The 5 Concentric Cirlces

A few months ago my world was rocked by an amazing Professor. Bill Temple has since become a guide and mentor for me. His enormous amounts of world evangelism and travel has given him the well rounded view of a righteous walk with God. Not liberal, but not a fundamentalist.

After one of our classes we were witting around chatting about doctrinal concepts, when we began to talk about the "Essentials". What were in fact the essentials to salvation. Bill took that as a cue to pick up a marker and walk over to the dry erase board.

He drew 5 concentric circles. He labeled them from inner to outer 1. Essentials 2. Orthodoxy 3. Important 4. Unimportant 5. Speculative.

He asked by friend and I to rattle off a few Christian doctrines and to place them in their appropriate circle. For the most part we agreed, but there other we couldn't agree on. I felt that tithing was Orthodox, while my buddy felt it was important. We began to discuss the doctrine of tithing and where it should go in the chart. All the while, Bill looked on. He knew he had us right where he wanted us.

"You 2 are acting like the rest of the church! Take a look at the circles again. Notice that 95% of items you placed, you agreed on. But that pesky 5% has you all hung up over each other. Why not glory in the fact that you have a 95% agreement, instead of bickering over the other 5%?"

Why? Why do you ask? Because thats the way our forefathers did it! They argued and bickered and backbit and got all hot under the collar over the 5% and so am I!

How ridiculous does that sound? Bill was ultimately right. Jordan and I had our essentials listed exactly alike. We had all but one listed alike in the Orthodox category. Why was that 5 % so important? Well... it really isn't. Essentially what is important is that we maintain personal convictions over these matters, and that we leave them as such... PERSONAL CONVICTIONS!

I encourage you to do the same. Break out the dry erase board and draw your circles. Put your thoughts down into those categories. Not because your Pastor said that's where it belongs, but because you yourself have been convinced by the Word of God and the workings of the Holy Ghost.