Agree To Disagree

I finished up a church history paper this weekend. The last person I wrote about was John Wesley. There's a lot of good stuff from Wesley's life that encourages and inspires me, but the one I want to focus on at the moment is what prompted him to first put to print the phrase "agree to disagree."

During his life he traveled around with George Whitefield, but the two split over doctrinal differences that they could not reconcile. The primary differences they had came from the fact that Wesley was an Arminian and Whitefield was a Calvinist. The two had faith in Christ but seemed to let their disagreements divide them, as so many in the body of Christ do today.

When Whitefield died, Wesley said "There are many doctrinal differences of a less essential nature -- in these we may think and let think; we may 'agree to disagree'. But, meantime, let us hold fast the essentials..."

I respect that. I love that. I need to listen to that.

The only caution here is that we must be careful not to twist the gospel with false teaching. There are certain key things about the person and work of Jesus Christ that one cannot deny to hold true to the gospel. However, there are many ancillary things that really do not matter in the end, in which case we must agree to disagree, lest we further divide the church.

Its funny that as I was thinking this, some folks from some named denomination came to the door. After seeing I was a believer, they jumped into questions totally focused on passover. Do you know what it is? Do you know it was abolished in 325 A.D.? What?! What does your line of questioning have to do with my relationship with God and what Jesus did on the cross? Not wanting to get into an argument, I bid them farewell, saying that the folks who typically go door to door want to get into a discussion about some particular doctrine, that I think they're doing that, and to keep preaching Christ and focus on the essentials.

Later I looked up the denomination on the Internet, and sure enough, there are various secondary doctrines they try to prove with scripture and elevate so highly such that they can claim to be the "one true church" because they believe and practice ancillary things that others do not.

No. Not okay.

There is a point where Christians can legitimately agree to disagree and a point where the gospel is changed. Praise anyone who preaches the gospel and promotes the name and atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ! Shame on anyone who preaches a false gospel and elevates secondary doctrines above the name of Christ!

Grace and Peace