The Litmus Test

About four hundred years ago, a German theologian named Rupertus Meldenius, was frustrated with the infighting and backbiting in the church. And he said something so profound that it has passed the test of time.

In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity.

Yes, the church has its theological non-negotiables. Jesus is the son of God. He lived a sinless life; died a substitutionary death on the cross; and was raised from the dead. There is no room for disagreement on essential theological truths. But there are lots of peripheral theological issues about which we'll disagree. By peripheral I don't mean unimportant. But they aren't essential for salvation. And in those areas we need a degree of liberty! And in all things, we need charity. Love is the litmus test. Not our systematic theology!

From Mark Batterson

PS: One thing I love about Mark is his problems. They in addition to the Services on Sunday, they have two on Saturday Nights. The big problem he has is they are both too full. He is begging people to consider coming another time. There's standing room only in the services. Fire folks are giving him hassles.

Oh, to have that problem.

Mark is the son in Law of a long passed pastor and Friend, Bob Schmidgall of Calvary Temple in Naperville IL. An AG Church. We used to have Jewish Folks call up during high holy days and see when services would be. They were incensed that we called ourselves a "Temple". It didn't dawn on them the CALVARY part. That's why before Pastor Schmidgall died they changed the name to Calvary Church.