ALONE WITH GOD     

Suggested Solutions

Plainly, the division was the fruit of the envy and strife. As such it was an offensive and dangerous thing, being a violation of the Scriptural obligation to unity. But these Christians only huddled together in little groups. They all attended the same church and ate the Lord's Supper together: They worshiped in one company and in one place; and held to one Christian faith. All recognized each other as Christians.

Really they were so far ahead of the twentieth century standard of unity that one almost asks why the Apostle did not commend them instead of blaming them.

Do you think that if they had organized these different groups, and put them under vows never to believe what the others did, and never to associate with and fellowship with the others; and never to worship with the other groups—except possibly on rare occasions—if they had done these things, would that have made matters better and won the Apostle's commendation ?

If they had organized their divisions, and made them permanent for all time so that they could not be dissolved, but would be upheld by the courts—thus maintaining everlasting disunity in the body of Christ —would Paul have liked that better,

And yet that is exactly what we have done with the divisions of modern Christendom. I ask you, does it make a division more Scriptural to organize it so that its members can never return to their former state of unity? Does it sanctify that division which the Apostle condemned to adopt vows never to come to agreement with other Christians about Christian doctrine ? That is just what we have done in organizing modern denominationalism on the basis of the creeds. We have petrified division and made it a permanent thing.

In business matters and public life men have accustomed themselves to clear thinking and to facing reality fearlessly. Why not accustom ourselves to the apparently revolutionary idea—which is yet quite simple, and logical—that we can never have the visible, organic unity for which Christ prayed while we maintain the denominational divisions in Christendom ?

The second formal step therefore to restore the unity of ancient Christianity is the total abolition of all formal organic denominational divisions among Christian people; not to merge the denominations, but to abolish them is our duty.

This will doubtless sound like anarchy to those dear old souls who have never thought through the inescapable evils of denominationalism. It will shock those who love the historic organizations of men better than the blessed unity of the body of Christ. It will seem revolutionary to the stand patters who spend their time looking back to the good old days of the past. But to all such we would say there is a true place for conservatism in the kingdom of God. Let us look back to the good old days when the church had visible organic unity. Let us remember that the denominations are only a comparatively recent development in the two thousand years history of the church. All signs point to their eventual abolition and the gathering of God's people once again into the blessed peace and unity of the ancient church.

Really there is nothing to fear in such a proposal. All that was good in denominationalism will be transferred to the church in unity, while the defects of division will be abolished. Quakers will bring their blessed " inner light. " Baptists will bring their beautiful Christian democracy. Presbyterians will bring their granite character of faithfulness to the truth at all costs. Methodists will bring their evangelistic shout of victory. Into the glorious church in unity will be poured the vast spiritual treasure which has made the record of each denomination glorious in the modern history of the church. Then will be fulfilled the words of Christ: "He that will lose his life shall save it. " And the Christian denominations which shall lose their individual organic lives, sacrificed to the splendid age-old ideal of unity, will save them in the spiritual treasures and gracious influences which they shall pour into the mighty stream of Christian life now Mowing on in unity to touch the shores of all lands and of all times with the characteristic Christian values which they have discovered during their historic development.

That this is not merely the dream of some wildeyed fanatic may be seen by the following quotation from Systematic Theology by Dr. Miner Raymond, D.D., a noted Methodist theologian, and sometime Professor in Garret Biblical Institute. He says: " The Christian church will, in some sense, be one. The above is equivalent to an affirmation that the Christian religion shall become universal—a religion prevailing over the whole surface of the globe— and in this view the question naturally arises, will the Christian church itself be one? Will all sects disappear? Will all unite in one organization ? Will all believers profess one and the same faith? We answer, The church will be one in some sense. This is inferable from our Lord's prayer, 'that they all may be one, as thou, Father, art in me and I in thee, that they also may be one in us; that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one.' The union most manifestly intended in this prayer is in the spirit which the believer possesses. In another place our Lord said, 'If a man love me he will keep my words, and the Father will love him, and we will come unto him and make our abode with him.' The abiding presence of the Holy Trinity in the hearts of the children of God is that which constitutes the oneness of God's people. But this must have an exponent; it must in some way manifest itself; and this manifestation, we understand from our Lord's prayer, is the world's demonstration of the divinity of Christ's mission; 'that they all may be one, as thou, Father, art in me and I in thee, that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. I in them and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them as thou hast loved me.' In any age of the world, or in any part of it, among any people, in any condition of life, wherever and whenever a child of God manifests the spirit that is in him, unbelievers are convinced and believers are attracted. When the children of God recognize each other by the manifested spirit of the household, they are instantly one in the goodly fellowship of the saints. The bar to fellowship is want of opportunities for recognition. Denominational associations restrict intercourse within their own circles, and Christians of different sects fail to recognize each other for want of acquaintance. It is therefore only needful that those division walls which prevent personal intercourse, should be broken down, to secure the oneness in the church for which our Savior prayed. It is not needful that all should be so well informed as to see the whole truth as it is, and thus come to be of one opinion on all subjects. Christian fellowship can subsist among people of different opinions. Beyond all question, the increase of knowledge and the lapse of time will bring Christians nearer together than they have ever yet been; and if the common interpretation given to the prophecy that in that day 'the watchmen shall see eye to eye' be the true interpretation, then will the church be one in more senses than we now anticipate" (pp. 488-490).

