The Church Achieves Greater Unity

Now, Religion in the News, a report and comment on religious trends and events being covered by the media.This week’s item if from Religious News Service, March 31, 2006, with a headline:Broadest Ever US Church Unity Group Launches.The following are excerpts:Leaders of 34 US church bodies have officially launched the broadest ever Christian unity organization in American history, and said fighting poverty will be its first priority.Christian churches together in the USA was formally inaugurated on Friday March 31^st, after a three-day meeting outside Atlanta.The loose knit group brings together five Christian families who have long been divided by historical and theological differences, including Catholics, mainline Protestants, Evangelicals and Pentecostals, historically black churches and Orthodox churches.Together the five families represent more than 100 million American Christians.The effort to form a more credible Christian witness was started almost five years ago.We finally found the courage to confront our obvious and long-standing divisions, and to build a new expression of unity that will strengthen our mission in the world, said the Reverent Wesley Grandburg Mikelson, an early architect of the new group.

Tom:

Dave,it would be wonderful if we did have the unity among Christian groups.There are at least a couple of verses in the Bible, not as many as many people think, but there are some that talk about unity.But when you put together Catholics, main-line Protestants, I’m sure many liberal Protestant organizations, Evangelicals, Pentecostals, historically black churches and Orthodox churches, and they also mentioned---this is just excerpts from the article---but we have Ron Syder of Evangelicals for social action, I think you know about Ron Syder, and Roman Catholic bishop Stephen Blair of Stockton, and they hope to have Vineyard Fellowships involved from the charismatic side, and so on.What happens to doctrine, what happens to sound doctrine, something like that?

Dave:

Well, first of all, Tom, the Bible never tells us to make unity.Ephesians Chapter 4 says:Keep the unity and the bond of peace, okay.It says there, and it’s talking about unity, there’s one baptism, one faith, one Lord, so we keep the unity that is based on sound doctrine.So, you don’t make unity by getting a lot of people together, some of whom have false doctrine, and agree to overlook their false doctrine, and let’s kind of unite around some certain few common denominators that we can all agree to.Secondly, it says that “fighting poverty will be its first priority.”That’s good, let’s fight poverty, but that is not the first priority of any Christian group.It was not Christ’s first priority, He preached the gospel, and He said, Go into all the world, preach the gospel, make disciples of all nations, and so forth, not a word about fighting poverty, in fact, Jesus, in John 12, said:The poor you will always have with you.So, He didn’t claim that there would be some way to eradicate poverty, as my dear friend Rick Warren, that’s his major attempt now.He’s going to get rid of poverty, get rid of disease, AIDS, and so forth.It’s a good social cause, but that is not the top priority for the church, it never was except for those liberals who have gone astray from the scriptures, and I don’t believe that it should be.

Tom:

Well, and for a good reason, Dave.Many people are interested in social action, and there are things that need to be done, but social action, does it change the heart?Does it put a person in a place where he thinks he’s doing something for his own salvation?I grew up in Roman Catholicism with that attitude, so that’s wrong, that didn’t change my heart.

Dave:

Tom, we have an event coming up, amazing event, it’s going to last for a thousand years, and it’s called the millennium.There will be no poverty in the millennium, everybody will have a nice home, plenty to eat, there won’t be any disease, it will be paradise on this earth, and that will not change---

Tom:

And we’ll have a good government, must add that, no being upset with the government, Jesus is going to rule and reign from Jerusalem.

Dave:

We’ll have a benevolent dictatorship, that’s what we need, perfect dictatorship, righteous, just.

Tom:

And everybody is going to be really happy forever, right, Dave?

Dave:

Well, they will all be made to behave, but it doesn’t change the heart.And Satan was locked up, it’s better than the garden of Eden, Satan can’t even get into it, it’s paradise!And when he is loosed, it says he deceives the nations.Well, he deceives them because this is in their heart already.Eve only ate of that fruit because she really wanted it and Satan came along and told her how she could have it.So, Tom, you remember, again I don’t know how many times we’ve said this, we may never have said it on this program, but we used to have a saying back in the old days, you know, because communism was a big thing back then and Marxism, and I used to say to audiences often:Now, just as an illustration---You know, communism says, We’ll put a new suit of clothes on every man and we will put everybody in a new house. And Jesus says, Big deal, you still have the same rascals living in those new suits and in those nice houses---I will put a new heart inside of every person who is willing to accept me as their Lord and Savior.Okay, then it doesn’t matter whether they’ve got a new suit or an old suit or what kind of a house they live in, but they will be transformed and they will love one another, even as I have loved them.So, that’s the difference!You’re going to have a new heart, and all of the blessings that could be brought upon this earth, Jesus said, What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, loses his soul?So, poverty, disease, it will all be done away with in the millennium.I believe it’s the final proof of the incorrigible, evil of the human heart, and that is not the way to go, because that won’t even accomplish it in the millennium with Jesus ruling!We need to bring people to Christ as their Savior from sin, the One who paid the penalty for their sins, there is no other way!