Beliefs & Governing Policies

Essential and Non-Essential Doctrine:

We all understand that there are some doctrines that Christians disagree on. And these are biblical, orthodox, conservative Christians, and yet they disagree on some things. What things are ok to disagree on? What are things that if you deny, put you in danger? What things can you disagree on and yet still be in a church with those you disagree with?

There are essential or absolute doctrines. And there are non-essential or non-absolute doctrines. Now, a non-essential or non-absolute doctrine does NOT mean it is unimportant or unbiblical. Just because it is not considered “absolute” or “essential” does not mean it is not important and not worth studying!

Any doctrine or any idea from Scripture is worthy of your attention. Though, belief in that doctrine may not be necessary for you to be a Christian or for you to join a certain church, any doctrine or biblical idea is important.

Again, we want you to hear us strongly on this:

  • All doctrine and all of Scripture is IMPORTANT. When God speaks, it is with authority! There is not a verse we are trying to minimize here at all. All doctrine, whether it be the divinity of Jesus or if we are to still keep the Sabbath, are important.

  • All doctrine and all of Scripture, you should STUDY and CARE about. We are not asking you to put some doctrine or Scripture in a box and put it up in the attic because it doesn’t matter. No! All Scripture and doctrine are important because they are about God and His world.

The Bible and Essential/Non-Essential beliefs: 

Does the Bible support the idea that some doctrine is absolutely necessary to hold for a true Christian and other doctrines not necessary to hold to be considered a true Christian? Yes. Let’s look at some texts that show there are essential and non-essential doctrines. (Please read them in your Bibles as they will not be written out here)

  1. 1 Corinthians 15:3-5: Paul is writing that he preached and taught the Corinthian church what was most important: he says in verse 3, “of first importance.” And then he describes what is of first importance: the atoning death of Christ and the resurrection of Christ. That is the message that saves people. That is of first importance. He is not saying other things are not important…but not all things are of first importance.

  2. Romans 14:1-9 - Paul is writing here to another church talking about “opinions” in verse 1. The NIV translates it “disputable matters.” Paul is arguing that how one views certain foods and how one views certain religious days like the Sabbath, is not of utmost importance. Now remember, for an early Christian who is deeply affected by the Jewish worldview, food and Sabbath days are theological. How does the Old Testament fit with the New? These are theological and doctrinal matters. But Paul is arguing that fellow believers in the same church should not divide over these topics. They are important! But they are not essential

  3. There are also texts where men are condemned for not holding certain beliefs. As in, if you do not hold one of the essential beliefs of Christianity, then you will be condemned.

Galatians 1:8-9: Here, Paul says that if you change the Gospel, you will be accursed and condemned. He does not say this for all doctrine. Thus, there is some doctrine more essential than others.

Revelation 22:18-19: Here, John, writes that anyone who adds to or removes something from this inspired book of Scripture, will be condemned! Thus, if one denies and rejects the inspiration and authority of Scripture, he will be judged by God. It is essential to believe in the authority of Scripture.

2 John 7: John writes that anyone who does not believe that Jesus came to Earth as a human is a deceiver and acting like an antichrist! If you deny the humanity of Jesus, you are opposed to essential doctrine!

So, in the Bible, specifically the New Testament, we see that there are certain doctrines that must be held and cannot be denied for one to be considered a believer. But also, there are doctrines that can be “disputed” or held differently by believers and yet still not cause a doubt of one’s faith.

Church History and Essential/Non-Essential Beliefs

Church history also affirms this. After Jesus ascended and Christianity began to spread, Christians began to organize doctrine and create statements of faith. There were groups who were trying to distort the teachings of Christ…others were competing against Christianity. So Christians wanted to put forth their essential, first important beliefs. They did this for a few reasons:

  1. They wanted to have a standard of biblical beliefs and practices that unite fellow churches across lands and regions. For example, a church in Rome wanted to be unified with a church in Turkey. They wanted to advance true Christianity together.

  2. They wanted to show True Christianity as opposed to the many false and heretical teachings of the day. They wanted to be able to say briefly and succinctly: This is Christianity…anything opposed to this is false!

