TBC 1/21/06 – Thoughts on Unity in the Church Part 2 – What Unity is Not

MP3 Audio available:
http://theologicallycorrect.com/realaudio/tbc012106unity2.mp3 ( 11:18 )

Streaming: http://theologicallycorrect.com/realaudio/unity-part2.m3u

I had much feedback on the last commentary – some good, some bad, and
some simply questioning why I was being so divisive by bringing these
topics up. After all, nobody's theology is going to be 100%
"theologically correct" (pun intended), so why split hairs over "a few
small words" ? Why can't we all just "love each other" ? Why does it
even matter ?

All good questions, which all deserve Biblical answers. So let's
endeavor to think Biblically – not pragmatically (whatever works or
seems to work must be right and let's find a few scriptures to support
it) or subjectively (I feel right by doing this, I don't care what the
rest of my senses or some book says, God speaks through my spirit).


First of all, simply "leaving it alone" doesn't equal love OR unity.
In the mid-90's an entire firestorm of controversy erupted when some
notable evangelicals like Chuck Colson and Pat Robertson signed the
Evangelicals and Catholics Together document (ECT). While the document
was primarily focused on co-belligerence on social issues that were
ravaging both the evangelical and Catholic churches, the document
distinctly ignored the fundamental differences between Catholics and
Evangelicals, glossing over them in an attempt to present a 'unified
front' as 'Christians'.

On one side of the fence, you had Protestants willing to accept
Catholics as brothers & sisters in Christ. On the other side of the
fence, those who remained true to the reformation and the scriptures
realized that the rejection of justification by grace alone through
faith alone made one a non-Chrisian, no matter how many other
doctrines he/she may hold in an orthodox fashion. Thus, there could be
no "ECT" because on the fundamental issue of what makes a man or woman
right with God, Evangelicals and Catholics give two different answers.
In Rome's teaching, a man is made just before God by faith plus
baptism and good works. Rome merges sanctification and justification
so that it is an ongoing process throughout life. The sacrament of
penance is put in place as a second plank of justification for those
who have committed mortal sin. On the other hand, the Bible teaches
that men are declared just by God by faith apart from works (Romans
3:28) – that is, faith alone.

It is out of love for men's souls that we seek to be accurate in our
presentation of the gospel and calling others who name the name of
Christ to be faithful to the scriptures.


The most HATEFUL thing you can do is lull a man or woman into a false
sense of salvation with a watered-down or altered gospel message. The
gospel isn't "prosperity & kingdom authority" as Creflo Dollar
preaches. Nor is it "finding out God's purpose for your life" as Rick
Warren promotes or "My best life now" as Joel Osteen teaches. You can
have purpose, prosperity, authority and the best life possible and on
judgment day, be on the wrong end of Matthew 7:21-23.

No, my friends, the gospel is that Christ died for sinners like you
and I – spilled His blood as the satisfaction of God's wrath on sin –
so that those who would believe in Him will have eternal life. He now
calls men & women from all nations, creeds, colors and nationalities
to FLEE from that wrath by placing faith in His son alone, whom He
raised from the dead in order to show that the payment for sins was
accepted.

It's not "God's grace plus my work of faith" because Ephesians 2:8
tells us that the very faith with which we believe the gospel is "not
of ourselves" but a gift of God! As Philippians 1:29 reminds us, it
has been granted to us to believe upon Christ.

Again, some will accuse me of trying to be "too precise". Let me use
an earthly example to bring the point home of why precision is
important when we talk about theology. If you had a headache and I
told you to go to the medicine cabinet in the bathroom and get the
pills in the white bottle & take three for your headache….


What color are the pills ? (see below)
WHICH white bottle ? (there are several in the cabinet)
With or without food ? (some medicines must be taken with food)

Some things require precision because they involve life or death
issues. If I said "Oh, it doesn't matter which white bottle… and you
know…. They're pills! How different could be they be ?", would that be
very loving of me ?

Neither is it loving to simply downplay the importance of precision in
terms and belief when discussing salvation. Plenty of people "believe
in Jesus" and can speak "Christianese" very well. But when you ask
them WHAT do they believe about Jesus, this is when you find out both
of you don't believe in the same Jesus at all. This was the reason the
council of Nicea was convened in 325 A.D. Arius of Alexandria and his
disciples could affirm the Biblical language that Jesus was the 'Son
of God' and even affirmed Jesus as 'God' in a lesser sense. But Arius
believed that there was a time…."when the Son was NOT." In other
words, he believed that Jesus was a created being. He denied that
Jesus was the eternal God of the Universe in human flesh. So the
council made clear and unambiguous statements in response, declaring
Jesus as being of the "same substance" as the Father (not 'similar
substance'), "Very God of Very God" and "begotten, not made".


Why ?


