Primary and Secondary Issues in Christianity
What are primary and secondary issues in Christianity? There is a difference between doctrines that are required for salvation (primary issues) and those that are not required for salvation (secondary issues).
Primary Issues
Topics like the trinity, salvation by faith alone, Christ’s substitutionary atonement, the virgin birth, sinlessness of Christ, Christ’s death, burial, resurrection, ascension and future bodily return are primary issues.[1]
Secondary Issues
Below is a list of some secondary issues.
Commonly Debated Topics Among Conservative Christians[2]
The above list simply focuses on things that people in a typical conservative church in America today might disagree about. It deals with theological and ethical issues only. It leaves out topics conservatives usually agree on like their stance against homosexuality and transgender rights. And it avoids practical topics of disagreement seeker-friendly vs. believer-based sermons, contemporary vs. traditional worship, etc. It is clearly not exhaustive. Yet, amazingly, there are 97,387,593,162,817,536 ways to hold that list of options.[3] This means that the odds of me finding somebody who agrees on every point as I do on that list is a whopping one in 97 quadrillion!
Need for Charity in Secondary Issues
Most Christians simply aren’t aware of how much disagreement there is around them—hence the need for grace in these “gray areas” (Rom. 14).
I’m convinced most churchgoers in my denomination (Calvary Chapel) would be shocked to hear that many giants of the faith like C. S. Lewis, Billy Graham, Tim Keller, John Stott and Alister McGrath believe/believed in evolution.[4] Then there are those who changed their position: Norm Geisler is a Young Earther who became an Old Earther; R.C. Sproul was an Older Earther who became a Young Earther. Are these heretics? Certainly not!
If and when we levy pejorative attacks against other Christians or defame their character because they hold a different view, I believe we have climbed over the safety rail established by Scripture. Not only do we do injury to others, but we risk injury to ourselves. There is a warning of loss of rewards (Mt. 12:46). There are also fewer ministry opportunities after being rightly labeled a sour Christian who cannot “play well in the sandbox” with other Christians. Extreme dogmatism might work in a smaller congregation where people are already aligned to one view of creation. But in a larger congregation with representatives of other views, charity is needed. Therefore, it is important to have charity and gentleness towards our brothers and sisters who have different views from our own.[5]
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- For more on primary and secondary issues see Norman Geisler and Ron Rhodes, Conviction Without Compromise (Eugene, OR: Harvest House Publishers, 2008). ↑
- Ethical portion adapted from Norman L. Geisler, Christian Ethics (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2010). ↑
- The formula I used for mathematically calculating the number of possible combinations is: 3 x 4 x 2 x 2 x 3 x 3 x 3 x 4 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 3 x 3 x 3 x 3 x 4 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 4 x 3 x 4 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 3 x 2 x 3 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 = 97,387,593,162,817,536. ↑
- Deborah Haarsma in Ken Ham et al., Four Views on Creation, 126, 147. ↑
- I’m convinced this charity will play itself out in meekness and humility. The Bible says it is important to have meekness, humility and charity towards unbelievers (1 Pet. 3:15). How much more should we have these with fellow believers! (Mt. 11:29) ↑