Were the apostles in full agreement on all doctrine? 

Question:

Were the apostles in full agreement on all doctrines? 

Answer:

"Doctrine" means teachings. Jesus told his apostles, "But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said that He takes of Mine and will disclose it to you" (John 16:13-15). Therefore, what the apostles taught all came from the Holy Spirit. God doesn't tell one person one thing and another person something else. One of the unique features of the Bible is that despite being written by over 40 people over a 1,500 year period, the writings are consistent. You would expect this when the source of the material comes from the God who cannot lie (Titus 1:2). Paul mentioned that even the words were selected for them. "Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words" (I Corinthians 2:12-13).

People who want to claim that there was a disagreement over the teachings point to Paul's rebuke of Peter.

"But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. For prior to the coming of certain men from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles; but when they came, he began to withdraw and hold himself aloof, fearing the party of the circumcision. The rest of the Jews joined him in hypocrisy, with the result that even Barnabas was carried away by their hypocrisy. But when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in the presence of all, 'If you, being a Jew, live like the Gentiles and not like the Jews, how is it that you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews?'" (Galatians 2:11-14).

Paul charged Peter and the other brethren with hypocrisy. In other words, Peter was teaching one thing but acting differently in his life. It is Peter who had first taught the Gentiles in Acts 10 and stayed with them for a few days (Acts 10:48), which implies that he ate with them. Peter also argued that they were saved just as the Jews were saved (Acts 11:17). And when false teachers came out of Jerusalem claiming that the Gentiles had to live by the law of Moses, Peter stood against them (Acts 15:7-11). We aren't told how he was pressured into isolating himself from the Gentiles, but Peter never denied that Paul was stating the truth. He failed to live by his own teachings, but his teachings were correct because the Holy Spirit ensured the gospel was taught correctly.

Therefore, there is no record of differences in doctrine between the apostles. Such could not happen with the Holy Spirit delivering the doctrine through the apostles.

Question:

Thank you for answering my question. I have another question.

If all of the apostles were in full agreement on all teachings of the Bible, why are there so many Christians in fellowship with people who believe in false doctrine? Shouldn’t Christians agree on all of the teachings of the Bible? Some Christians believe in theological triage to stop division between Christians and to maintain unity among Christians, but I think this concept might be wrong because all of the apostles agreed on all of the teachings of the word of God. Some people teach that "once saved, always saved" and "original sin" are secondary issues, not primary ones. I disagree with that because both doctrines give people licenses to sin. The whole point of what I'm saying is that Christians should agree on all biblical teachings. I’ve preached with people who believe in "original sin" and "once saved, always saved," and I realized that it was wrong to preach with them because they are spreading false doctrine to sinners.

Answer:

"But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron" (I Timothy 4:1-2).

"For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths" (II Timothy 4:3-4).

Just because the Holy Spirit guided the apostles, it doesn't mean everyone received the same guidance. There will always be people who think they know better than the experts. There will always be people who will want their desires met regardless of what God says on the matter.

Even during the times of the apostles, there was a struggle with false teachers (Acts 15; I Timothy 1:18-20; 6:20-21; II Timothy 2:16-18; I John 4:1-4). Why would you conclude that such a struggle to remain faithful would not continue to this day?

While Christians should be united, the reality is that Satan will always pull people away.