BIBLICAL BALANCE
ARTICLE
There is much confusion today over doctrinal issues which are essential to obtaining and living a spiritual, healthy Christian life. Some are more crucial than others, and are absolutely essential to genuine faith. These doctrines are crucial regarding the Person of God and the gospel of salvation. To believe outside of these essential doctrines is to be heretical. Less essential doctrines can allow for more leniency regarding doctrinal differences. This means a wider latitude for differences in doctrinal interpretation, while still remaining within the acceptable boundaries of orthodox evangelical Christendom. One purpose of Understanding His Way Ministry is to bring scriptural clarity and doctrinal balance. What a blessing it would be if scholarly Christians and Bible teachers would earnestly seek doctrinal, biblical balance where it could be found instead of taking a belligerent and militant posture. God is patient and generous with believers regarding their doctrinal differences, when these differences are peripheral to God’s main cause and character. Often very
scholarly and spiritual men have taken adamant positions with their theological
differences, yet each has been mightily used of the Lord because they agreed on essential tenets of the faith—such as God’s holiness and the way of salvation. However, one thing that never ceases to amaze me is how exceptional scholars with a grasp of hermeneutics can adopt such extreme imbalance regarding certain doctrines as does render them tragically wrong in some particular theological area. It’s amazing how even in some whole Bible commentaries, written by one author, this author actually unbeknowingly contradicts his own doctrinal position, previously made in an earlier passage’s interpretation.
The sad thing is that many of these opposing doctrines could be brought into biblical balance if all the pertinent Scriptures were weighed in light of all others. In other words, let Scripture interpret Scripture. Sadly what often occurs is that one Scripture is excluded to the adoption of another in order to accommodate a particular theological camp or denomination. This is why presenting biblical balance is one of the main thrusts of Understanding His Way Ministry and is the reason for authoring the book Biblical Balance in a Day of Extremes.