“The Christian truth, with the certifying of which we have to do, is essentially only one, compact in itself, vitally interconnected, — as such at the same time organic, — and it is therefore not possible one should possess and retain a portion of the same, while yet not possessing, or rejecting, the other portions. On the contrary, the member or portion of the truth, which it had been thought to be appropriate or maintain alone, would by this isolating cease to be that which it was or is in itself; it would become an empty form or husk, from which the life, the Christian reality, has escaped.”
F. H. R. Frank
19th Century Lutheran Theologian
I challenge anyone to understand and embrace the truth in the quote above while at the same time saying things like, “the differences between credo-baptism and paedo-baptism shouldn’t be a matter to divide over,” or “whether it is the memorial view of Communion, or whether the receptionist view or whether the transubstantiation view we can still all just get along,” or “eschatology doesn’t matter, one can be premil, postmil, amill or preterist and still be co-laborers together.” Understanding the truth in the italicized quote above makes one decidedly particular in his understanding of the Christian faith. Now, that is not to say that there aren’t allowances to be made for other Christian systems (Lutheran, Baptist, Holiness, Pentecostal, Wesleyan etc.) that have errors in them. We should be able to be like B. B. Warfield who said that;
“There is but one kind of theism, religion, evangelicalism; and the several constructions laying claim to these names differ from each other not as correlative species of a broader class, but as more or less perfect, or more or less defective, exemplifications of a single species. Calvinism conceives of itself as simply the more pure theism, religion, evangelicalism, superseding as such the less pure.”
And so the Calvinist owns the less pure expressions of Christianity as Christianity but quite without communicating that all the examples given in the paragraph after the italicized quote (and more) don’t really matter. Those differences do matter and having errant views on these matters stunts the maturity of Christians who hold to those views, and frankly ends up making those who hold to the less pure expressions to be weaker Christians having lesser character. Bad theology hurts people — even people who are beyond doubt united to Christ.
So, the Calvinist will seek, at one and the same time, to correct his errant brother while still calling him “Brother.” The Calvinist will not act as if all of the doctrines of the Christian faith are not organic. The Calvinist will not suggest that some doctrines of the Christian faith are optional and this because the Calvinist understands that the Christian faith is organic and that Calvinism is the most faithful expression of the Christian faith.
Counterpoint:
“The essential of any important heresy is not simply that it is wrong: it is that it is partly right. It is characteristic of the more interesting heretics, in the context in which I use the term, that they have an exceptionally acute perception, or profound insight, of some part of the truth; an insight more important often than the inferences of those who are aware of more, but less acutely aware of anything. So far as we are able to redress the balance, effect the compensation ourselves, we may find such authors of the greatest value. … [But] we must remember too, that a heresy is apt to have a seductive simplicity, to make a direct and persuasive appeal to intellect and emotions, and to be altogether more plausible than the truth. p. 6.”
T.S. Eliot, ‘After Strange gods: A Primer of Modern Heresy’
Example: I recently unearthed an article by Ehud Would on “The Good Samaritan Fallacy.”
https://tribaltheocrat.com/2024/10/the-good-samaritan-fallacy/
In this article, he mentions that it’s the EO Church that renders what I believe is the correct understanding of the Parable of the ‘Good’ Samaritan, that we seldom if ever hear from our Reformed Calvinist pulpits.