I am grateful to crossway and Netgalley.com for an advance review copy of this book. This is a short little book but it is an excellent book in every way. Ortlund sets out the premise that we need theological triage in our day, just as a doctor arriving at an accident would prioritise which patient to treat so we too in days of decline in the Western Church need to know what doctrines should and shouldn't stop us from working with other Christians.
Ortlund does this helpfully by setting out three categories of doctrine, those which every Christian should hold to and which are essential to the Christian faith, the examples of this that he sights are the Virgin Birth and justification through faith alone, helpfully he reminds us that not being able to articulate justification through faith alone at the moment of conversion is a very different category from a believer who knows and denies the doctrine. We should be gentle with the one and perhaps less gentle with the other.
The second category that Ortlund identifies are important doctrines over which Christians may legitimately disagree but which are not essential to the faith. The most common example he cites for this is the practice of baptism either creedobaptism or peadobaptism. Christians throughout history have disagreed on this subject have disagreed on the method and mode of baptism. This is a cause Ortlund argues to divide the church because to not do so would be disingenuous. To be united using a doctrinal minimalism would be confusing both for the ledership and the congregation. However helpfully he calls us back to remember that separation from each other doesn't mean that we are called to throw rocks at one another rather we are called to love one another and look out for one another good even in the midst of difference.
The third category that Ortlund cites are things which have traditionally been called things indifferent, things that are important because they are revealed to us in God's word but things on which salvation doesn't hinge. The examples cited for this are the seven days of Genesis 1 and the thousand years of Revelation 20.
I think the beauty of this book is that it doesn't give any answers, in fact it causes more questions as I read the book I began almost doing my own theological triage, well is the role of women in the church a first order thing or a second order thing as he argues? Do the seven days of Genesis 1 belong in category three or category two? As you read these are the questions you ask and this causes you to question and engage with your own theology that little bit more.
In short, given the days we are living in, given the smallness of many churches certainly in the UK our doctrinal distinctive are becoming less important, we are going to have perform this theological triage more and more often. We are going to have to think well is planting a church of our denomination in a town that has four other gospel churches important or should we go to the area that has no gospel witness at all? You might think the answer to that is straightforward but until we perform this theological triage, until we keep the main thing the main thing sadly the answer may not be as striaght forward as you might hope.
This book serves as the antidote to that thinking, this book calls us to keep the main things the main things and to rejoice in gospel difference when we see it. Every Christian should read this book.
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