Perhaps they(points of my my soteriology) do, altho i dont use them as dividing lines. I understand soteriology as determining who is “in Christ”, and it need not be an inherently divisive term, which is why I would use the Romans 10 verses as a base line. The other things I believe come with that understanding, or awakening to Jesus Christ as Lord are, in my understanding, a minimal foundation for a believer that comes with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
I am simply communicating my understanding of what I believe constitutes a good place to start- not judging everyone elses soteriology by mine. If I am criticizing anything, it is the tendency to extend soteriology out so far to include oblique doctrines(like the Trinity) in it.
I dont think the basic gospel story of Jesus life, death, burial, resurrection and Lordship is going that far- but as I write I am thinking it could be too far if you want to narrow it down to that basic revelation wherein a person becomes a 'Christian", which is defined by some as simply believing in Jesus.
But where does that stop? Certainly in the early church salvation included submission to the Lordship of the resurrected Christ and an awareness of His propitiatory death on the cross at a minimum.
“For so it pleased the Father to make all fulness dwell in Him and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself by the blood of His cross”… such a simple statement really.
I dont think a systematic doctrine on the godhead existed until a couple hundred years later, when the church began to define itself in terms of doctrinal knowledge rather than in terms of a communally experienced life in the Spirit.
I would hazard a guess that soteriology ought to accurately detect and define a reality of who God is including in the fellowship of His Son’s life in this age. Who are the ecclesia. At what point is someone “saved”(out of Adam- into Christ).
I personally dont think understanding the godhead comes into that at all.
I (personally me, not trying to teach anyone)believe the Bride is the assembled ecclesia of this age, described in Hebrews 12…
22 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of [h]angels, 23 to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, 24 and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks better than the blood of Abel.
I believe the parables about the wedding supper and the foolish virgins etc, refer to the manifestation of the Bride in any given generation, as well as over time throughout this age. She is a tabernacle of God in the Spirit built of living stones. She is “coming down out of heaven” in the same way Jesus was the bread of life “coming down out of heaven”. I think this age is about the first fruits, and the taking of a harvest that wwill be the seed stock of the ultimate harvest of all creation. Thats why the whole creation eagerly awaits the revelation of the children of God(imo).
Thats also why to me, setting up camp around a UR banner tacked onto any version of old wineskin is an error of understanding in terms of what we ought to be seeking out as ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ, stewards of the mysteries of Christ, a kingdom of priests. Every priest is taken from among men to serve them in the things that pertain to God. YHWH separated Levi out to teach the children of Israel to come near to God in an acceptable way “so that I won’t kill them”. Paul talks about acceptable sacrifices in Romans 12, “For by the grace given unto me I exhort that no man esteem himself more highly than he ought- for to each is given a measure of faith”
Everywhere Paul teaches this element of recognizing the body as critical to maturity and fruitfulness. Now, it is like things have been bad so long, this whole essential area of doctrine has been excised from the work because, “Who wants to be accountable to a standard set as high as that”?
One even as I and the Father are one…
Until we all attain to the unity of faith, unto a mature man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of the Son of God…
Its easier to get in a club and just stay there, but thats not the Wedding Supper. Thats not what disciples have been invited to attend. All those who love Him are betrothed to Him in the Bride. Everyone who is hearing Him call is digging deep and getting ready, just in case. I may be sleeping when He calls (long period of inactivity) but if the Bride, “comes down out of heaven”- if some revival or outpouring begins, will I see it? Will I hear it? Will I have interceded for it? Would I leave my cushy life to go to it? These are questions I ask myself, lest the gospel erupt out of theory and into my reality and I run and hide from it when it does.
And if it does, will I miss what God is doing because I am more attached to my systematic theology that to His Spirit moving in a body of priestly brothers and sisters?
The house of Levi lost the priestly commission because they “failed to teach the difference between the holy and the profane” and it went to the house of Zadok. As a result the sons of Levi were left to “minister to the house” but “they cannot come nigh unto me”. The sons of Zadok ministered in the house, in the presence, because"they did not forsake Me in the days of Israels apostasy".
Things are not ok because they have been a certain way for a long time. What is holy to God is what makes us one body, members of one another, as Paul said, “discerning the body”- the failure to do that was causing many to “sleep and be sick among you”. Recognizing the body of Christ is essential. Everyone who is born of God loves the child born of Him.
Setting up “unreal” divisions is sectarianism and is unholy.
I read a lot about the historic moves of God. The great stories like the rise of Methodism, the early Quakers and Shakers and Friends. A fellow named Frank Bartholomew wrote a book about Azusa street, he was a part of it. If his testimony is true God did some marvelous things because of a few praying Christian intercessors, but the work was short lived; Quickly carved up between Trinitarians and Modalists and the water quit flowing as quickly as it had begun because they did not recognize what God is doing. Building a house of prayer for all people or something like that LOL.