The vital issue facing believers in these days is to discern what constitutes the ridge. Christians are called to move in unity but, that can never justify compromising truth. However, the zeal for truth in essentials must be tempered by charity in those things that are not certain. Even when we are convinced that an individual or party are mistaken we should not descend into vituperation and ad hominem attacks, which has been a regrettable tendency throughout Church history, but we should assume the good will and sincerity of others while recognising that being sincere does not guarantee being right. (I fully appreciate that concepts such as 'truth' and 'right and wrong' are currently unfashionable: it is but a passing fashion.)
I see the ridge as being essentially on the line of our understanding of what the Bible is. Is the Bible in its entirety the inspired Word of God containing the complete revelation of what the Church needs to know? Or is it a basically human document that might here and there contain useful insights into God and His dealings with humanity? I am convinced that the first is the only consistent and tenable one. We must be clear that this is no simplistic literalism but it demands intelligent study dependant on the Holy Spirit, with an understanding of literary forms, context and honest scholarship. There is a vast resource of Biblical study that confirms the integrity of the Scriptures: which can robustly withstand the unbelief of the past 200 years that basically is a new re-statement of the age old question:'Has God said?'
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