Christian Doctrine Categories

Doctrine Categories & The Biblical Foundation

Like other belief systems, not all Christian doctrines are of the same level of importance to Christianity as a whole. The Christian belief system can be viewed as containing three doctrine categories: Essential Doctrines, Secondary Doctrines, and Miscellaneous Doctrines.

Two of these categories, the Essential Doctrines and the Secondary Doctrines, together contain the most important and far reaching doctrines of Christianity. Taken together, the two categories address issues such as the nature of God, the nature of mankind, mankind in relation to God, and the kind of relationships God wants people to have amongst themselves. Doctrines in these categories are stated in the Bible in a clear and straightforward manner, and are not derived in any way. These doctrines together constitute a person's spiritual foundation. A person's spiritual foundation, that is, the set of their subscribed to Essential Doctrines and Secondary Doctrines, is the person’s primary basis for determining and forming the totality of the spiritual beliefs that they decide to hold. A person's spiritual foundation also has a strong influence on the person's view of the world, and perspectives, opinions and stances on personal matters as well as on topics and issues under public discussion or debate. For a Christian their spiritual foundation can more precisely be referred to as their biblical foundation.

A Christian uses their biblical foundation as a basis for forming their full personal interpretation of Christian belief system, and ideally, their full personal interpretation of the Christian belief system should be an identical or near identical reflection of the belief system that is described in the Bible, with no contradictory beliefs also being held.

Doctrine Categories

Essential Doctrines: These are Christianity's Foundational Doctrines. The Essential Doctrines form the minimum group of doctrines that need to be subscribed to by a person in order for the person to accurately be considered Christian. If a person does not subscribe to any number of them, or if any of them are contradicted by other beliefs held by the person, then the person can not accurately be considered Christian*. As evidence of their importance, it should be noted that not subscribing to any one of them has the effect of negating numerous other doctrines. Also, a person not subscribing to any one or more of these doctrines will be very susceptible to accepting and adopting non-biblical and un-biblical beliefs and practices, as well as very susceptible to worldly influences. Doctrines in this category are stated in the Bible in a clear and straightforward manner, and are not derived in any way.

*Though keeping in mind the judge of a person's eternal fate is God, who knows in detail a person's life and their heart.

Secondary Doctrines: These are doctrines that a Christian should subscribe to in order to effectively live a biblically based life, and grow in Christian spiritual maturity (ie. being conformed to the person of Christ). Subscription to all of these doctrines is not necessary for a person to be able to be accurately considered Christian. Doctrines in this category are stated in the Bible in a clear and straightforward manner, and are not derived in any way.

If any number of these doctrines are not subscribed to or are contradicted by any other beliefs held by a person, then that person's biblical foundation can not be considered as being as strong as if more of the doctrines were subscribed to and/or there were less contradictions. Consequently, the less strong a Christian's biblical foundation is, the harder it is for them to grow from being an infant Christian needing milk (e.g. 1 Cor. 3:1-3) to a spiritually mature Christian. It will also almost certainly cause them to correspondingly experience more difficulties in their life, and make it harder for them to effectively handle problems, and challenges that may appear, particularly in a biblically based and approved manner. Additionally, the fewer of these doctrines a person subscribes to, the more prone they are to take stances and make decisions on personal matters and issues encountered in the world, which run counter to what is stated in the Christian belief system as defined by the Bible. It also makes them more susceptible to accepting or adopting un-biblical or non-biblical beliefs and practices, as well as more susceptible to worldly influences. Consequently, this category of doctrines may alternatively be referred to as “Daily Life Doctrines”.

Miscellaneous Doctrines: The doctrines declared in the Bible which do not belong to the Essential Doctrines nor the Secondary Doctrines categories. The doctrines in this category are either straightforwardly declared in scripture, or are reasonably determined to be declared in scripture, and are not derived from scripture through extrapolation.

Christian Doctrines Related

Personal /Organizational Non-Doctrinal Beliefs Category: Any beliefs that are held by either a person or an organization which are not a practically exact statement of any of the doctrines in any of the Christian doctrine categories.

Personal /Organizational Doctrine Subscription Declaration: A listing of all of the doctrines in the doctrine categories by a person or organization, and the position that they have taken on them; whether that position is one of subscription or non-subscription (I.e. explicitly “non-subscription” or “no position”). The statement also includes a section detailing all Personal/Organizational Non-Doctrinal Beliefs that are held. This statement can be just used privately, or made available (if an organization) internally, or made available publicly available, to provide a readily available accurate picture of the person/organization's specific interpretation of the Christian belief system to related or interested parties.

