Question 32: Can you testify before the countenance of Jesus Christ, the omniscient Searcher of h...

Question 32: Can you testify before the countenance of Jesus Christ, the omniscient Searcher of hearts and Judge of the living and the dead, that you yourselves have always been one heart and one soul?

Answer: God does not require of us that we should be at this time in the perfection of one heart and one soul. We cannot say that we are completely one in spirit, but we must be one in purpose. That is, we must help one another until we all attain to the same faith and to that unity of fullness in faith of which Ephesians speaks (4:11-13). No one can say that the church at Jerusalem was one heart and one soul in the state of perfection. In the beginning they were united in their discipleship of Christ with denial of everything worldly. That they were not one in understanding may be seen in Acts 15:5, etc. Those who came from Jerusalem taught differently about circumcision than did the apostles. They had great trouble in working toward unity. It is therefore surprising that this perfect unity is demanded of us in these dreadful days, in which darkness and gloom cover all peoples. Indeed, those who boast of the inward baptism of the spirit are so disunited that they show only ignorance and discord even in the plain and clear commandments of water baptism, as well as in other fundamental points of faith.