I’ve been chatting with a number of well-known authors about “tests of fellowship,” that is, doctrines that you have to get right to go to heaven. I’ve been repeatedly astonished to learn that some of our preachers actually insist that any doctrinal error will damn. To argue this, they rely most commonly on 2 John 9, which condemns anyone who does not abide in the “teaching of Christ.”
The ninth verse of 2 John is very likely the most abused verse in Church of Christ debate today. What does it really mean?
(2 John 9) Anyone who runs ahead and does not continue in the teaching of Christ does not have God; whoever continues in the teaching has both the Father and the Son.