Classification of Non-Doctrine Beliefs

For Personal/Organizational Non-Doctrinal Beliefs, they can be categorized to indicate both their validity in light of Christian Doctrines, and their level of consistency with the Christian belief system as a whole. Beliefs are evaluated on two aspects; Doctrine Relative, which indicates a belief's relationship with doctrines, and Scripture Relative, which indicates a belief's relationship to scripture. For beliefs that do have a doctrinal or scriptural basis, that basis is to be cited and is used as a basis for categorization. A belief's Doctrine Relative classification should be determined before determining its Scripture Relative classification.

Doctrine Relative

The Doctrine Relative classification consists of four different possible designations; three "Anti-" designations, and a Doctrine Neutral designation. An "Anti-" designation indicates that a belief is in conflict with one or more Christian doctrines. In the case where an "Anti-" belief is in conflict with two or more Christian doctrines which are in different Christian doctrines categories, for categorization purposes it is considered as being in conflict with only the doctrine that is closest to the Essential Doctrines category (inclusively). "Anti-X Doctrine" categorized beliefs may alternately be referred to for short simply as “Un-Doctrinal”.

Historically, beliefs that are classified into one of the "Anti-" designations have often been based on scripture who's actual meaning is misinterpreted, or scripture who's meaning is bent or distorted (unintentionally or intentionally), to mean something that it does not based upon its context, or the weight and/or amount of other related Bible scriptures.

Doctrine Neutral: The belief does not in a straightforward manner conflict with any of the doctrines in any of the doctrine categories.

Anti-Essential Beliefs: The belief in a straightforward manner conflicts with one or more of Christianity's Essential Documents. For a person to have a belief that belongs to this designation means that they can not accurately be considered Christian.

Anti-Secondary Beliefs: The belief in a straightforward manner conflicts with one or more of Christianity's Secondary Doctrines. Have a belief that belongs to this designation will correspondingly weaken a person's biblical foundation, and make them susceptible to any negative repercussions that such a weakening may entail.

Anti-Miscellaneous Beliefs: The belief in a straightforward manner conflicts with one or more of the Miscellaneous Doctrines. Having a belief that belongs to this designation will not weaken a person's biblical foundation, but will make them susceptible to any negative repercussions that such a conflict may entail.

Scripture Relative

The Scripture Relative classification has three different designations, and indicates to what degree a belief can reasonably be considered to be supported by scripture. All "Anti-" Doctrine Relative classified beliefs are automatically classified into the Un-Scriptural Scripture Relative designation, since the related doctrine(s) that the belief is in conflict with, like all doctrines, are a reflection of scripture.

Scriptural: The belief is in a straightforward manner declared in scripture, or it can be reasonably derived in light of a set of related scripture, and it does not in a straightforward manner contradict any scripture; all scripture taken in proper context.

Non-Scriptural: The belief is not straightforwardly declared in scripture, nor can it be reasonably derived in light of a set of related scripture, and the belief does not in a straightforward manner contradict any scripture; all scripture taken in proper context.

Un-Scriptural: The belief can be reasonably determined to contradict scripture; all scripture taken in its proper context.

Examples

Note: Scriptural references are not cited in the examples, as normally would be the case for the classification process.

Belief: "Sometimes God causes people to be reincarnated and live another life."
Analysis: The belief contradicts a Secondary Doctrine. Since it contradicts a Secondary Doctrine it is automatically Un-Scriptural.
Classification: Anti-Secondary Doctrine, and Un-Scriptural belief
Alternate Classification: Un-Doctrinal, and Un-Scriptural belief

Belief: "Sometimes God tempts people with a sin so that by denying it they can spiritually grow in strength and maturity."
Analysis: This belief is not declared in any doctrine, and does not in a straightforward manner conflict with any doctrines. The belief is not found in, nor can it be reasonably derived from scripture, and it contradicts scripture.
Classification: Doctrine Neutral, and Un-Scriptural belief

Belief: "Jesus had a dog ." (Perhaps recently some kind of archaeological evidence was claimed to be found.)
Analysis: The belief of Jesus having a pet dog is not conveyed by any doctrines in any of the doctrine categories, and the belief does not in a straightforward manner conflict with any doctrines. There is also nothing in scripture about Jesus having a dog, and the belief does not in a straightforward manner conflict with any scripture.
Classification: Doctrine Neutral, and Non-Scriptural belief

Example listing of other beliefs: Open communion, Closed communion, On-going revelation, Baptism by immersion

Just a minute, what about...

After going through all of the preceding information related to doctrine and belief classifications, one important question may seem to remain: Exactly what are the doctrines that make up the various Christian doctrine categories? Please see The Doctrines List page, accessible from the navigation box on the Basic Concepts page.

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