Vol. 1 No. 5- August, 1993

Are Truth and Unity Reconcilable?

This issue is devoted to church unity. This, of course, is a perennial issue, and concerns many more than those of us in the house church movement. However, church unity is of special importance to us, because we are so radical. Because we are so radical, we appeal to those of a certain mindset and temperament. And those we attract are, for better or worse, more captivated by TRUTH than they are by UNITY. Truth and Unity: are they two sides of the same coin, or are they irreconcilable opposites? Can we increase our love of the truth, and at the same time increase our desire for unity? Or, in our passion to love one another, and "just lift up Jesus, not doctrines," do we sacrifice our urges to look into the thornier doctrinal and practical issues with which the Christian world is replete? We begin with an article by Dr. Gary Cameron or Asheboro, N.C., who has experienced living-room church life for many years. TRUTH and UNITY: are they two sides of the same coin, or are they irreconcilable opposites? By Gary Cameron. I wish our walk with the Lord were as simple as one of those cute books you buy at Christian bookstores which has but one word on each page - JESUS. But no, the Bible is full of terms we seem to have to wrestle with. You know, like tongues, second coming, tithes, sacrifice, baptism. The Scriptures are inspired on these subjects, but the interpretation of these terms to date are probably not (mine excepted, of course). Why God chose to use such inflammatory words is beyond me, but He did. He has His reasons and, with time, I often find that He knows what He's doing. For the "reformation" movement of this newsletter, the toughie terms are more specific. This paper will assuredly have in its columns at some point words like church, body, gifts, apostles, pastor, elder, deacon, the Lord's day and maybe some of the afore- mentioned terms also. Any one of them can start a riot and yield blood in ten or fifteen minutes. Learn to duck the bottles about when your latest group seems to be settling in for a decent worship meeting for once. You can about count on some wise guy in the corner letting loose with "Gonota catha montada praise Jesus" or he'll uncork real wine for the communion or announce that he wants to sprinkle his baby next week. You can almost see the meeting's anointing de-annoint. One solution, of course, is to ignore these nasty little jewels of jolt. We just agree to meet and talk about Jesus and leave it at that. This is quaint and will work just hunky-dory until some teacher-type shows up with his Bible and his laptop sizzlin' with all thirty two modules of QuickVerse. With luck, he'll go away or get sidetracked on the Gap Theory. He's obsessed, and your group is about to hop Amtrak for Transition City... again. Pray that either he or you will get a transfer at work to another city. But better yet, pray that you both will stay. You see, it's going to be okay. God is the one who builds the church. (How clever to have Jesus as a carpenter's son). There are lots of apostles today; let 'em speak. Pastors, too; it's all right. Run an ad for prophets; we need to get some things straightened out. Let the church split and reform and look different next time. You can't stop or weed out our humanness from the process; it's best to learn to enjoy the ride and wait for the Lord's next move. Relax, rent a video, clean the garage, because the Lord never paces back and forth feeling foiled by our latest shenanigans. Dear readers of this rag's line-upon-line: Listen to the voice of the Lord in your life for this moment. He shuffles us around and schools us in a customized variety of true church experiences if we are of the host of listeners. All of these experiences work on our hearts. All of these experiences also work to beautify the bride. These two consequences are inescapable for all true seekers. This encourages me. I, of course, have the true interpretations for all of the terms mentioned above and will be pleased to enlighten your group if invited and you meet in the Caribbean. Until then, both you and I can rest assured that hot topics will come and go, but he Lord's Skilsaw can always be heard in the background wherever we are. ONE MILLION DOLLAR REWARD! For Scriptural evidence of: church doctrinal statements church splits over doctrine theological hairsplitting Calvinism Arminianism prophecy charts The rest of this issue will be devoted to two matters: (1) causes of division, and (2) how to get unity. In discussing these two issues we will examine the major role that doctrine plays. The Causes of Division There are two broad categories into which one may place causes for division among Christians: personal reasons, and doctrinal reasons. Personal reasons include clashes over such things as personality, sex, race, age, and all of the other myriad reasons human beings find not to get along with each other. It is generally agreed among Christians of all stripes that division because of personal reasons is bad, and should be avoided. Doctrinal reasons, on the other hand, are divisions based upon differences of belief. In contradistinction to division over personal differences, division because of doctrinal difference is seen in most of Christendom as generally a good thing, as long as the doctrine divided over is not too trivial. Doctrinal division is often sanctified in the eyes of Christians because the one doing the dividing is seen as a "defender of the faith once delivered to the saints." He is protecting the flock against dangerous doctrinal errors. In fact, he is defending the truth, and truth, after all is more important than unity. Let's take a look at the issue of doctrine as it relates to the unity of believers. Is doctrinal division a good thing, when practiced by defenders of the faith? Should there be doctrinal requirements for church membership? What are the possible misuses of doctrine? In reacting against the misuse of doctrine, are we in danger of throwing the baby out with the bath water? Should there be doctrinal requirements for church membership? The answer to that question is quite simple: no, there shouldn't be. You will look long and hard to find one single instance of a New Testament Christian being excluded from a fellowship because of his beliefs on the millennium, the great tribulation, tongues, free will, the sovereignty of God, mode of baptism, or any other issue that modern Christians love to get exercised over. The only requirement was that the believer believe in Jesus. That was it. As Warren Litzman puts it (Church Unity, Christian Books, P.O. Box 3368, Auburn, Maine 04212-3368, pp. 21, 22): "All that is necessary for a person to be a full-fledged, bona-fide offspring of God is simply to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. If anything else is added (such as membership, water baptism, some kind of deeper experience, or even a probational period), then the birthing of Christ in him is nullified by the acts of man. No man has the right to nullify what God has done... Look again at our earthly families. When a newborn baby is born, he becomes a full member of his family, does he not?" Constantine gave the Christian faith one of the two greatest curses ever to be brought into the Christian family. He gave us theology! ...We have now lived with this damnable curse for seventeen hundred years. The distaste for using doctrinal distinctions to divide the body of Christ has led some to make statements against doctrine that sound extreme. For example, Warren Litzman (Church Unity, p. 25): "A people who are unsectarian, who are loving, who are caring, who are free of doctrine and standards... such a people will exist on this earth. And their only doctrine will be Christ" (emphasis his). Another example is Gene Edwards (Church Unity, pp. 90, 91): "...Constantine gave the Christian faith one of the two greatest curses ever... He gave us theology!... [T]heology is but the philosophical mindset dealing with the Christian faith... We have now lived with this damnable curse for seventeen hundred years. Since that hour, the Holy Scripture has been approached as a riddle - a theological puzzle to be unraveled - rather than the vibrant record of men who penned their words in the midst of a dynamic, living faith." Edwards again (Church Unity, p. 112): "In all my ministry I have never met a believer who doubted the Bible, never met one who believed in Darwinian evolution, never met one who doubted the virgin birth, never met one who doubted the resurrection. No doubts at all... until he heard one of your lectures defending those things. Then he began to doubt." WARNING!! The Surgeon General has determined that if you are thinking about trying to collect the one million dollar reward, forget about it! It just ain't in the Bible! The statements about doctrine that you read on Page Two are the sort of thing that drives Bible-school and seminary types nuts. When they read sentiments like these, they immediately start cranking up to defend "propositional truth," and they start warning the faithful against "pietists" and "antinomian mystics." To be perfectly frank, their reaction is understandable. House church pietists, when they express their legitimate concerns about the misuse of doctrine, often do so with rhetoric that leaves them wide open to the impression that they are vacuum-brained, crypto-Buddhist New Agers. We shouldn't lead with our chin, and sound like we are opposed to "sound doctrine." NRR will never offer a one million dollar reward for Scriptural evidence of the necessity for sound doctrine. Unlike one-man pastor-popes, the need for sound doctrine is in the Bible. Having affirmed the goodness and propriety of sound doctrine, we now need to look at the abuse perpetrated by the defenders of sound doctrine. This abuse will help explain to our seminary-type friends just what makes house church radicals talk the way they do about "doctrines."The chief abuse committed by "upholders of sound doctrine" is division of the body of Christ. This is done by creating unity and exclusiveness among those who hold a particular doctrine, at the expense of fellowship with those who do not hold the doctrine. We are all familiar with the Southern Baptist prototype who can't quite decide which is more important, the Kingdom of God or the Southern Baptist Church. Or the five-point Calvinist who has the same problem. Or the name-it-and-claim-it, confess-it-and-possess-it, blab-it-and-grab-it, mark-it-and-park-it faith-message charismatic. Have you ever noticed how easy it is to fellowship with these brothers and sisters when you talk about what the Lord has done, but how difficult it becomes when they get cranked up on their pet doctrine? Gene Edwards has observed (Church Unity, p. 12) that doctrine is so powerful because it "has an element of security in it and and element of bonding. Doctrine is what causes... people to come back again and again to the same building, the same program, and to that speaker." (This provokes a thought. Is a lot of "defense of the faith" activity carried on to keep people loyal to our programs, church-system, and most importantly, to our budget?)Whatever the reason that pulpiteers love to pound away at their doctrinal opponents, the results of their activity are not good. There is a lot of pain caused by doctrinal separations that lead to personal separations. We are all aware of the organizations that state that if you have ever spoken in tongues you may not join. There are also organizations that state that if you have not spoken in tongues, you can't join. Where is this in the Bible? "Never forget: it scares the wallet out of preachers when they see their people joyously fellowshipping with the opposition." We started this issue in quest of reconciliation of "truth-seekers" and "unity-seekers." We have seen that "truth-seekers", in their search for the truth, create "doctrines," and those doctrines, more often than not, cause ugly divisions in the body of Christ. This leaves us with a difficult question. How do we obtain truth without division? Or, stated obversely, how do we maintain unity without abandoning our pursuit of truth? How to get unity? How to get unity? As we consider alternative answers to this question, we must also satisfy a constraint, namely: is the unity we obtain consistent with a deep love of the truth? Before we explore further, we need to point out that there is an illegitimate way to unity by which house-church devotees can be tempted. This is the way of "non-sectarian sectarianism." By this we mean the practice of "non-denominational denominationalism." This occurs when believers renounce doctrinal sectarianism, and then refuse to have anything to do with those who do practice doctrinal sectarianism. This position is inconsistent, and those who hold it are practicing the very thing they denounce. What then, is the legitimate path to unity? The answer is easy to state, much less easy to practice. The answer is this: treat every believer as a redeemed human being who has the Son of God living within him. Don't treat him as a set of beliefs or practices, but as a person who partakes of the divine nature. Warren Litzman says it well: "It is when believers see Christ in each other that a true bond of fellowship arises... The truth of 'Christ in you and Christ in me' is the one ingredient so overwhelming that it dissolves the barriers between God's people... The Christian who discovers an in- dwelling Lord, by means of the work of the Holy Spirit in Him, will always see doctrinal division fading away." (Church Unity, pp. 9, 12) In discussing the point that those who fellowship around doctrinal positions rather than around Jesus are doomed to fail in any attempt to bring unity, Gene Edwards makes several interesting observations: "Baptists and Campbellites cannot become one. Why? The engine that fuels those two movements is their beliefs. Take away their doctrines and both those movements lose their momentum, and perhaps even their main reason for existence... Never forget: it scares the wallet out of preachers when they see their people joyously and wholeheartedly fellowshiping with anyone who belongs to the opposition... And will denominations and nonprofit religious organizations stop emphasizing distinctions, differences, and doctrines? Not likely. Probably not until money, power, prestige and doctrines disappear off the face of the earth." (Church Unity, pp. 102, 110, 111). Stated in the abstract, obtaining unity seems a simple thing. We renounce doctrinal requirements for fellowship, only requiring belief in Jesus. We allow anyone, regardless of their beliefs on the Virgin Mary, apostolic succession, or any other nutty doctrinal belief, to worship with us. Ah, this sounds so exalted. But can something like this really work? As a matter of fact, it can. But it won't work if you ignore each other's doctrinal beliefs. And this is where so many house churchers go wrong. They are so sick of silly doctrinal disputes, they curl up in a mystical fetal position, and refuse to discuss anything beyond John 3:16. But this is unrealistic. God made us questioning creatures, always striving for fuller understanding. And part (though not all) of that understanding comes from studying difficult questions in the Scriptures. And much of the understanding, such as it is, that we receive from the Scripture is not academic, but practical. As Gary Cameron pointed out on page one, its inevitable that someone's going to act (perhaps innocently) on the basis of his doctrinal beliefs. He'll want to serve real wine in the communion. He'll want his baby baptized. He'll want to have an Easter-egg hunt on Easter, excuse me, Resurrection Sunday. What are we to do then? We can't just quote John 3:16 and say "I love you, brother." There is only one way that brothers and sisters with different doctrinal beliefs can function in unity with one another. First, as we mentioned before, we have to see each other as an expression of Christ on the earth, and not look at each other as a "doctrinal position." Second, we develop close relationships with one another so we can express our feelings on any doctrine in the Bible, controversial or otherwise, without fear of sanction, rejection, ridicule, or excommunication. Third, we refuse to make any official doctrinal statement as a prerequisite for church membership, nor do we put a doctrinal distinctive in our church name (such as Baptist, Presbyterian, Episcopalian). Fourth, we make a deal with every other brother or sister: you can say whatever you want concerning a doctrine, if you allow me the privilege of showing you that you are wrong in the Scripture. These four steps can be summarized in this way: yes, attack my beliefs, but don't ever attack my person. A mature Christian will realize his worth is not tied up in his beliefs, but in who he is in Christ. If we all take great pains to recognize this, we won't get so bent out of shape when someone gets all excited about the pretrib rapture theory. This pretribber is of infinite worth, even though his theory of the rapture may be worthless. You may have noticed that I have already stretched the above mentioned principle to the limit. I have stated that belief in the Virgin Mary and apostolic succession is nutty, and I have implied quite strongly that the pretrib rapture theory is worthless. If you happen to believe in any of those doctrines, should that affect your attitudes to- ward me as a brother in Christ? NO IT SHOULD NOT!!! Should my distaste for those doctrines keep you from trying to prove to me in the Scriptures that you are right, and I am wrong? NO IT SHOULD NOT!!! Should belief in any of those doctrines cause us to break fellowship, or to cause a church split? NO IT SHOULD NOT!!! If you are going to be house church radical, you must learn these principles, because you are going to be in disagreement with 99.9 percent of Christendom. You can't be bitter towards those who oppose you, but yet at the same time, you can't keep quiet about the truths that you have discovered about church life. You will have to learn to reconcile the apparently conflicting claims of Truth and Unity.

Comments...

You may send your opinions, flames, weighty observations, etc., to

Dan L. Trotter

work e-mail: dtrotter@pascal.coker.edu
home e-mail: dantrotter@yahoo.com

Since 09/30/00 this number of people have ignored the Surgeon General's warning and have read this thing, resulting in gosh knows how much mental and emotional trauma: