“Stop Calling Them Names” - John Piper's appreciation for fundamentalists and the problem of theological slurs

I would, however, encourage many to take a quick look at exactly what they separate over. Is it truly fundamental issues, or is it secondary or tertiary issues that have been elevated by being over-emphasized?

That noted, I have to admit that I do separate from many who, in my view, have too consistently elevated secondary issues to the status of fundamentals. If everything is a fundamental, than nothing is.

Deep down, we all tend towards Universal Applicationism. That is the sense that for every ethical decision (application of Bible principles), there is one correct answer that everyone (universal) ought to live by.

And you conclude, "No, we can't do that," and I conclude "Yes, we can do that." One of us is wrong. We might not be totally sure who is right and who is wrong, but one of us is. If you say "Yes" when the right answer is "No," you're a libertine. And if you say "No" when the right answer is "Yes," you're a legalist.

It's tough, when the other side is judging you, to see their effort to apply Bible and live by it as a Christian good.

Personally, I’ve always believed in a combination of both particular and universal applicationism. I.e., there are some small number of principles that are clear enough to apply in a universal sense, while many or most are particular. However, as I examine examples I thought to be universal, I realize that some I have always accepted as universal may not be since the assumptions/background are not as clear as I thought. Hence, even though I haven’t given up on the idea that some universal applications exist, I have come more and more to see most of them as particular and fewer of them as universal.

Maybe there are no universal applications of biblical principles, but I haven’t yet been 100% convinced of that.