When to be certain, when to be open minded

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I have been speaking recently from Philippians about what it means to be of one mind.  From other parts of the New Testament, from the witness of history, and from our own experience, we can see that it can’t mean agreeing to dot every 1 and tick every box in exactly the same way.  There will be areas of difference: part of being of one mind means agreeing on what is essential and agreeing that on non-essentials we don’t need to assassinate each other.

Of course that raises another question.  Who decides on the essentials?  How do we decide where it’s fine to disagree?  To be extreme about it, it’s hard to see how anyone can be a Christian in any meaningful sense of that word if they refuse to believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, crucified, buried and raised for our sins.  At the other end of the scale, it’s hard to understand that someone might make agreement on the colour of the church carpet a condition of fellowship.  But where and by whom do the lines get drawn in between?

Mark Driscoll talks about closed hand and open hand issues.  There are doctrines that are not open for negotiation: hold them in a closed hand.  There are other things that we need to learn to hold lightly in an open hand.  Fundamentalists are more likely to err by holding too many things in a closed hand; liberals err by holding too much in an open hand.

That’s helpful, but there is still the question of how to decided what goes in each hand.  What about:

• millennial viewpoints, 
• whether women can lead churches or should wear head coverings (or both!), 
• playing or watching sport on Sunday, 
• systems of church government, 
• the amount of water used in baptism (and the age of those baptised), 
• whether churches should have Sunday evening services, 
• whether large churches should use video extension on other campuses, 
• whether Rap music is  acceptable in a church service, 
• should every Christian speak in tongues, 
• whether it is OK for 21st century Baptists to continue Spurgeon’s practice of relaxing by smoking a cigar?

Ray Ortlund (who will be preaching at Portstewart Baptist on the Sunday of New Horizon week – July 19) has been writing on this question at his blog.  He contrasts certainty and openness and helpfully highlights Paul’s expression “of first importance” in 1 Corinthians 15.

Some Christians seem “all certainty.” Maybe it makes them feel heroic, standing against the tide. They see too few gray areas. Everything is a federal case. They have a fundamentalist mindset.

Other Christians seem “all openness.” Maybe it makes them feel humble and cool. They see too few black-and-white areas. They’re giving away the store. They have a liberal mindset — though they may demonstrate a surprising certainty against certainty.

The Bible is our authority as we sort out what deserves certainty and what deserves openness. 1 Corinthians 15:1-4 defines the gospel of Christ crucified for our sins, Christ buried and Christ risen again on the third day, according to the Scriptures, as “of first importance.” Here is the center of our certainty.

So we can approach this by saying that the closer we are to the person and work of Jesus, the more certain we need to be.  The further away we are from that centre, and the less impact a particular doctrine or practice will have on that centre, we are more free to accept reasonable, and biblically defensible, differences.

You can read the rest of Ray’s comments at his blog: Christ is deeper still: Certainty and openness.

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