Here's a recent email response to someone asking about the importance of doctrine and choosing a church:
I would agree with what the pastor said - that there will always be
differences of theology in a particular congregation. Yet (I'm sure he
would agree) there is a basic "theology" that must be believed if
someone is even to be considered a Christian. The Apostles' Creed was
one historical effort to express that. This creed was often confessed
when someone was baptized. As another example, when someone joins a
PCA church, they take five membership vows at a public worship
service. These, I believe, are a basic, biblical summary of what it
means to be a Christian.
These vows are basically, 1) Do you
believe you're a sinner, helpless to save yourself from God's just
wrath? (i.e., Rom 3:9-12, etc.); 2) Do you trust in Christ alone to
save you from God's wrath? (John 3:36, 14:6, Acts 4:12, Rom 3:21-31,
etc); 3) Do you now resolve, with humble dependence upon the grace of
the Holy Spirit, to seek to live a life fitting for a follower of
Christ? (Eph 2:8-10, Rom 12:1-2, Mt 28:18-20, etc.); 4) + 5) Do you
promise to support the Church in its worship and work to the best of
your ability? Do you promise to submit yourself to the government &
discipline of the church, and promise to diligently pursue its purity
and peace? (Heb 10:25, Eph 4-6, Mt 18, Heb 13:7, etc.)
To
summarize: A Christian is one who agrees with the Bible that he is a
sinner, that Christ is the only Savior and Lord, who trusts in Him
alone for salvation, and submits to His Lordship as expressed through
His church.
But what is the church called to do? Christ
commands His Church to make disciples by means of baptizing them in the
Triune name, and teaching them
to obey all He has commanded. Now,
this includes not only obedience to His moral law, but also to the
faith taught in His Word (Rom 1:5). He commands us to believe His
Word, and to obey it (all in dependence upon His saving and renewing
grace!). The Bible
is a big book, and pastors are to follow the apostles' example and
teach the "whole counsel of God" (cf. Acts 20:27) - how Christ is
revealed from Genesis to Revelation (Luke 24:44-47).
As the
Church, we are also called to pursue not only a Christian unity of love
and peace with one another (Eph 4:1-3), but also a unity of "the
faith," a doctrinal unity (Eph 4:4-16, esp. v 13). So how does this
all fit together at the local church? In the PCA, those seeking
membership take the vows I mentioned above - a basic, biblical summary
of what it means to be a Christian. In the process, they submit as
disciples of Christ the King to the "government & discipline of the
church," which includes the biblical teaching of that church.
But
there is higher standard for those ordained to leadership/teaching in
the Church. Christ's Church is to be governed by elders - including a
class of elders who teach & preach (1 Tim 3, Titus 1, 1 Tim 5:17).
All elders are to be sound in doctrine (Titus 1:9). In the PCA and the
historic Presbyterian Church, we have doctrinal standards to measure
this, which we believe are a faithful summary of biblical teaching,
subordinate to the ultimate authority of the Bible alone. As you know,
these are called The Westminster Standards. Every
elder, as he is ordained in the PCA, takes the following vow: "Do you
sincerely receive and adopt the Confession of Faith and the Catechisms
of this Church, as containing the system of doctrine taught in the Holy
Scriptures; and do you further promise that if at any time you find
yourself out of accord with any of the fundamentals of this system of
doctrine, you will on your own initiative, make known to your
Presbytery the change which has taken place in your views since the
assumption of this ordination vow?" This is what makes the PCA a
"confessional church."
To
summarize: The church is to pursue doctrinal unity and maturity, as
the fullness of the Christ-centered Scriptures are taught by men who
are sound in apostolic doctrine, and as the church is governed
according to that doctrine.
Now more directly to your
question regarding which church a Christian should unite with. The
basic standard is the Gospel. Is the Gospel / Word of God taught there
faithfully? Are the sacraments administered in agreement with the
Scriptures? Does the church faithfully shepherd its members? The
Protestant Reformers summarized these as the three "marks" of the
church - Word, Sacrament, and discipline. Yet among various
Gospel-preaching churches, there are degrees of purity. The Westminster Confession puts it this way: "This catholic [i.e., universal] Church hath been sometimes more, sometimes less visible. (Rom. 11:3–4, Rev. 12:6,14)
And particular Churches, which are members thereof, are more or less
pure, according as the doctrine of the Gospel is taught and embraced,
ordinances administered, and public worship performed more or less
purely in them. (Rev. 2–3, 1 Cor. 5:6–7)" [25.4]
Ultimately, our consciences must be informed by the Word of God as we seek to unite with a church as members; and we
must make such decisions prayerfully - always seeking the peace and
purity of the larger body of Christ.
Hope this is helpful to you. Please feel free to follow up with other questions.
