Our Vision

1. JESUS SAID THAT THE WAY THE WORLD WILL KNOW THAT GOD LOVES them AND SENT CHRIST TO DIE FOR THEM IS BY OUR UNITY.

The world will know who we are by our love, but they will know that God loves them and that Jesus died for them by our unity. That makes unity vitally important to the gospel. Unity was so important to Jesus that he prayed “that they may be one”.

2. WE ARE CALLED TO ONE FAITH AND ONE MIND FOR THE FAITH OF THE GOSPEL

We are called to One Faith and to “stand firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel,” and to have “the same love, being in full accord and of one mind” (Phil. 1:27, 2:2). Yet, Christians don’t even agree about what Jesus meant when he said , “Go into all the world and preach the gospel. Whoever repents and is baptized will be saved”.

3. We’ve skirted around the issue of thousands of divisions in Christianity by saying that as long as we hold to a list of “essentials” that we can charitably agree to disagree on the rest

“In essentials, unity, in non-essentials, charity” is a nice sounding platitude. Indeed, there are areas that can truly be called “non-essentials” like different worship styles and cultural differences . But the fact is that Christians don’t agree on foundational tenets of the Faith like salvation, baptism, communion-which are “essentials” of the Christian faith. If you read the “what we believe” statements of 10 different churches or denominations you will see different beliefs about the faith.

Why did you choose the church you attend? There are a myriad of reasons people pick the church they attend. Music, youth groups, community groups, friends, family, preaching style, and even proximity can all be factors. But typically the primary thing people look for in a church is a church that agrees with what they believe. In fact, many Christians will change churches when their church stops teaching something they believe to be true or when they change what they believe.

That’s not the way Jesus set it up. He established a church with authority to speak for him so that we can know his thoughts. But often, we look for a church that aligns with opinion about what we believe is important.

4. What if we started by asking a different question?

If you were to walk into 10 different churches tomorrow and ask the pastors their views about how to be saved, who can be saved, communion, and baptism, you will likely get different answers. And all of the pastors will likely use scripture to support their view. So we can see that there is a problem with the” just me and my bible” approach.

“Oh, Jesus doesn’t really care about that!”, some will say, “all that matters is that you love Jesus and have a relationship with him.” Friends, Jesus never said that. He gave his disciples authority to speak for him and said, “whoever hears you, hears me”. He provided a sure way to transmit the faith. He commanded that disputes be taken to “the church”. Which church would that be when churches have so many different ideas about the faith? How do we know which one speaks for Christ?

5. DIVISION IS NO TRIFLING MATTER. The Apostle PAUL LIKENS IT TO DIVIDING CHRISt

St. Paul has strong words that condemn “dissension” as “works of the flesh,” warning that “those who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God” (Gal. 5:19-21). He appeals to us, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to have no divisions. He said when we are divided, we are dividing Christ.

The bible contains warnings against divisions, schism, and sectarianism, either by command, or by counter-example in many places. Matthew 12:25, 16:18, John 10:16, 17:20-23, Acts 4:32, Romans 13:13, 16:17, 1 Corinthians 1:10-13, 3:3-4, 10:17, 11:18-19, 12:12-27, 14:33, 2 Corinthians 12:20, Galatians 5:19-21, Ephesians 4:3-6, Philippians 1:27, 2:2-3, 1 Timothy 6:3-5, Titus 3:9-10, James 3:16, 2 Peter 2:1 -Dave Armstrong

6.DIVISION IS ALSO CALLED SCHISM. SCHISM COMES FROM THE SAME ROOT WORD AS SCHIZOPHRENIA, WHICH MEANS SPLITTING OF THE MINd.

Christians often confuse division with diversity saying that it doesn’t matter what we believe because God gives various spiritual gifts and that diversity creates a beautiful symphony. That confusion leads to the scandal of division.

Division is a work of the flesh that has divided the faith into thousands of contradictory opinions.

Diversity embraces different spiritual gifts, cultures, styles of worship.

Diversity of gifts is a work of the Holy Spirit. Division is work of the flesh, which we must remember that Paul taught that “those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God”.

Diversity in our spiritual gifts and expressions of worship is a beautiful thing. We are called to unity in what we believe and what we practice in worship. We are called to the One Faith handed down to us from Jesus to the apostles.