Because belief in a false Jesus equal condemnation (John 3:18). Paul
recognized this in Romans 10:9-13 when he states that confessing Jesus
as Lord (v. 9) is the equivalent of the Old Testament calling upon God
the Father – Yahweh (v. 13 – a quote of Joel 2:32). Any view which
denies that Jesus was not God at any point during His incarnation is a
damnable heresy and a denial of the Christian faith. So it's not just
a "small difference of opinion" I have with Creflo Dollar's teaching
that Jesus "became God the Son" at His baptism – it's the difference
between truth, salvation and Christianity versus heresy, another Jesus
and damnation. DO NOT BE DECEIVED.


"But Kerry", you might say. "Look at how loving and non-judgmental and
accepting they are! Surely they must be believers, because they
embrace everyone naming the name of Christ, just as it says in John
13:34-35!" Well, it's true – love for fellow heirs of salvation is a
defining mark of a Christian, but it's not the ONLY mark. Love for the
brethren does NOT equal unity in Christ if it neglects truth.


In 1 John 2:3-6, we are reminded that one of the marks of Christian
orthodoxy is an outward visibly changed life that shuns sin & seeks to
live righteously. Yet we know from simple examples like that of Demas
(who was one of Paul's helps in ministry, prior to deserting Paul for
the world) and Judas that not everybody who claims to be a Christian
and acts the part – is.


1 John 2:19 tells us that false professors will eventually fall away
from the Christian faith, no matter how much 'love' they manifest.
Falling away is a conscious, deliberate & willful rejection of the
established Christian faith. It involves willfully accepting a false
gospel, a false Jesus and a false way of salvation. In his sermon
linked on my site

(http://www.theologicallycorrect.com/realaudio/clepto-adoptionism.mp3
), Dollar boasts about his departure from the faith and the
superiority of his belief as if it is no big deal. Such a rejection of
truth is not possible for one who has been indwelt by the Holy Spirit,
according to 1 Corinthians 12. To do such a thing is only the
prerogative of unbelievers, not believers.


In 2 John 7-11, we see a completely different attitude taken toward
false teachers in their treatment of Christ than what you'd see on TBN
today. The early church dealt with the threat of Gnosticism; a heresy
which denied that Jesus was truly the God of the Universe in the
flesh, since they believed Jesus was only one emanation of the
unknowable God of the universe and there were many others. This heresy
led to another heresy called docetism – which taught that the body
which Jesus wasn't really human, it only appeared to be. Well, John
condemns both views unilaterally in v. 7 when he calls folks who hold
either of these views "deceivers and an antichrist". In v. 8 we are
told to keep an eye on ourselves because our rewards in eternity are
tied to this. What more of a reason and warning do you need ?


In verses 9-11, John's prescription for dealing with false teachers is
so politically incorrect that I'd bet my computer that some preachers
would disagree with this approach and wouldn't take these commands
seriously. Verse 9 tells us that ANYONE who denied orthodox
Christology – that is, that Christ was fully God and fully man in His
incarnation from conception to ascension and beyond – does NOT HAVE
GOD. It can't be said any clearer than this. If you hold to orthodox
Christology, you have both the Father and the Son (and therefore,
salvation). Plain and simple. In verse 10, we are told that if ANYONE
comes to our home who does not hold orthodox Christology, do NOT
receive him into your home as you would someone who does! Remember, in
the early church, their worship was conducted in individual believers'
homes. Teaching occurred here as well, and often visiting brothers
would preach and teach in others' homes. So many false teachers who
went out carrying false doctrine were not simply a 'bunch of folks
we've disagreed with over a few small words', but a group of
destructive wolves ripping apart local regions of believers and
plunging them into spiritual darkness. False doctrine only serves to
make true believers ineffective for a time and keep non-Christians
from salvation.


It is with this mindset and attitude that the elder apostle says "do
not even wish them Godspeed, lest you share in their EVIL and WICKED
works." (v. 11). False doctrine is not just "wrong viewpoint" or
"wrong opinion" – damnable heresies like this are tantamount to lying
on God about Who He has revealed Himself to be. It deceives people and
leads them to a false Jesus who cannot save; a false faith in
something not true and a false salvation, which is really no
salvation. What more hateful thing can you do than not warn somebody
their "worship" is really not in "spirit and truth", but error and
falsehood ? "Love" that sacrifices truth for unity is self-delusion
and self-deception. DO NOT BE DECEIVED.


These things are true – that simply ignoring differences does not
equal unity, uniting around anything else other than Biblical truth
does not equal unity, simply naming the name "Jesus" does not equal
unity and love over doctrine doesn't equal unity.

So what does ?

That's what we'll tackle on the next Commentary. Be listening and have
a Bible open.


For Theologically Correct dot Com, I'm Kerry Gilliard. Be blessed.