The good, the bad

& the ungodly 

-3-

 choosing the lord’s side in the current christian civil war

 

There is a cry for unity within The Church. There is a shout for harmony amid the saints. There is a call for one accord among the brethren. Many have asked why the different factions within The Church at large cannot simply coexist. If the criterion for this concord is simply believing in Christ or acting in His name, we can be off to the races. Slam dunk. Case closed. Polly, put the kettle on. However, the issue is more involved than that & those who kick up a significant amount of the dust concerning the matter, know this without a doubt. First, there is a systematic throwing up of hands, identifying denominationalism as the obstacle. Or there is a stubborn folding of the arms across puffed out chests, blaming doctrine for the schisms. After that, there is a furrowing of prayer hardened brows, accusing the devil of deceiving all concerned. No one seems willing or prepared to consider the fact that The Lord Himself makes a difference between those who are His & those who are not. Ignoring this fact, there are still those tacit accepters, who wring their soft hands & humbly ask; ‘..can’t we all, just get along?’, before quoting Psalms 133. No mate. We can’t. Not if you’re asking & expecting those who are on The Lord’s side to relax the grip they have on their swords & cozy up to heretics, idolators, perverters of truth,  liars & thieves. Why is The believing Church at large so eagerly lowering the bar to such an extent that all & sundry can skate across the line with relative ease, while whispering peace, unity & solidarity as if they were secret passwords? Since when did The Church refuse to stand up for doctrinal purity & against blasphemous heresies & questionable practices? What do we realistically expect from those whose hands are on their hips, instead of on their hilts? The Lord Jesus Christ is not handing out sweeties to excited children. He is delivering Divine instruction to His Church for the days in which we live. Like Moses, He demands to know who is on His side, rallying the remnant. Like David, He is receiving His disciplined, mighty fighting men, imbued with an inspired understanding of the times & a knowledge of what to do. They are the ones to whom I write. The nothingers.

¹¹ And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are… ¹⁷ Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. ¹⁸ As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. ¹⁹ And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth. ²⁰ Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; ²¹ That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. ²² And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: ²³ I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me (John 17:11 & 7-23).

Before you go any further, take some time to read John 17 in its entirety. This is paramount in its importance, because many have abused the words of The Lord Jesus in this passage. Christ is preparing Himself to go to the cross. To suffer painfully. To bleed agonizingly. To die horrifically. Don’t you think He was conscious of the fact that whatever He said & did was significant & specific? Yet this seems lost on those who are pushing their own version of unity, harmony & accord, otherwise known by its pet name; ecumenicism. Cute, isn’t it?

When The Lord prayed this prayer, there weren’t the denominations that we have today or any of its derivative cults. There were Israelis & there were Gentiles. Among the Jews there were the Scribes; the Pharisees; the Sadducees; the Zealots; the Sicarii; the Herodians; the Essenes & of course, the Samaritans. Quite a thing.

If the ecumenical agenda that is being pushed today claims its foundation in the words Jesus spoke back then & from the subsequent teaching of His Apostles, surely it would follow that those words were equally applicable to those groups during The Church’s early ministry too. Surely? Unless…no it couldn’t be…but…no, no, no. Well, I may as well say it. Unless the ecumenists are telling porkies. Just sayin’. If they are right, we ought to fall in step with the wishes of The Head of The Church. However, if they are wrong, then the disgust, frustration & sense of betrayal felt by the faithful few is justified.

Was Jesus praying that those differing sects within Judaism would forget their differences, reach across the aisles in the temple & form one organised cooperative? Was Jesus praying that the various Gentile denominations within The Church at large would relegate the importance & essential nature of core beliefs & biblical convictions in order to embrace miscellany? Afterall, it has been said, ‘..diversity is divine but division is diabolical..it’s the glory that glues us together, not the doctrines.’. Don’t take my word for it. Just ask Bishop Tony Palmer.

The reasoning of ecumenicalism is logical, but what have we said about that previously? Just because an argument is logically sound does not necessarily mean that it’s theo-logically sound. It isn’t enough for a teaching to make sense. It has to be TRUE. It has to be SO (Acts 17:11).

The Lord defined His terms clearly in His prayer. Believers are to be unified in the same manner that the Godhead are. Take that in. There is no division between their persons. No diversity. They are one (Deuteronomy 6:4). Believers are sanctified or separated by & to the truth. The truth of His Word. No divisive doctrine. Just the truth of The Gospel. Paul says, ‘Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ: that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel.’ (Philippians 1:27). The Gospel.

Before there can be any real cohesion between various groups which name The Name of Christ, we need to examine why they exist. Why the divisions? Why the splits? Why the numerous  denominations? The Lord Jesus Christ set the Gospel template Himself. The Apostles taught His doctrine. The Church continued in their teachings. The unity, harmony & accord we hear of today, is not the same thing that The Lord prayed for, before He went to Calvary. However, viewed in ecumenical isolation one would be forgiven for thinking that it is.

If diversity is genuinely divine & if doctrine is truly divisive, Jesus, the Apostles & The Scriptures have lied to us all. Our fidelity, loyalty & faithfulness to The Gospel of Christ & to The Christ of The Gospel have been misplaced & misapplied. But if Jesus, the Apostles & The Scriptures tell us otherwise, it means that our resistance is justified & that our allegiance isn’t blind. It is armed. Who is on The Lord’s side?

It is supremely ignorant & contemptuously arrogant of The Church at large to take the words of Christ & apply them solely to itself, without considering that The Gospel is to the Jew first. The Scriptures are replete with examples of what The Lord was praying for in John 17. Examples that have been ignored by those keen to push their own surreptitious agenda.

Any Jew hearing Christ’s words would not have thought of a Gentile Church. It wasn’t a thing. Neither would they have considered the epistles. They hadn’t been written yet. So what would possibly have sprung to mind?

¹¹ For thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I, even I, will both search my sheep, and seek them out. ¹² As a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered; so will I seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day… ¹⁶ I will seek that which was lost, and bring again that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick: but I will destroy the fat and the strong; I will feed them with judgment… ²³ And I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even my servant David; he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd. ²⁴ And I the LORD will be their God, and my servant David a prince among them; I the LORD have spoken it… ³⁰ Thus shall they know that I the LORD their God am with them, and that they, even the house of Israel, are my people, saith the Lord GOD. ³¹ And ye my flock, the flock of my pasture, are men, and I am your God, saith the Lord GOD (Ezekiel 34:11-12; 16; 23-24; 30-31). 

¹⁶ Moreover, thou son of man, take thee one stick, and write upon it, For Judah, and for the children of Israel his companions: then take another stick, and write upon it, For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and for all the house of Israel his companions: ¹⁷ And join them one to another into one stick; and they shall become one in thine hand. ¹⁸ And when the children of thy people shall speak unto thee, saying, Wilt thou not shew us what thou meanest by these? ¹⁹ Say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel his fellows, and will put them with him, even with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they shall be one in mine hand. ²⁰ And the sticks whereon thou writest shall be in thine hand before their eyes. ²¹ And say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen, whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land: ²² And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them all: and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all: ²³ Neither shall they defile themselves any more with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions: but I will save them out of all their dwellingplaces, wherein they have sinned, and will cleanse them: so shall they be my people, and I will be their God. ²⁴ And David my servant shall be king over them; and they all shall have one shepherd: they shall also walk in my judgments, and observe my statutes, and do them. ²⁵ And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt; and they shall dwell therein, even they, and their children, and their children's children for ever: and my servant David shall be their prince for ever. ²⁶ Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them: and I will place them, and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore. ²⁷ My tabernacle also shall be with them: yea, I will be their God, and they shall be my people. ²⁸ And the heathen shall know that I the LORD do sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for evermore (Ezekiel 37:16-28). 

Go back to John 17 & read the words of The Lord Jesus again. Before The Gospel & the witness of The Apostles reached the Gentiles, it went first to Israel. As a people, they waited for their Messiah. Here He was. They were to truly be one nation under God. Jesus says, ‘I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine. As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep. And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd. (John 10:14-16). Those who heard these words of Christ, knew exactly what He was alluding to. Ezekiel 34 & 37. 

⁴⁹ And one of them, named Caiaphas, being the high priest that same year, said unto them, Ye know nothing at all, ⁵⁰ Nor consider that it is expedient for us, that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not. ⁵¹ And this spake he not of himself: but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus should die for that nation; ⁵² And not for that nation only, but that also he should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad (John 11:49-52).

¹⁴ Now Caiaphas was he, which gave counsel to the Jews, that it was expedient that one man should die for the people (John 18:14).

My point is simply this; John 17 is not a foundation for ecumenicism. It is the culmination of YHWH’s promise to unite Israel just as He is one in Himself, under the Kingship of Messiah & the truth of God’s Word. That is the ultimate cohesion. It is watertight. The Lord Jesus Christ was not praying that the various Jewish sects would get along, any more than He was praying that Gentile denominations would magically come together, hold hands & be willing to sacrifice doctrine in order to present a united front to the world. Why bother? The Church at large is comfortably in bed with the world anyway!

He set the template. He set the standard. He is Messiah, Lord & Christ. His bat. His ball. His game. His rules. Anyone who cannot or will not accept, serve or worship Christ as He is, will find that their quest for ecumenical union is the only thing they have, because Jesus doesn’t recognise or acknowledge it.

 

 

 

 

  copyright © by david Samuel Parkins mmxxvi all rights reserved.

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