On Divisions Within the Church

This one is bound to create a stir...

In my opinion, one of the greatest travesties of the modern church is the endless proliferation of denominational differences. Richard Baxter once said “In necessary things unity, in doubtful things liberty, and in all things charity.” I truly believe this summarizes biblical truth regarding differences of opinion within the church. The scripture teaches the preeminence of unity within the body of Christ.

Rom 15:5 - May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus.
1 Cor 1:10 - I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought.
Eph 4:3 - Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.
James 4:1 - What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you?

Unfortunately, the modern Christian community has not really learned to live by biblical truth in this area. I can certainly understand wanting to worship with those who are like minded with yourself, but often we disagree to the point of dissention rather than just preference. My personal opinion is that unless we disagree about the core of the gospel – the “necessary things” – that we really shouldn’t divide ourselves. Of course we then have to come to an agreement as to exactly what “the core of the gospel” means - and there’s the rub.

The problem is not our differences. Differences are important…

1 Cor 11:19 - No doubt there have to be differences among you to show which of you have God's approval.

We need differences to be able to test the spirit and make sure the “core of the gospel” maintains its integrity. Our problem is that our differences divide us. Division is anti-Christian and unfortunately, our history since the Reformation has been full of it. In the early part of the reformation, the two greatest divisors were the nature of the Eucharist (transubstantiation vs. consubstantiation) and Baptism (infant vs. believer’s). Then it became whether or not the Eucharist and Baptism were sacraments – or just symbols. Later it became the type of Baptism (emersion vs. sprinkling vs. pouring). Another great divisor in the early part of the reformation was the style of worship. Should we eliminate everything contrary to scripture (Zwingli) or eliminate everything not specifically required by scripture (Luther) or completely restructure based upon the early NT church (Anabaptists). Now it is all about the type of music and the liturgy (contemporary or traditional). What about glossolalia (i.e. speaking in tongues)? What about the baptism of the Holy Spirit? Then of course, we all know the grand-daddy of all divisors – Arminianism vs. Calvinism.

As a Southern Baptist, I’m afraid this last controversy will absolutely shatter the Southern Baptist Convention before it is over. I know many “non-Calvinist” Baptists who are beginning to drift towards Methodist churches because of the “emergence” of Calvinists in the convention. Likewise, I know quite a few Calvinists who – if it were not for infant baptism – would have long since drifted to the Presbyterian churches. I even know a few – including one of my closest friends - who have started their own home church because of this one issue. I see no benefit to this division! Does it really matter whether I was actively and specifically chosen by God or simply predestined according to the foreknowledge of God? Does it matter whether He chose me or I chose him – so long as the gospel is presented to the lost and they are given the opportunity to repent and believe? Some say it matters (and will criticize me for saying otherwise), but I’m not so sure it really does matter. Maybe the truth is that it is not mutually exclusive after all – maybe both happened simultaneously in a way that is a mystery that our finite minds cannot understand (which is what I believe just for the record)! I don’t think it is exclusively Calvinist to say that I could not believe unless God so enabled me, and I likewise do not think it is exclusively Arminian (or Pelagian) to say that I chose to receive God’s grace by my faith (i.e. I actively accepted it). What is of importance is that Christ has saved me by grace through faith!

Where will it all go? I see two giant steps that Southern Baptists (or really all of us who call ourselves "Christian") can take right now in this regard. The first is to prove to the rest of the Christian (and pagan) world that we can live in unity amidst our differences. I think we’ve already begun to calm the storms surrounding the worship style controversy. We must find a way to do the same with respect to the Arminianism vs. Calvinism controversy and show that both views can live in harmony with each other. It is truly one of Baxter’s “doubtful” things (i.e. both views have merit). Then, we need to reach out to other denominations in a show of unity and find ways to fellowship jointly with them to demonstrate that we are all part of the body of Christ – despite our organizational and doctrinal differences. I recently heard Dr. James MacDonald (Walk in the Word) speak about this and his words from Philippians 1:15-18 were true – if they are preaching Jesus Christ as the only gospel, then Hooray for them! In Christ, we are all one. I’m not speaking of compromise – just unity with respect to “necessary things.” Focus on our similarities – namely the gospel – and not on our differences. By the way, I think we Baptists are as guilty as everyone else. By trying so hard to show our Baptist distinctiveness, we are doing exactly what (I believe) scripture teaches against – distinguishing ourselves. I know; I get it… we want to find some reason for people to come to our church instead of the one across the street. How selfish we are – we should be ashamed.

At this point in history, I do not believe we will ever be able to do away with denominational separations, but we can certainly work towards making them so meaningless that the unsaved world will wonder why they exist in the first place.