RSSChristendom and Union Daniel Howe Lesslie Newbigi…
Christendom and Union
Daniel Howe
Lesslie Newbigin has often made a point that was echoed by D.A. Carson as he lectured on John 17 at this past weekend’s Desiring God Conference in Minneapolis: mission and unity go hand in hand. When mission is taken seriously unity will be pursued.
I would add that while perfect unity has never existed in the church, Christendom presumed its basic oneness - and indeed enforced and furthered it through the calling of counsels. It is the paradox of paradoxes that the kingship of Jesus is now viewed by many as a sectarian issue.
In our own day kings and all in authority will be unable to provide an appropriate response to the kingdom of God until the visible church more closely resembles that present and coming kingdom in its organizational and practical love and union.
Let me boil it down. Like Christendom? Pursue union. More thoughts on how to possibly do this will follow.
W.H. Chellis
October 3rd, 2006 at 2:37 pm
Welcome to the discussion.
Tom
October 3rd, 2006 at 4:39 pm
In my opinion, to pursue union, for its own sake, is a dangerous and mistaken goal.
Union can be a graven image, the same as any other thing besides Christ himself. In the political realm, just ask any Southerner about this!
Jesus said that if he were lifted up, he would draw all men unto himself. He also said, through the Apostle John, that when we see him, we will be like him, for we shall see him as he is.
As Christ is faithfully “lifted up” in the preaching of his gospel, men will be drawn to him. The closer men are drawn to Christ, the closer they will be to each other.As we see more of Christ in the word and sacrament, we will all be more like him, and therefore truly more compatible with each other. Union then will safely follow, without the truth compromised.
Those who are faithfully preachig the gospel, keep it up! Those who are not, need to repent. If they will not repent, it would be best to leave them be.
Let us trust the mighty weapons necessary for spiritual warfare that we have been given by the Spirit of God. Let us never more resort to lesser things, the carnal weapons, that cannot effect the outcome we desire.
Christ is king. let us obey him, do our duty, and trust him for the outcome.
Daniel Howe
October 4th, 2006 at 11:06 am
And Jesus prays that “they may be one, even as you and I are one”. Like calling on government to recognize Christ, pursuing union is a matter not of eschatology (what Christ will do in his own time) but of obedience (what Christ calls us to do at this time). Book after book, the New Testament calls us to be one in practical ways. I hope to explore this a little later. I would only add that if union is pursued in obedience to Christ it is no graven image that we worship but the living and true God. If God is one, his people should be one. If there are many “gods” (1 Cor. 8:5) then there will be many peoples, and the postmoderns are right. Our oneness testifies to his oneness.
MarkPele
October 8th, 2006 at 9:04 pm
We do pursue union, but we do not pursue union at the expense of the truth of God and the scriptures. We earnestly desire to unite with other Christians, but we must only do so when we can find common ground.
To pursue unity at the expense of doctrine is either to pronounce the doctrine not worth keeping, or to pronounce unity so important that it should be blindly sought.
So, which is it? Do we believe that Exclusive Psalmody, a capella singing and the Mediatorial Kingship of Christ are pure doctrine worth keeping, or do we let the torch go out on these things so that we can unite with the OPC, ARP, PCA and other like-minded bodies? If we give up the infallibility of scripture, we could probably unite with the PCUSA.
Thomas Muldoon
October 29th, 2006 at 11:07 pm
It is sad when the secular U. S. Army seems more unified in doing good works than some Christians.
Jesus prayed “…that they all may be one (John 17).”
The Army is off building hospitals and schools in the Middle East and Africa in the hope that Muslims who see this will hate the United States less.
I find that serious Christians who get on a blog spot like this one have little sense of American identity, whereas your average Evangelical or Southern Baptist has a strong sense of American identity. Such Evangelicals are providing many of the American troops in the Middle East, and their parents and friends want to encourage them.
How did our society get to the point where the Army tries to do what the Gospel actually does when preached properly? My joke is that next the American government will authorize our troops to put air-conditioning in hell, because, after all, “those people are suffering.”
We need to fall on our knees before our heavenly Father to ask Him to strengthen our churches and remove the perversion from our land. But it’s all right to be inspired by the way the
people in our secular Army work together for the honor of the United States of America.