One often hears the claim that the differences between the various denominations within Evangelical Protestantism are minor issues and are not important doctrinal differences. This, of course, immediately begs an important question—how are we to adequately answer how we know what is and what is not an important doctrinal disagreement? Furthermore, we know for a fact that this is false; there are many doctrinal disagreements among various Protestant groups that are salvific in nature, not secondary or even tertiary, such as church leadership or exclusive psalmody. Such differences include baptismal regeneration, infant baptism, the nature of the Eucharist (the magisterial Reformers debated one another on this, viewing it as a salvific issue), the nature of justification, the nature of sanctification, the nature of righteousness in justification, eternal security, the nature of the atonement, the intention of the atonement and Christ’s highly priestly intercession, the nature of original sin, whether man has a free-will to accept the gospel, etc. –None—of these, and many other doctrines, are “minor” disagreements; they represent fundamental, salvific differences among Protestants, both historically and in modern times. For instance, if Lutherans are incorrect in teaching baptismal regeneration, are they not guilty, like the Judaizers, guilty of perverting the gospel (cf. Gal 1:6-9)?
Some may charge that LDS have their differences too; yes, that is true, but these differences are not salvific (e.g., whether the translation of the Book of Mormon was “tight” or “loose”); furthermore, at least we have a mechanism to intervene on any theological debate and give authoritative answers—the formal doctrine of Protestantism, sola scriptura, does not help in such issues as the biblical texts are passive and have to be interpreted, and such has, in part, led to the inability of Protestants for almost 500 years, to definitively answer these issues (add to that the fact, discussed frequently on this blog, that sola scriptura is anti-biblical).
Here is a partial listing of the differences between Protestant denominations, many of which affect salvation itself:
· Baptismal regeneration
Here is a partial listing of the differences between Protestant denominations, many of which affect salvation itself:
· Baptismal regeneration