INFRASTRUCTURE IN DOCTRINES

Here is a tight, professor-level summary of the whole document Infrastructure in Doctrines:

This work argues that Scripture itself teaches a hierarchy of doctrines. The Bible does not treat truth as a flat list where every point has equal weight; instead, it distinguishes foundation from superstructure, first principles from maturity, and gospel essentials from matters of order and conscience. Paul explicitly speaks of matters “of first importance” (1 Cor. 15), Jesus speaks of “weightier matters” (Matt. 23:23), and Hebrews 5–6 distinguishes foundation doctrines from growth toward maturity. This means that some errors destroy the gospel itself, some disrupt church order, and some belong to the realm of Christian liberty.

The study shows that Old School Baptists—especially Gilbert Beebe and Samuel Trott—were deeply aligned with this biblical structure. Beebe insists that the apostles’ doctrine is the foundation and the only legitimate test of fellowship—“no more and no less”—and that fearful judgment belongs to those who add to or subtract from that apostolic foundation. Trott equally insists that there are “fixed principles” taught by God, but he warns that churches constantly smuggle in “inferences, explanations, and connecting points” and then treat them as if they were part of the system of salvation itself—thus turning opinions into laws.

Hebrews 6:1–2 is shown to function as a built-in doctrinal map: even very large doctrines (repentance, faith, resurrection, judgment, baptisms, laying on of hands) are called foundational—not because they are unimportant, but because they are starting layers, not the goal. Christians are not meant to endlessly re-lay the foundation, but to build upon it toward maturity. This passage is used to correct both Puritan-style perpetual restarting and careless doctrinal minimalism.

The document then organizes doctrine into a three-tier “Rule of Fellowship”:

1. Gospel Foundation (Tier 1) — Christ, His finished work, grace, justification, Scripture, and the apostolic gospel. Denial here is “another gospel.”

2. Order of the House (Tier 2) — Church order, ordinances, ministry, discipline. Disagreement here does not unchristianize a man, but does prevent shared church fellowship.

3. Liberty and Wisdom (Tier 3) — Disputable matters, applications, and secondary systems (including many eschatological schemes), where conscience and charity must rule.

Finally, the work shows how Beebe and Trott viewed eschatology: as spiritually serious and pastorally important, but dangerous when turned into a system, a program, or a test of fellowship. Both reject the idea that men can “hasten the millennium” by human machinery and treat prophetic schemes as subordinate to the plain certainties of Christ’s return, resurrection, and judgment.

In one sentence:
The book defends a biblical architecture of truth—foundation first, order next, liberty last—and shows that Beebe and Trott fought all their lives against the church’s two great errors: rebuilding the foundation forever, or turning scaffolding into load-bearing walls.