gregoryfl
01-23-2009, 01:32 PM
I have been thinking today quite a bit about a post that A-Rose made, and it brought back memories of my past and where I have come since then. As some of you may know, I was for many years in several different church backgrounds, including Jehovah's Witnesses. That mindset in particular is what was touched in me when I read his post this morning.
It got me to thinking on what I used to believe about unity, and what I see now. Here are some thoughts on this that I hope will offer a more biblical perspective on this subject.
Doctrinal disagreements themselves do not ever cause division, only people do. It is when people make those ideas the basis for separation. Throughout history this sin of division has been falsely justified under the guise of someone's quest for "doctrinal purity." Sounds good, but it is far from it.
One's beliefs about eschatology, which is a big topic of discussion here, or about the nature of the resurrection, or predestination, etc, at worst means that they may need to be straightened out by someone more grounded and mature, and yet at the same time, such a believer is still to be considered a fellow brother or sister in Christ.
Think about it. I can speak for myself that if what I believe is the sole basis of my fellowship, then not only myself, but some of you would not have been able to fellowship with yourself say, five years ago because you now longer hold to a doctrinal position you once held.
One point that A-Rose brought up was unity in the "essentials of the faith." So what about the essential doctrines, say those regarding salvation? Doctrines essential for salvation such as knowing our one Lord rather than a false Christ does not divide one Christian from another Christian, but rather it divides Christians from non-Christians. These essential doctrines, whatever one thinks they are, divide the Church from the world, not one church from another church.
Yet unfortunately today the vast majority of divisions between churches have nothing to do with the essentials of the faith, but rather petty doctrines created by men. Even when there are disagreements about salvation among Christians, that is not grounds for division between one another. Why is that? Well, if one Christian believes salvation is say, by God's doing alone, from his choosing alone, and another Christian believes God only offers us salvation and that it is up to us to choose him, but both are genuinely born again believers, then they are to be recognized as Christians, as believers, as brothers, both of them, even though the one believes the other is mistaken.
This is very scriptural, for you often find Paul dealing with false beliefs that believers were dealing with, yet Paul speaks to such ones as brothers in the Lord, partakers of his grace. He never told believers who were dividing themselves to stay divided, but rather to work their issues out as brothers and sisters, in love.
It is one thing to disagree with a fellow believer, and quite another to give up fellowship with them because of it. Children may and often do disagree with each other about things in a family, but they do not go off and start a new sub-family. They stay and hopefully work things out. They are still considered part of the family. And even if someone has to be put out of the church because they are being divisive, Paul makes it clear that while we would not be intimate with them, we would still warn them "as a brother." They are still part of the spiritual family, even in their state of error. The breaking of fellowship is for their restoration.
Despite all the disagreements, disputes, arguments, etc in the early church, there was still only one church. There was not one church formed out of every disagreement; there was only one church who at times had disagreements, sometimes even serious ones. We have had enough evidence of this false idea of dividing over doctrine, and what a mess we see today. Yet, amid that mess, is the reality that we still only have one visible true body of believers, and to me fighting to make that as visible as possible in how we deal with each other and view each other is one of the most important things we can do.
Ron
It got me to thinking on what I used to believe about unity, and what I see now. Here are some thoughts on this that I hope will offer a more biblical perspective on this subject.
Doctrinal disagreements themselves do not ever cause division, only people do. It is when people make those ideas the basis for separation. Throughout history this sin of division has been falsely justified under the guise of someone's quest for "doctrinal purity." Sounds good, but it is far from it.
One's beliefs about eschatology, which is a big topic of discussion here, or about the nature of the resurrection, or predestination, etc, at worst means that they may need to be straightened out by someone more grounded and mature, and yet at the same time, such a believer is still to be considered a fellow brother or sister in Christ.
Think about it. I can speak for myself that if what I believe is the sole basis of my fellowship, then not only myself, but some of you would not have been able to fellowship with yourself say, five years ago because you now longer hold to a doctrinal position you once held.
One point that A-Rose brought up was unity in the "essentials of the faith." So what about the essential doctrines, say those regarding salvation? Doctrines essential for salvation such as knowing our one Lord rather than a false Christ does not divide one Christian from another Christian, but rather it divides Christians from non-Christians. These essential doctrines, whatever one thinks they are, divide the Church from the world, not one church from another church.
Yet unfortunately today the vast majority of divisions between churches have nothing to do with the essentials of the faith, but rather petty doctrines created by men. Even when there are disagreements about salvation among Christians, that is not grounds for division between one another. Why is that? Well, if one Christian believes salvation is say, by God's doing alone, from his choosing alone, and another Christian believes God only offers us salvation and that it is up to us to choose him, but both are genuinely born again believers, then they are to be recognized as Christians, as believers, as brothers, both of them, even though the one believes the other is mistaken.
This is very scriptural, for you often find Paul dealing with false beliefs that believers were dealing with, yet Paul speaks to such ones as brothers in the Lord, partakers of his grace. He never told believers who were dividing themselves to stay divided, but rather to work their issues out as brothers and sisters, in love.
It is one thing to disagree with a fellow believer, and quite another to give up fellowship with them because of it. Children may and often do disagree with each other about things in a family, but they do not go off and start a new sub-family. They stay and hopefully work things out. They are still considered part of the family. And even if someone has to be put out of the church because they are being divisive, Paul makes it clear that while we would not be intimate with them, we would still warn them "as a brother." They are still part of the spiritual family, even in their state of error. The breaking of fellowship is for their restoration.
Despite all the disagreements, disputes, arguments, etc in the early church, there was still only one church. There was not one church formed out of every disagreement; there was only one church who at times had disagreements, sometimes even serious ones. We have had enough evidence of this false idea of dividing over doctrine, and what a mess we see today. Yet, amid that mess, is the reality that we still only have one visible true body of believers, and to me fighting to make that as visible as possible in how we deal with each other and view each other is one of the most important things we can do.
Ron