Over church history, statements of faith were written and shared and have stood the test of time. The Apostle’s Creed was written sometime in the 3rd and 4th century and is still adopted by churches of differing denominations today. The Nicene Creed was written in 325 A.D. and is still a litmus test for one’s orthodox beliefs regarding Jesus. Or we can fast forward to around the 1500s and see the formulation of the 5 Solas that declared the essential beliefs of the Reformation. All of these statements, and the many more not mentioned, were written to make Scripture clear, specific, and unifying for churches across the world. These statements did not cover every doctrine, but covered the essential beliefs that a Christian and church should affirm.

In summary, both the Bible and church history affirm that there are essential and non-essential doctrines. 

Listing out Essential and Non-Essential Doctrines:

Essential: Our doctrinal statement at CVBC lists the essential doctrines specifically. You can click HERE and read the whole statement. But I will just bullet point them below with just a summary phrase for each article of our statement:

  1. Triune God

  2. Inspiration, Inerrancy, and Authority of the Bible

  3. Created in the Image of God

  4. Human Condition and Sinfulness

  5. The Person and Work of Christ

  6. The Applied Work of Christ to us: Justification, Adoption, Glorification, etc.

  7. The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit

  8. The Universal and Local Church

  9. Christian Living- Our call to holiness.

  10. The Return of Christ

To be affirmed as a Christian at CVBC in membership, one must affirm and not deny these doctrines. These are rooted in the Bible and affirmed by church history. 

Non-Essential: But now, what about non-essential doctrines? Remember, they are still important, all doctrine is! But we are saying that non-essential doctrines are not necessary for absolute unified agreement for faith. One Christian can believe a view and another Christian believe another view of a non-essential and both still be believers. Here is a small sampling of non-essential doctrines:

  1. Age of the Earth

  2. View of the Millennium

  3. Roles of Men/Women- Complementarianism/Egalitarianism

  4. Sign Gifts- Are the gifts of healing, tongues, etc. active today? 

  5. Melchizedek’s Identity

(We will share a larger list of sample non-essential doctrines further down in this article).

However, some non-essential doctrines are more important than other non-essential doctrines. For example: the doctrine of roles of women in the church and the doctrine of Melchizedek’s identity. Though both are important to think through, one is much more important to your Christian life and our local church. You most likely will choose to fellowship in a church based more on their view of women preaching than on their view of Melchizedek. However, we are not saying that if you believe a woman can be a pastor then you are not a Christian. No. We are not saying this is an essential belief for Christianity. But, we are saying that this belief will affect which church you would belong to and will affect your theology in bigger ways. And at times, we would say that a specific view on a non-essential doctrine is more biblical than others. Some non-essential doctrines will be weightier and more impactful than others.

Weighing the Importance of Essential/Non-Essential Doctrines:

So how do we determine how weighty and influential a doctrine should be in our life or in our church’s life? How do you determine if a church or a Christian is holding a doctrine too tightly and causing unnecessary division? Or to steal the question from Gavin Ortlund’s wise book on this topic: What are the right hills to die on? 

We believe there are 4 helpful questions to ask of each doctrine/belief that will help you weigh its significance.

  1. Is the doctrine taught/described CLEARLY in the Bible? Is there exegetical certainty?

  2. How CENTRAL is this doctrine to Scripture and the Gospel? How theologically important is it?

  3. What is the HISTORICAL consensus on this doctrine? What does church history say about it?

  4. How does this doctrine APPLY to the believer and/or the church today? 

Asking these 4 questions of a specific doctrine will be helpful for determining how much or little you should fight for your specific belief on a doctrine. These will also help our church to see if we are holding a doctrine too tightly and imposing it on others, when it is not weighty enough to do so. 

Let’s take the doctrine of the role of women in the church. Specifically, let’s ask the question, “Can women be pastors?” Here is how to use these 4 questions above for this doctrine in a very brief way:

  1. Is the doctrine taught/described CLEARLY in the Bible? Is there exegetical certainty? -We believe that the Bible is clear in 1 Timothy 2:11-12, 3:1-7 and Titus 1:5-9  that a woman should not pastor in a local church. 

  2. How CENTRAL is this doctrine to Scripture and the Gospel? How theologically important is it? – Holding to this doctrine does not forsake the Gospel message nor the overall story of Scripture. We believe, at CVBC, that it does undermine the authority of Scripture in several passages, but one can hold to this doctrine and still find the Bible as the inerrant, authoritative word. The Gospel does not have to be edited for this doctrine.

  3. What is the HISTORICAL consensus on this doctrine? What does church history say about it? - We also see that for the majority of church history, until the last 100 years, that churches/denominations strictly held to only male pastors.

  4. How does this doctrine APPLY to the believer and/or the church today? – It directly affects who can/will serve as elders over a specific church. It also would declare that one’s biological sex does not affect one’s role in the church whatsoever. 

Overall, we believe someone can be a believer and considered a Christian and yet hold to the allowance of female pastors. We do think this is a weak position that directly effects a local church and their reading of the Bible. But we do recognize that someone can believe in the authority, inerrancy, and inspired word of God and believe in female pastors. We believe they are wrong, and yet we do not think they are forsaking the Gospel. Thus, this is a non-essential doctrine and yet it has a weight to it.

So again, you may have a question like this: “Are there non-essential doctrines that should determine my belonging to a church? How do I know which non-essential doctrines are more “important” than others?” Again, use those 4 questions and work through it…but there is one last tool that may be helpful.

One Last Tool: 3 Levels

This comes from an article by Albert Mohler. View this as just a tool. It is just a helpful way, or a resource, to think through doctrines. Others have systems of just 2 levels or some have 7 levels. But this 3 tier/level approach is helpful in differentiating between essential and non-essential doctrines AND between weightier non-essential doctrines and lighter non-essential doctrines. 

Think about each doctrine having to fit into 1 of 3 levels.

  1. 1st Level: Essential Beliefs: We already looked at these. These are the truths core to Christianity. When you define Christianity, these are what you describe. A Christian must not deny these beliefs. (This is what our doctrinal statement describes).

  2. 2nd Level: Important enough to Separate Churches-  Weightier Non-Essential Doctrine- These are doctrines that do not make a Christian, a Christian…but are important enough to a Christian that he or she may not join a church that disagrees with their view on these doctrines. For example, you may not join a Presbyterian church because of their view on baptizing babies, but you will still affirm them as Christians, even as faithful Christians! But because of my belief on baptism by immersion, I cannot in my conscience belong to a Presbyterian church. 

  3. 3rd Level: Important and yet there is freedom to disagree and yet remain in the same church. – The Less-Weighty Non-Essential Doctrine- However, there are many doctrines that Christians can disagree on and still continue to sit next to one another in a pew. We can have different opinions or views on a doctrine, and it not separate or divide us at all. For example, your belief on Melchizedek or how old the Earth is should not affect your belonging to a church.

Again, this is just a tool…and you may find some holes in it. It is not perfect. But it is an attempt to thoughtfully think through doctrines. And so with the 4 questions mentioned above and this 3-level distinction in mind, you should be able to better grasp the importance and effect of doctrines upon you and the church. 

Here is our attempt to take 15 Non-Essential doctrines and put them in their respective levels. All non-essential doctrines, in this tool, will be either in level 2 or 3. (Again, this is an attempt and is a simplistic one at that. It is not a fool proof solid system. We understand some of these doctrines are nuanced.)

  1. Age of the Earth – Level 3

  2. View of the Millennium – Level 3

  3. Roles of Men/Women- Complementarianism/Egalitarianism – Level 2

  4. Composition of Man: Are men created with 1, 2, or 3 parts? – Level 3

  5. Baptism- infant/Adult (as long as it is not for salvation) – Level 2

  6. Protestant Lord’s Supper Views (Memorial, Real Presence, etc.)  – – Level 2/3 (May depend on the individual)

  7. Church Government– Level 2/3 (May depend on the type of polity and an individual’s conscience)

  8. Sabbath Day – Level 3

  9. Role of Israel – Level 3

  10. Rapture + Tribulation Views– Level 3

  11. Sign Gifts- Tongues, Healings, etc. – Level 2/3 (may depend on how/when these gifts are practiced)

  12. Tithing (10%) Expectations– Level 3

  13. Melchizedek’s Identity– Level 3

  14. Alcohol Usage (Should a Christian drink or not?) – Level 3

  15. Worship Music Style– Level 3

If you made it through all of this, congratulations! All of this above seeks to communicate that CVBC is a church that holds doctrine seriously but also charitably. There are hills to die on and there are many hills to not die on. This is one of the distinctives that makes CVBC, CVBC.