Christian 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.

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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