Posted by deangonzales on May 5, 2008
Part 5: Some Biblical Guidelines for Expressing Catholicity (cont.)
In our previous post we looked at two guidelines that should facilitate to some degree the cultivation and realization of the visible Christian unity for which Christ prayed in John 17. In this final post, I’ll offer two more guidelines that should promote this goal in a way that does not compromise our commitment to the truth of God’s word.
Overemphasizing Doctrinal Distinctives While Overlooking Doctrinal Agreement
Sometimes it’s good and necessary to emphasize our doctrinal distinctives. For example, when people ask what makes our church unique from other Christian churches or when we’re preparing potential members for membership or when we’re cautioning our present members against doctrinal aberrations, we will have to introduce and explicate our Reformed Baptist distinctives. It’s possible, however, to so emphasize what makes us different from other churches across town that we fail to give proper weight to what makes us like other churches across town. We can appear more zealous to convert other Christians to our distinctives than to convert sinners to Jesus. We can give the impression, perhaps unintentionally, that we’re more concerned to propagate the 1689 than the gospel of Jesus Christ.
I don’t believe that was the driving concern behind the framers of our Confession. Our Baptist forefathers borrowed most of our Confession from the confessions of other denominations. They simply took the Presbyterian Westminster Confession of Faith and the Congregational Savoy Declaration and made a few modifications. And their purpose was not to emphasize their distinctiveness but rather to highlight their likeness to these other communions. In effect they were saying, “Except for a few distinctives, we are just like you.” That’s the disposition we ought to have towards like-minded churches.
Brothers, let us have the disposition of the great evangelist George Whitefield. Once, as Whitefield was preaching in Philadelphia, he raised his eyes towards heaven and cried:
“Father Abraham, whom do you have in heaven? Any Episcopalians?”
“No!”
“Any Presbyterians?”
“No!”
“Have you any Independents or Baptists?”
“No!”
“Have you any Methodists there?”
“No! No! No!”
“Then whom have you there?”
“We don’t know those names here. All who are here are Christians—believers in Christ—those who have overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony.”
“O, if this is the case,” said Whitefield, “then God help me, God help us all, to forget party names and to be Christians in deed and truth!”
We do well to imitate Whitefield in this respect. Let us be evangelical Christians first. Let us be reformed evangelical Christians second. And let us be Reformed Baptist evangelical Christians third.
Practical Steps to Cultivate and Manifest Christian Unity
It’s not enough to agree in principle. We must endeavor to take some practical steps to implement the truth of Christian unity. Here are some suggestions:
At the very least, acknowledge and pray for all true churches of Christ. We should consider including a category on our Midweek Prayer service outline that reads, “Revival and reformation among all true churches of Christ.” And when we pray that prayer, we shouldn’t just think of Reformed Baptist churches. We should think of evangelical Presbyterian churches, Bible churches, Southern Baptist churches, Lutheran churches, Pentecostal churches, and even Arminian churches. Wherever the true gospel is still preached—be it ever so faintly—there we have a true church that needs our prayers. This is the least we can do, and for some of these churches, it will probably be all that we can do at this time. But with others, we can do more.
Encourage appropriate levels of Christian fellowship on a personal and corporate level when appropriate and possible. Ask the pastor of the church across the street or down the block out to lunch. Cultivate a friendship with the Presbyterian or Pentecostal family whose child is on your son’s baseball team. Attend conferences sponsored by other Bible-believing churches when possible. And when appropriate, apprise your people of such opportunities. Perhaps the day will come when you can join with one of these other churches and have a 4th of July or Labor Day picnic together. Even better than that—perhaps the day will come when your church and one or two other churches in town could have a combined communion service. Can you imagine two or three or four churches all gathered together on a Lord’s Day demonstrating Christian unity at the Lord’s Table! That time may not be now. But I hope that the future possibility of such a day is appealing to you. (And may I add, I personally don’t believe those churches would have to embrace the 1689 before that could happen.)
Cooperate with other brethren and churches in causes common to both when appropriate and possible. I’m also glad when I occasionally see some non-Reformed Baptist ministers speaking at our Reformed Baptist Family Conferences. I like what R. C. Sproul does in his Ligonier Conferences. He usually picks a theme or topic that’s conservative and relevant to the church but that’s denominationally broad. One year the theme was, “Turning the World Upside Down,” and he invited speakers like John MacArthur (dispensationalist), Sinclair Ferguson (Presbyterian), Albert Martin (Reformed Baptist), and John Piper (non-cessationist). All these men are evangelical and generally reformed in their view of salvation. But they have their own distinctives. Nevertheless, those distinctives did not keep them from working together for the broader cause of the gospel. The “Together for the Gospel” conferences appear to be another laudable effort to promote unity across denominational lines.
I close with the words of that great Anglican bishop and man of God, J. C. Ryle. Commenting on Christ’s high-priestly prayer for unity among His disciples, Ryle writes:
Let the recollections of this part of Christ’s prayer abide in our minds, and exercise a constant influence on our behavior as Christians. Let no man think lightly, as some men seem to do, of schism, or count it a small thing to multiply sects, parties, and denominations. These very things, we may depend, only help the devil and damage the cause of Christ. ‘If it be possible, as much as lieth in us, let us live peaceably with all men’ (Rom. 12:18). Let us bear much, concede much, and put up with much, before we plunge into secessions and separations. They are movements in which there is often much false fire. Let rabid zealots who delight in sect-making and party-forming, rail at us and denounce us if they please. We need not mind them. So long as we have Christ and a good conscience, let us patiently hold on our way, follow the things that make for peace, and strive to promote unity. It was not for nothing that our Lord prayed so fervently that His people might be ‘one.’ (Expository Thoughts on the Gospels, 4:443-44).
Posted by deangonzales on April 21, 2008
PART 4: SOME BIBLICAL GUIDELINES FOR EXPRESSING CATHOLICITY
We should strive to walk on the same road with other Christians and churches as far as prudence and conscience will permit. We may not be able to travel far with some. I believe we can go quite a distance on the same road with others. I would suggest the four basic guidelines that should help us express a healthy and God-honoring biblical catholicity that will to some degree advance the realization of Christ’s high-priestly prayer (John 17).
Be Discerning, but Not Cynical.
According to a recent Gallop poll, at least 80% of all Americans consider themselves to be Christians. We intuitively (and justifiably) suspect the correspondence between such statistics and the real spiritual condition of such a large portion of our fellow Americans. Many of the people we meet seem to be Christian only in name, which fits with what the Bible tells us. In the last days, men will have form of godliness, but they will deny the power of it. Therefore, we must exercise discernment. We cannot simply assume that every man or church that bears the name Christian is truly Christian.
I once received a postcard from the Reverend Ellen Alston, Pastor of Love Chapel United Methodist Church. The card reads, “We may not all believe exactly the same thing, but the people of the United Methodist Church believe in God and each other. If you’re searching for something to believe in, our hearts, our minds and our doors are always open.” I don’t doubt they are an open group of people. They’re very open—probably too open! In fact, long ago the United Methodist denomination as a whole departed from a commitment to the inspiration and authority of Scripture. Now they’re so open, they teach more heresy than gospel.
So we must be discerning. But we don’t want to become too cynical. We don’t want to assume that everyone who is not a part of our church is not a true believer. Nor should we automatically assume that every Christian outside our church doesn’t care about good doctrine, doesn’t believe in the sovereignty of God, doesn’t honor the Lord’s Day, doesn’t show reverence in worship, etc. There are some people who suspect everyone else to be a communist. The mailman is a communist. The barber is a communist. The next-door neighbor is a communist. And I fear that there may be a few Reformed Baptists who suspect all non-Reformed Baptists of being either unsaved or at the very least unspiritual.
But we must not view the believers and churches out there with jaundiced eye! Yes, there may be weaknesses. Yes, there may be deficiencies. But until we know for sure what those weaknesses and deficiencies, we should try to think the best. Try to give the professing brother or the church the benefit of the doubt. After all, true love “believes all things and hopes all things” (1Cor 13:7).
Distinguish Between Essential and Non-Essential Doctrines
Some teachings in Scripture are of greater importance than other teachings in Scripture. Some doctrines are clearly essential to our salvation while others are not necessarily so. Perhaps some may view an attempt to distinguish between more important and less important doctrines as “presumptuous arrogance.” After all, who are we to decide what’s more or less important in God’s Word! But our Puritan forefathers made such distinctions:
All things in Scripture are not alike plain in themselves, nor alike clear unto all; yet those things which are necessary to be known, believed, and observed for salvation, are so clearly propounded and opened in some place of Scripture or other.
The paragraph implies that there are some truths in Scripture that are “necessary to be known, believed, and observed for salvation,” and there are some that are not necessary per se. The Scriptures also appear to assign varying levels of importance to distinct teachings within God’s word: “To do righteousness and justice is desired by the LORD more than sacrifice [emphasis added]” (Prov. 21:3); “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others [emphasis added]” (Matt. 23:23); “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures [emphasis added” (1 Cor. 15:3).