The number of denominations that have evolved due to disagreements about the faith has been estimated to be as high as well over 40,000. That number has been challenged but the actual number isn’t the issue. The issue is that anything more than ONE Faith is too many. Whether its 2 or 50,000 different churches , its too many. Whatever the number currently is, its staggeringly higher than 1.

7. We are called to ONE LORD, ONE FAITH, ONE BAPTISM

Of course, unanimous understanding of the gospel isn’t our only goal as Christians. Without love that knowledge is nothing! But that doesn’t mean that belief doesn’t matter. If we desire to follow Christ, we must seek to be faithful in following what he desires, not to find a church made in our image of what a church should be.

We have become so comfortable with division that we don’t blink an eye when Christians disagree with how we are saved, who can be saved, communion, sacraments, eternal security, what is sin, what is the church etc. Below is picture that illustrates the problem.

There are over 70 different churches in the downtown area alone of the city where I live and there are hundreds more across city. The remarkable thing is that all 8 churches in this photo are all within less than a mile of each other so you can literally wave and smile at fellow Christians who believe something different than you believe about the Christian faith as they walk in to worship God.

Seven of these eight churches no longer believe what Christians unanimously believed for centuries. Should we conclude that all Christians everywhere, the entire early church got it wrong for several centuries? Or should we ask more questions to explore why such discrepancies exist?

If an unbeliever were to walk into all 8 of these churches and ask questions about the Christian faith, there would be 8 different answers about what the bible teaches about the faith. Do you see the problem here?

8. The Church is one, not many. Jesus Christ is the King

Having a King means you’re not the king and I’m not the king. We don’t get to to religion on our terms. We do religion on His terms.” If Jesus desires perfect unity within the Church for the sake of the witness of the gospel, then our schisms are a flaunting of his desires and a counter-witness to the gospel. Such an action can only be a work of the flesh, unless Jesus is himself schizophrenic.

But this whole idea of schism presupposes the existence of a divinely originated and visible Church, and we see just such a Church described in the New Testament. In Matthew 16:18, Jesus says to Peter, “You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church.” You may have argued a thousand times about the meaning of “on this rock,” but this time focus now on the promise, “I will build my church.” It means that the Church’s origins are divine."

9. what does this Church that Jesus established look like?

It is a visible church that has authority.

Jesus says that if your brother resists your attempts to correct him, you must ultimately “tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector” (Matt. 18:17). If the Church isn’t visible, how can it be the final appellate court for Christian disputes? We see this divinely originated visible Church throughout the book of Acts and indeed all of Church history.” -Joe Heschmeyer

Heschmeyer also explains that Jesus started a visible church with authority but “the Reformation redefined the church as a collection of those who are saved. In the reformation definition, if you’re saved, you’re part of the Kingdom. If you’re not saved, you’re not part of the Kingdom. But Christ doesn’t say that. He says quite otherwise, in fact (Matthew 13:47-50):

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net which was thrown into the sea and gathered fish of every kind; when it was full, men drew it ashore and sat down and sorted the good into vessels but threw away the bad. So it will be at the close of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous, and throw them into the furnace of fire; there men will weep and gnash their teeth.

In Heaven, the Church will only contain the saved. On earth, that’s not the case. Here, the Church contains both good fish and bad fish. Or to use another of Christ’s images, it contains both wheat and weeds. And in response to the question, “Then do you want us to go and gather them?” He says, “No; lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. Let both grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.” (Matthew 13:28-30).”

So the very attempt to reinvent the Church as just the saved is exactly what He told us not to do.”

That’s what this blog is all about-Christianity on Christ’s terms, not ours. Will you join in the conversation?

For Further Reading And Watching

Where is the Magisterium in the Bible? Part 1: Is the Church an Invisible Collection of Believers?

Where is the Magisterium in the Bible? Part 2: Was James or Peter the Leader of the Early Church? 

Where is the Magisterium in the Bible? Part 3: How did Jesus provide for the transmission of the faith?

Denominations and Sectarianims: An Anti-biblical scandal

A Helpful Question for our Protestant Friends

Why You Can’t Have Jesus Without His Church

Watch: Why You Can’t Have Christ Without His Kingdom: