More On Church Unity

There can still be unity among all Christians even if there are differences between them. As long as the issues are not doctrinal, there can be absolute unity among all Christians. God would never give a command that we would be unable to follow. Everything else is opinion. Romans 14 refers to inconsequential things, opinions. Opinions will always differ because we are all unique individuals. Opinions do not get us to heaven or keep us out of heaven. But other matters regarding Christian living can be embraced by all Christians, and we can still be unified.

Different religions include different ideas in their group of key issues, hence their creed statements. But if we stick to the Bible, then there is no disagreement until personal preferences start to creep in. As for members of our congregation who disagree, are they matters of opinion or not? If they believe differently on important issues, why are they still there? There are plenty of denominations who have differing viewpoints. Surely one of them would match their beliefs. If they are not going to a different denomination, they either do not think the matter is important enough to change or they are not totally sure and they would rather be safe than sorry.

It is very easy to determine who is saved – anyone who does God’s will, which He gave us in the Bible. He would not provide a Bible for us and then make it too hard or confusing to understand. It is not my job to judge the intent of another’s heart, thankfully! But where we go to worship does say something about what we believe. That is why we have a sign on the door saying church of Christ. There are other acceptable Biblical names as well, but this is just what it is called in these parts. I have visited a congregation in Vienna where the only thing on the sign was The Lord’s Church meets here with the times. After speaking with them, the only difference I could see was a different order in the services and they had wine for communion. My point here, is it is not the name (as long as it is Biblical), it is what we believe and practice.

Members of other denominations are not members of the church of Christ because our differences mean too much to them. To them, our differences are a matter of doctrine, not opinion. It matters to them enough to mark the difference. So if they believe one way strongly enough not to be members of the church of Christ, they have already drawn the line of separation.

As far as denominationalism, the definition is a religious organization uniting in a single legal and administrative body of a number of local congregations, a sect. Sect means to cut or divide. We get the word "section" from this word. How can a church who follows only what the Bible teaches (nothing more or less) be a sect, a division of the whole? Divisions only come when some part is added, changed, or taken away from the original. Some churches who claim to be non-denominational merely refuse to take a stand on any tough religious issues, resulting in what they call "unity". This is unity in error. Christ demands unity in truth. By biblical example, there is no church government above the eldership at the local level. So a church with no higher government cannot be a denomination by definition. The Lord’s church is often imitated but never duplicated.