Such a prospect is so grand and inspiring that it would seem as if the soul of every Christians must thrill to it. Then shall be consummated a movement already felt, when Luther shall be the saint of all evangelical Christendom, and not of the Lutherans alone; when Wesley shall stand for all Christians, and not alone for the Methodists; and so with Calvin and the rest.

But if any man will be sad, let him be very sad; for the past is forever behind us; and it can never be resurrected. The glory of the denominational systems is past. Thoughtful Christians acknowledge this everywhere. Gloomily they tell you that the great communions are not what they once were. Whether we hope for it or dread it, the reshaping of evangelical Christianity proceeds as inexorably as the earth 'B turning on its axis. As surely as the sunrise comes, the mighty currents of history are carrying us into a new country. Let us have faith in God and believe that the future shall be so much better than the past that there will be no comparison. If we are aged let us pray if God will that we may live to see that holy day of the church's jubilee.

Must not the church have an organization? Surely. Must not the sea have a bed, and boundaries? Must not the lightning have a track through the clouds t Must not old earth have a certain path through the vast oceans of infinite space 7 The answer to all this is, yes. Yet we have very little that we can do about it.

Human efforts to organize the mystical body of Christ have wrought almost infinite injury and harm. When will Christian people ever see this ? The church is the body of Christ; as such he is capable of organizing and forming it. The very least we have to do with it the better for all concerned. This is a fundamental spiritual truth which seems to have escaped almost all of the modern advocates of unity. They fail to see that any organization which men make will be a mere human organization to which spirituaI Christians will no more owe obedience than they do to the Standard Oil Company or the Pennsylvania Railroad If those organizations ever enroll us as servants they may force obedience from us, but it will never be because they have any spiritual jurisdiction over us as Christians in matters of religious faith.

In the Middle Ages there were persons who got possession of children and then cruelly molded their bodies into freakish shapes in order to make money by exhibiting them as curiosities. This is what we attempt to do with the body of Christ whenever we try to mold and form it by human organization.

Fortunately, however, the body of Christ has too much vitality to be molded into the wild, strange, morbid, erratic, and freakish things that men try to make of it. Some of the believers escape, therefore disunity is inevitable with every such effort.

Why should a human organization of Christ's body seem to be a distorted and abnormal thing ? It seems perfectly in order to organize clubs, bands, societies, corporations, and the like, why not the church of our Lord? Because clubs, corporations, and so forth, are purely human organizations; and a human type of organization befits them well; but the church of Jesus is a divine body, and human organization can only tend to distract and divide it.

Human organization and government provoke division and strife. Always there will be some spiritual person whose loyalty and allegiance will be to the spiritual body and not to its artificial imitation in the human corporation.

This great truth so fundamental to Christian unity is well set forth by the apostle Paul: "And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healing, helps, governments, diversities of tongues" (I Cor. 12: 28).

I can well imagine that this doctrine will make a furore among some of those who are great sticklers for order in the church. It would even seem that some people would rather have a dead baby, quiet and orderly—and dignified—than a crying baby that is also quite likely to do things we dislike to see done.

I shall be asked how the practical business of the church could ever be carried on in such a system.

To begin with, it is perfectly all right to organize the agencies of the church according to the very best examples of systematic and orderly management of business. We have divine authority for this.

