![]() ![]() None of these points of division are easy, but all of them presuppose one thing: a relationship between those dividing. In looking at the New Testament, I found one very clear reason for dividing and two that are not so clear. As I looked at division in the Scripture, I chose to focus on the New Testament, for this is the age we are in and our life and practice as a church arises from the teachings of unity found there. I talked with quite a few people about it, prayed about it and read about it. This is a very difficult topic and I spent much more time mulling over this than over the sermon on unity. ![]() In light of that someone is likely to say, unity is fine and good, and a worthy goal to strive for but, must we preserve unity at all cost? May we not reach a point where we must say, enough is enough, and sunder? What happens if a relationship breaks, for whatever reason? What does the Bible have to say about this topic? We also talked about how difficult it is to attain unity, because it demands sacrifice and commitment. Unity can only exist where relationships exist. We saw that Christian unity is what draws people to Christ. In my previous sermon we considered the topic of Christian unity and how unity in the local church brings glory to God. It has happened in the past and it will likely happen again, whether over trespass, theology, personality, proximity or personal persuasion. ![]() Sometimes it is good, sometimes it is bad. When one says Presbyterian, for example, the other will ask which Presbyterian? PCA? PC USA? Cumberland? Canadian? Evangelical Presbyterian? 3Īnd forget about “Evangelical”! That term has been applied so broadly that it means vastly different things to the proponents and opponents of the Evangel!ĭivision in the church of Christ is a reality we all must deal with.ĭivision in the church of Christ is a reality we all must deal with. This failure led to more and more divisions within the Protestant movement, eroding a central authority and bringing us to this day where one cannot use a term to define Christian movements without a qualifier. The two great men could not get over this point and so the attempt at unifying the Protestant movement failed. The argument got so heated, that Luther (being Luther) is said to have carved the word EST (Latin for “is”) into the table with his pen knife. The sticking point of the argument was that Zwingli saw the Lord’s Supper as merely symbolic, whereas Luther believed Christ was actually present in the bread and the cup. What got off to a good start came to a screeching halt when Martin Luther and Ulrich Zwingli of Zurich could not agree on the meaning of the Lord’s Supper. Called together by Prince-Elector Philip of Hesse, these men were asked to draft a joint statement to unify the diverse theology of the Protestants, so creating a united front against Emperor Charles V and the Roman Catholic church. The Roman Catholic church birthed the Protestant church by ejecting those whom she disagreed with and who would not submit to her rule without questioning it.Īs the Protestant reformation movement progressed, the main leaders assembled in Marburg, Hessen, in October of 1529. The Nestorians and the Jacobites were in the process of being wiped out by pagan and Muslim powers in the east, so that to this day we have pretty much only the Armenian Orthodox and Thomasites in India representing the Nestorians and the Copts and Assyrian Orthodox representing the Jacobites. ![]() By the time the Reformation came about, the Church had effectively been split into four wings: the Byzantine Orthodox, the Roman Catholics, the Nestorians (north-eastern Asian churches) and the Jacobites (Monophysite south-eastern Asian churches). As much as the Reformation is the rediscovery of salvation by faith through grace, it is also the story of how Christianity became increasingly fragmented. ![]()
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