Why should churches draw doctrinal boundaries?

9Marks
False teaching harms the church. Paul calls right doctrine “sound” or “healthy” (1 Tim. 1:10; 2 Tim. 4:3). False teaching, by contrast, is spiritually destructive (2 Pet. 2:1). False teaching spreads. The New Testament warns us that false teaching spreads like gangrene (1 Tim. 2:17). Churches should draw boundaries for the sake of their health and even their very lives.  

How do we determine which doctrines are more important and which are less important?

9Marks

The answer to that question depends on how closely related to the gospel a doctrine is and how much practical impact it has on the Christian life.

How much theological agreement is necessary in order for Christians to work together in ministry?

9Marks
In order to work together in a ministry context, Christians need to agree about the gospel. How are we saved? What are we saved from? What is the basis of our right standing before God? If Christians disagree about the gospel itself, no true cooperation in matters of ministry is possible.

Should Christians cooperate with those with whom they disagree theologically?

9Marks
First things first. There’s no true unity except in the truth. Therefore, all Christian cooperation must be based on doctrinal agreement. The question is then, how much? Do Christians need to agree about every nuance of every doctrine—or the interpretation of every single passage of Scripture—in order to work together?

What are some weaknesses in current missional thinking?

9Marks
Historical revisionism. Many missional authors make a far bigger deal out of our culture’s move to postmodernity than a sober biblical assessment warrants. 

The Bible promises that God will transform human culture in the end. Doesn’t that mean we should be engaged in that work now?

9Marks

No. Just because God is doing something doesn’t mean we should or are able to do it.

Does the Bible call the local church to the work of cultural transformation?

9Marks

The short answer is no. The slightly longer answer is that the church is called to the work of cultural transformation only insofar as the church is called to help people grow as disciples of Christ in every facet of their lives.

What is the cultural mandate? Who is it given to?

9Marks
The cultural mandate is the command to exercise dominion over the earth, subdue it, and develop its latent potential (Gen. 1:26-28; cf. Gen 2:15). God calls all humans, as those made in his image, to fill the earth with his glory through creating what we commonly call culture. The cultural mandate is given to all people. In Genesis 1:26-28, it’s given to Adam and Eve as the only people and as representatives of all humanity. In Genesis 9:1 it’s given to Noah as the representative of all humanity.

What are some strengths in current missional thinking?

9Marks
Corporate witness. Some missional authors rightly emphasize that the church’s corporate witness hugely impacts its faithfulness and success in carrying out the mission God has given it. Missional living. Missional writers rightly urge evangelical Christians to adopt a missional posture, gearing all of their lives around fulfilling the Great Commission.

What is the local church’s mission according to the Bible?

9Marks

According to Scripture, the local church’s mission is to proclaim, preserve, and display the gospel.

What is the missional church?

9Marks
The basic premise of the missional church is that mission is the very essence of the church. This is a larger claim than saying that every individual member of the church is a missionary: it is a claim that the church itself is a sign, a foretaste, an instrument, and an agent of God’s kingdom reign on earth.

Does the emerging church get the gospel right?

9Marks
The short answer is that some individuals identifying themselves as “emerging” get the gospel right and some don’t. And often it’s not easy to tell whether someone has “crossed the line” and denied the gospel. Some individuals affirm the right things but emphasize the wrong things. Others affirm the right things but entirely redefine them. Still others affirm parts of the truth and say nothing about the rest of the truth.

Does the Bible lead us to expect that Christians will be able to transform society?

9Marks

In order to answer that question we need to put a few biblical and theological pieces into their proper place:

Is the main point of the gospel the transformation of culture?

9Marks
Absolutely not. The main point of the gospel is the forgiveness of sins through the death of Christ (Luke 24:47).  One promise of God that is bound up with the gospel is that one day God will graciously re-create a new earth in which his people will dwell with him in perfect harmony (Rom. 18-25; Rev. 21:1-22:5). So, one day there will be a totally transformed culture, composed entirely of God’s perfected people dwelling in a new earth.

What’s wrong with the emerging church?

9Marks

See the question “What is the emerging church?” for the necessary caveat that it is difficult to accurately generalize about the emerging church. Still, somebody’s gotta do it.

Basically, what’s wrong with the emerging church is that it takes the postmodern ideology and cultural mood as its starting point—its “given”—which then relativizes Scripture’s role as our authoritative norm for life and doctrine. Examples? Proponents of the emerging church tend to:

Share