Evangelicals & unity

Evangelicalism is not a slippery slope to theological fluffiness; it is a path of wisdom and proportion. For evangelicals do not claim that the saving essential truths of the gospel are the only truths that matter, but that the gospel alone is our unifying anchor.

We seek to believe and uphold all that Scripture teaches. After all, we are people who believe in the supremacy of Scripture, and it is only consistent that we should seek to have a deeply thought-through Scriptural view of everything. But we do not believe that every truth is equally important or equally salvific. We are not saved by our knowledge of obscure doctrines. We do not find them the source of our unity. Thus, we hold each matter with the weighting Scripture gives, neither diminishing its primary truths nor elevating the others.

But if evangelicals seek a manifested spiritual unity, what should they make of all our denominations? They cannot believe that the unity Jesus desires comes from the organisational uniting of denominations, for true unity is not merely structural. They will surely seek to purify the church by the Word of God, but they will not dream of a single, united evangelical church or denomination.