The Jenga Analogy

Imagine a set of Jenga blocks each with a different doctrine of the Christian faith written on them. One might say "penal substitution" and another might say the "inerrancy of scripture" or "the bodily resurrection of Jesus" or the "virgin birth of Christ." These jenga blocks form a tower, and this tower is the Christian life. At the top of the tower you might have things like eschatology and mode of baptism, and at the bottom you have your more central beliefs that the other beliefs build on. For instance you have "inerrancy of scripture", and "salvation by faith", and "penal substitution", towards the bottom of the tower.

You could possibly remove a couple of these blocks from various places on the tower, especially the blocks towards the top, and continue to live the Christian life. With each removal of a doctrine the tower gets less and less stable. The very bottom row of blocks are practically impossible to remove because of how important they are to the Christian faith. This is why it is so important to know what we believe. To study God. The more things we fail to believe about God, whether through lack of knowledge or denial, the less capable we are of living the Christian life and the more unstable we become.