-rank doctrine is a vital loss.”

“We desperately need to cultivate the skills and wisdom to do theological triage so that even when a doctrine division becomes necessary, it is done with minimal collateral damage to the kingdom of God.”

“Theology is done coram Deo (before the face of God). The glory of God and the good of the church are at stake. Nothing but our deepest sincerity and diligence is sufficient for this undertaking. It will take all the courage we have.”

“On many other issues, as well, we might say with Machen: better to be wrong than indifferent.“

“There is a sad poverty of awareness in simply bypassing all this historical discussion and adopting an up for grabs mentality in which theology functions like the people in the book of Judges when “everyone did what was right in his own eyes” Judges 21:25”

Essential & non-essential is distinguishing between what is and isn’t necessary for salvation. Non-essential doesn’t mean it is completely unimportant. Everything in scripture is important!

“I have often heard people say, ‘it’s not a gospel issue; it’s just a secondary issue.’ And of course, we should distinguish between the gospel and secondary issues. But if we stop at this basic distinction, we risk obscuring the significance of secondary doctrines. I worry that when people make this distinction, they mean something like ‘It’s secondary; therefore, it doesn’t really matter.‘“

“Ultimately, doctrinal division cannot be avoided. Believe anything, and you are disbelieving its opposite and therefore dividing, in some sense, from those who don’t share your belief.”

“Whilst doctrinal sectarianism is intolerant & rigid, creating unnecessary division, fracturing fellowship and treating secondary or non-essential beliefs as core tests of faith; doctrinal minimalism says “Let’s stop dividing over doctrine! It just hurts people. Let’s just love Jesus and feed the poor.””

Doctrinal minimalism

“Baxter’s words remind us that theological zeal must be subjected to the test of love.”