Christian Unity: Divisions Among Those Who Believe or Claim To Believe Christ Divine

Christian Unity: Divisions Among Those Who Believe or Claim To Believe Christ Divine “CHRISTIAN UNITY”
Divisions Among Those Who Believe,
or Claim To Believe Christ Divine
By H. L. Reynolds How these divisions have come about; that is, how these various separate sectarian bodies have come to be.

I want to say, right in the beginning of this discourse, that the cause of and blame for any and all divisions among those who claim to be followers of Christ, from the establishment of the church until now, lies at the door of man! The blame is not on the Christ,—on any ambiguity of his statements, or doubleness of his purpose—but on man. In fact, the Saviour of mankind prayed that his followers be one. In John 17:20-21 we find our Lord praying this prayer—“Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; 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.”
Yet, I have heard sectarian preachers thanking God for the different denominations, so that each man can join the church of his choice. Further, I
have heard them say, “I don’t believe God intended us all to see alike.”

I have heard them quote John 15:15 in support of their theory that God intended that there should be different denominations,. Let us look at this passage for a moment: “I am the vine, ye are the branches: he that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit.” At first glance it becomes evident that the Lord here was talking to his disciples, and not to several different denominations—in fact no such thing was in existence at that time.

Those of us who lament the fact that infidelity is scattered abroad throughout our land know that the greatest contributing factor to this evil is the divided condition of those who claim to follow Christ. Brethren, it is the duty of every Christian to make every effort in his power toward unity, without, of course, sacrificing any principle of the doptrine of Christ. The observer who notes the divided s,tate of so-called Christendom, cannot but ask the question —“How have all these separate sectarian bodies come to be?” The answer to this question can be s,ummed up in a few words. In every case, it was either (1) A desire for prominence by their founders, or a misguided zeal for God—i. e.; (2) A zeal of God, not according to knowledge. The establishment of any denomination can be traced to one of these two causes.

Let us, look at the church during the days of the apostles. Acts 2:46 reads thusly: “And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart.” Accord means harmony or agreement, hence they con-tinued daily with agreement or harmony. Acts 2:42 reads: “And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayer.” These two passages teach us that in the beginning, there was unity among the followers of Christ. However, this condition of harmony and agreement did not continue for long, for we hear the apostle Paul saying to the Corinthian brethren: 1 Corinthians 1:11 : “For it hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions, among you. Now this I say, that every one of you .saith I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ. Is Christ divided? was Paul crucified for you? or were you baptized in the name of Paul?” The brethren at Corinth were divided; over what were they divided? Were they divided over the divinity of Christ? No! Were they divided over the mode of baptism? No! Well, what were they divided over? They were divided over their ideal of a preacher. Some thought Paul the greater, so they said we’re of Paul; others thought Apollos was the better, so they said we’re of Apollos; others, said Peter baptized me, so we’re of Cephas; still others said we are of Christ. Sad to say this condition exists in some congregations, today. Here is an example: A certain congregation is considering employing a preacher to conduct the annual summer meeting; Brother A suggests Brother Jones as the logical man, and offers twenty-five dollars toward his support if he is employed; but, says he, “if you don’t hire him I won’t give a dime.” This, of course, is an extreme example, but it has been known to happen. Division is sinful, and therefore should be avoided. From the church at Corinth, we go to the church at Galatia, where we find false teachers trying to bind on Christians the commands of the law. But wre hear Paul saying to them in Galatians 1:6-7 : “I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel, which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we, or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.”

Looking down through the centuries,, Paul saw the plight of the Christian world of today, and in Acts 20:29 he gave a word of warning that must be heeded. Paul said: “For I know this, that after my depart ing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your ownselves shall men arise, speaking perverse things (perverting the gospel) to draw away disciples after them.” This foreboding came to pass very shortly, and by the time the third century rolled around there was very little New Testament Christianity to be found. In the beginning, the oversight of the church was placed in the hands of elders, or bishops. Each local congregation had its elders. Pretty soon some of these elders began to long for more power, and began to cast about for ways and means to bring their desires for power to realization. It came to pass, after awhile that districts were created, and a bishop was placed over each district with the title of “Archbishop”—a term foreign to the Bible. From thence it was only a step to “Lord God the Pope.” Such were, and are titles given to the Pope, supreme head of the Roman Catholic Church, who claims power to forgive sins on earth.

How any people who claimed to be followers, of the Christ could so far apostatize from his teachings seems incredible to us, and yet it is true and the thing that brought it about was a departure from the simple New Testament teaching, and a desire on the part of the leadership for more and more and s.till more power. Time will not permit me to go into a detailed description of the iniquities of the Roman Catholic Church. Suffice it to say that as time went on she grew bolder in her flagrant disregard of God’s word. However, it might be pointed out that one of the most corrupt practices of this corrupt church was the sale of indulgences. This, brain child of Satan was hatched in the fertile mind of Pope Leo X early in the sixteenth century and had for its purpose the raising of money for the church.

I quote from “History of Christianity” by Abbot, p. 420. A regular tariff of prices was fixed for the pardon of all crimes, from murder downward. If a man wished to commit any outrage or to indulge in any forbidden wickedness, he could do so at a stipulated price and receive—from the Pope—a full pardon. These permits, or indulgences as they were called, were peddled all over Europe and an immense revenue was gathered from them. There was one man, John Tetzel by name, a brazen miscreant, who made himself very notorious as a peddler of these indulgences. In a cart gorgeously embellished, and accompanied by a musical band, he would approach some populous town, and tarry in the suburbs until his emissaries, had entered the place and informed the inhabitants of the signal honor which awaited them with the advent of a nuncio from the Pope, with pardons for sins at his disposal. Tetzel carried in the capacious, box of his peddler’s cart, the parchment certificate of pardons for every imaginary sin: Murder, adultery, theft, sacrilege, blasphemy—every crime had its specified price.

Following is a quotation of one of these certificates of pardon:
“I, by the authority of Jesus Christ, his, blessed Apostles Peter and Paul and the most holy pope, absolve thee from all thy sins, transgressions, and excesses, how enormous so ever they may be. I remit to thee all punishment which thou dost deserve in purgatory on their account, and restore thee to the innocence and purity thou didst possess at baptism; so that, when thou diest, the gates, of punishment shall be shut against thee, and the gates of paradise shall be thrown wide open.”

It was the sale of these indulgences that caused Martin Luther to break with Rome; not the only caus.e of course, but it was in effect, “the straw that broke the camel’s back.” So, in 1530 Luther met with several of his followers in Wittenburg, Germany, to map out a plan of action against Papal Rome. At this meeting the Augsburg confession of faith was drafted and adopted. This, was the beginning of the Lutheran Church, and came into being as a result of the labors of Martin Luther in trying to reform the Roman Catholic Church. He started out to reform the Catholic Church, and ended by founding another denomination. In 1539 Henry the VIII of England fell in love with Anne Boleyn. The king was a married man, but that didn’t keep him from planning a marriage with Anne. So he applied to the Pope of Rome for a divorce from Catherine of Aragon whom he had married twenty years before. This the Fope refused. So the king had himself divorced from her without the Pope’s consent. “This brought about an open rupture between the Pope and King Henry. Henry’s real purpose was a national Roman Catholic Church with himself as head, but this proved an impossibility. He saw there could not be two independent Catholicisms, one on the Tiber and the other on the Thames. He found himself compelled to ostensibly link himself with the new protes.tantism, and yet, in reality deeply in sympathy with the old Romanism. Henry the VIII was a Roman Catholic in all but name and en-dorsement of the papacy” (Short History of the Christian Church by Hurst). Thus was born the Episcopal Church, an offshoot of the Catholic Church, and the direct result of an illicit love affair between King Henry the VIII, of England, and Anne Boleyn.

Next, we come to consider the origin of the Baptist Church. This church had its beginning in Amsterdam, Holland, by the efforts of one John Smyth in 1607 A. D. In his volume “English Baptist Reformation,” p. 29, Dr. Geo. A. Lofton, well known Baptist historian, gives an account of the origin of the first Baptist Church in English history. Organized in 1609 A. D. it originated with John Smyth and his followers at Amsterdam, Holland, whither they fled in 1606 from persecution. They were a body of English separatists gathered by Smyth who left the English church in 1602 on account of their inclination to Puritanism and his opposition to the corruptness of the English court.” This, of course, is nearly sixteen hundred years too late to be the church we read about in the New Testament. No doubt John Smyth was zealous, but his zeal was not according to knowledge. Instead of starting a new order, he should have advocated a return to New Testament Christianity.

We now come to consider briefly the founding of the Methodist Church. This denomination had its beginning at Oxford, England, in 1729 A. D. when four young Oxford students led by John Wesley met to organize a society to inject a little more spirituality into the Episcopal Church. They were all members of the Episcopal Church, and had no idea of starting a new denomination. John Wesley himself said, quote, “On Monday, May the first, our little society began in London; but it may be observed that the first rise of Methodism, so called, was in Nov. 1729 when four of us met together at Oxford. The second rise of Methodism was at Savannah, Georgia, in 1736, when twenty or thirty persons met at my house. The third rise of Methodism was at London, May the first 1737 when forty or fifty of us agreed to meet together every evening in order to free conversation, which began and ended with singing and prayer.” Continuing Wesley declares, “I am under God, the father of the whole family.” So we see this denomination had its beginning as a society in the Episcopal Church, with really no thought by its founder of its ever becoming a separate and distinct body. The reformers in the sixteenth century—Luther, Melanchthon, Calvin, Wycliff, Zwingli, etc. were trying to reform the Roman Catholic Church. The Episcopal Church was the result of King Henry’s desire for a more prominent part in church affairs, as, well as his desire for a new wife. The Methodist Church is the result of a society within the Episcopal Church, that finally grew bigger than the church itself. It is a notable fact that the religious world is not divided over what the Bible teaches, but what it does not teach. There is a basis, upon which all religious people can be united today. Accept the Bible and the Bible alone as our rule of faith and practice, speak where the Bible speaks, be silent where the Bible is silent.
Think on these things.