I’m not suggesting that we should treat less important doctrines as irrelevant. To paraphrase Christ, “Do the weighty matters first without neglecting the lighter matters.” I’m simply suggesting that it’s biblically appropriate to distinguish levels of importance among the truths of God’s Word. For example, there are several doctrines of “first importance” in the Bible: the vicarious death and bodily resurrection of Christ are the very heart of the Christian gospel (1Cor 15:3-4). The future resurrection of all believers is the very hope of the gospel—to deny it is to undermine the very gospel itself (1Cor 15:13-19). The doctrine of justification by faith alone is essential to the Christian gospel—the Apostle Paul anathematizes anyone who preaches differently (Gal 1:8-9). The apostolic authority of the New Testament and the divine authority of all Scripture is another essential doctrine—those who will not acknowledge the Scriptures as the word of God may eventually forfeit the right to be recognized as Christians (Matthew 10:14-15, 40; 2 Thes. 3:6, 14-15; 1 John 4:6). These are non-negotiable. I would not advocate unity with professed Christians or churches that willfully deny these truths.
But I don’t feel that way about every truth in the Bible. Take, for example, the doctrine of church government. Is it necessary to have a congregational form of government in order to be a true church of Christ? Or is it possible to be a true church of Christ and have a Presbyterian or Episcopal form of church government? As a Reformed Baptists, we may believe that congregationalism or independency is necessary for the bene esse [well-being] of the church, but we do not believe that it’s necessary for the esse [being] of the church. I’m sure there are many true churches with wrong form of church government. But I don’t think what the Bible has to say about church government is as important or as clear as what it has to say about human depravity or salvation by grace.
Brothers, can you see why this is important for Christian unity? If you and I do not make these distinctions, then we’re going to respond to a non-Reformed Baptist brother the same way we would respond to a non-evangelical apostate. We’re going to treat a dispensational Bible church the same way we’d treat a liberal Methodist theologian. I believe that such behavior would be contrary to the intent of Christ’s prayer.
Posted by deangonzales on April 15, 2008
Part 3: Some Inadequate Solutions Considered
In two previous posts, we noted an emphasis in Christ’s high-priestly prayer upon the theme of Christian unity, as well as several factors that have prevented such unity from being fully realized. Disagreements have led to divisions, which in turn have led to the formation of different denominations or sects. Not surprisingly, Christians have not agreed how to solve this dilemma. As a result, there have been different approaches to Jesus’ “unity prayer” in John 17.
Spiritual Unity?
Some interpret the unity for which Christ prays as purely spiritual in nature. The moment you and I believe the gospel, we are spiritually united to Jesus Christ. Being united to Christ, we are also spiritually united to one another, as well as to every believer alive or who has ever lived. There is, as it were, an invisible union between all believers. Some believe that this is the unity Christ has in mind in his high-priestly prayer. And since the divisions among Christians cannot affect this unity, we don’t have to worry about it. After all, our spiritual unity is invisible. There is an element of truth to this view. We are related to all believers in a spiritual and invisible sense. However, that’s not the only kind of unity Christ is praying for in this text. The purpose clauses in verses 21 and 23 make it clear that the unity Christ has in view must be visible to the world.
Future Unity?
Some remind us that there won’t be any denominations in heaven. Perhaps, they say, Christ is just praying that his disciples will safely make it to heaven where they will finally be united as one. Once again, there is truth in this view. Certainly, Christian unity will be brought to perfection in glory. But the unity for which Christ prayed actually began on Pentecost (Acts 2:1, 42-46). And if this unity will persuade a lost world that Jesus is the Christ (John 17:21, 23), then it must do so in this age!
Worldly Compromise?
Some take the ad hominem approach. Rather than seriously wrestling with the problem, they simply label anyone who talks of visible unity among Christians of different denominations as a weak, worldly compromiser. But certainly Christ was not a compromiser. And if He wanted and prayed for unity among all His true disciples, then we cannot write off all attempts at such unity as worldly compromise.
Practically Unimportant?
I fear this is the approach many people take. In theory, most would agree that Christian unity is a good thing. In practice, however, there’s not much we can do about the problem of divisions. Therefore, let’s just ignore the problem. But if the Bible calls Christians to be united and if Christ prays towards that end, then we can’t just ignore the problem! We must do everything in our power to remove any unnecessary impediments Christ’s prayer. In the next installment, we’ll look at some practical principles and guidelines that we can implement in order to work towards the unity for which Jesus prayed.