When the Greek-speaking Jews complained because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration, the apostles committed the matter to the church— "and the saying pleased the whole multitude i.e. "multitude of the disciples" (see verse 2) " and they chose Stephen [and six others] " (Acts, sixth chapter). Notice that the church, and not the apostles, chose them. And the Gentile churches appointed a committee to bear their gifts to the poor saints at Jerusalem (I Cor. 16: 3; II Cor. 8: 19, 23).

This is ample authority for organizing and managing efficiently such bodies as missionary societies, church schools, publishing plants, and the like, for which a denominational organization is usually considered essential.

But one can search in vain for any evidence that the apostolic church was organized as a human corporation in the sense that denominations are organized today.

The apostolic church was organized by the inward urge of the Spirit of God, which led men to undertake the work of preaching and the like, and led the believers to recognize and encourage their call. Where the believers could not sense the existence of the call by the instinct of the indwelling Spirit there was not much danger involved in allowing such a person to exercise himself in some other way till his calling became manifest to the sanctified judgment of the assembly of believers.

The church can only regain her lost visible unity by rallying around our Lord Jesus Christ. In the past there have been cries to rally around this doctrine or that creed, or to rally to this or that battlecry. Now the call is to come alone to Jesus Christ. "The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and UNTO HIM SHALL THE GATHERING OF THE PEOPLE BE" (Gen. 49:10).

Doctrine is very important; but more important it is to get back to the supreme Person, who is the source of all true doctrine. He has said, "I am the WAY, the TRUTH, and the LIFE " When all Christendom gets back to him it will be one. There will then be plenty of time to compare and study doctrines, when the clamor of debate has given place to the silence of the humble and earnest pupils in the school of Christ.

Most advocates of Christian unity seem to leave such a person pretty much at a loss. Most of these advocates evidently expect Christian unity through some form of merger of present denominational bodies; therefore about all any Christian who feels convicted about unity can do is piously to hope for his denomination to merge with some other, and for yet others to merge with that, so that sometime in the dim and distant future—long after the death of all of us, perhaps—the dream of ages will be realized.

This lack of focus and practical applicability in the doctrine of unity as generally preached has tended to lend an air of dreamy idealism and impracticability to it; and to make people regard its advocacy as a rather academic discussion of a far off ecclesiastical utopia.

But by having due regard to the principles previously enunciated any Christian who feels the least constraint upon his heart to obey the will of his Lord upon this subject can immediately, and with the greatest ease, step back altogether into the Scriptural unity of the ancient New Testament church.

Remember, that the great thing is to disarm oneself from all that can divide one from all Christians. Note also that one cannot disarm his brothers; he can only disarm himself. But when he has done that, the war is over so far as he is concerned.

In other words, when the individual Christian renounces—as a formal obligation, even if he still believes their doctrines—all written denominational creeds which divide him from other Christians; and steps out of the organized denomination which separates him from all other Christians, then he has at one step gone back to the unity of the ancient church, provided that at the same time he piously and devoutly maintains his membership in the mystical body of Christ.

When a group of such persons step out of creeds and denominations they can conduct a simple service together which excludes no Christian in the whole world; and they can assemble in a body where the Holy Spirit has complete right of way to organize the believers by the urge of the Holy Ghost into those types of activity which best exalt Christ and glorify God.

Will not such a goup be a sect? They will not, because they will not be separated—by their own act, although possibly by the act of others—from any true Christian in the whole world. They will erect no bar of division against their brethren. If their brethren continue to erect bars against them they have no responsibility in the matter whatever.

Such persons and groups are just as completely back into the unity of the apostolic church as it is possible to be. They have nothing for which to wait.

I am in America. I am in America just as much as my grandfather ever was, just as much as I ever will be. I might be wiser, richer, more spiritual, but I can never be more thoroughly and utterly in America than I now am. And the persons who have dropped creeds and denominations and who abide in Christ alone, worshiping him in assemblies that have renounced all human government, are just as much in the unity of the apostolic church as were the Christians of the first century. They have nowhere else to go, and nothing else to do to achieve unity so far as they are concerned.

Such persons and such groups have already anticipated the final state of the church. For them the long night of division has ended and on the mountaintop of Mount Zion they see all Christians as brothers; and they foresee a time when all spiritual Christians shall likewise desert the creeds and divisions which separate and scatter Christ's people and abide alone in him, in the glorious unity of the apostolic church.