Christian Unity according to Internet
1st Internet Question: IS ORGANIZATIONAL CHRISTIAN UNITY REALLY
NEEDED TO HAVE MORE EFFECTIVE SPITITUAL UNITY?
THE RESPONSES COME FROM 3 CHRISTIAN WEBSITES
1) Stephen says: Organizational unity is for me an absolute no,
no,. Spiritual unity is an absolute necessity.
2) Corbin says: I feel it's important to have organizational
Christian unity, but only if it leads to true Spiritual unity.
3) Tom says: Humans are social, yet we frequently fear
organization. Why is this so? We fear that which we need.
Spiritual unity can only be accomplished if there is an
organization that allows us to come together and seek it. My
understanding of organization is simply a defined space where
everyone understands and follows the same rules while in that
space. Without this common ground how do we create sacred space
to share that which will bring about unity. Do we fear
organization because it calls us to follow rules? Without rules
spirituality is impossible.
4) Anne says: I tend to be somewhat an anarchist and rebellious
at heart and belonging to a church is really difficult for me. I
belong to one now and what brought me back was having small
children. I had the desire to bring them up in the traditions
and teachings of the church, feeling that I wanted community
support along with what I taught them. I guess I have been very
fortunate in that I haven't been through any terrible horror
stories as far as churches are concerned, but I am aware of
suffering caused by some churches with church people going awry
5) Shirly says: Today we Jehovah's Witnesses are organized to
carry out Jesus' command to preach the good news of the kingdom
worldwide. We are united spiritually in a way that no other
group claiming to be Christian can compare. Regardless where you
may go in the world, Jehovah's Witnesses believe the same thing
doctrinally. We remain individuals with many differences as to
culture. likes, dislikes, etc. Yet we are a true brotherhood. We
do not mix with the politics of the world and do not take up
arms against our brothers of any nation.
6) Jimmy says: I agree with Shirly about her organization, but I
strongly disagree with her about her doctrine.
7) Barbara says: This is not a"one size fits all" issue. The
answer to your question lies in the level of faith of the
Christian. We are all at different levels-the purpose of a
Church organization is to give teaching, support, strength, and
above all, fellowship by example, to those weak in their faith.
Those of us who have a strong faith and have found the Truth
have a stewardship toward those who struggle still to obtain the
"mustard seed". We must answer the call of our Lord and go where
He directs us, to administer to His Sheep, our brothers and
sisters in Christ. This may, or may not be, in a Church
organization. Actually we must all acheive Spiritual unity
before organizational unity can be acheived.
8) Johnny says: This seems to be a movement towards a shallow
unity at the expense of truth, which may be based largely in
part on the protest movements of the 60s and 70s. True unity
must involve both an inner change of heart and life with
doctrinal and practical uniformity.
2nd Internet Question: WHAT WOULD BE THE BIGGEST PROBLEM IN
ORGANIZED CHRISTIAN UNITY - THE LORD'S SUPPER, BAPTISM, CHURCH
GOVERNMENT STRUCTURE, WOMEN ISSUES, BIBLICAL INTERPRETATIONS,
THE PAPACY, ETC.?
1) Corbin says: I believe it would be the Papacy because how do
you deal with the infallibility of the Pope on moral issues.
2) Johnny says: That's really an interesting question, You've
definitely picked a big stumbling block for Protestants, Corbin,
with papal infallibility. Especially since the Catholic Church
condemned much of the Reformational ideas and reformists. Then
there is the Evangelical's emphasis on being "born again" and
all they mean theologically with that. On the one hand, it is
encouraging that the Episcopaleans and Lutherans worked out a
way to accept each other in unity, able to supp together and
administer all rites together. On the other hand, 20+ years of
dialogue seems terribly long to resolve together two
denominations that most of the world can't even tell apart.
Personally, I think they all need to recognize that there are a
lot more grey areas of doctrinal interpretation than they
realize. Thank you for the question that deals with a matter
that is close to my heart - the need for much more Unity of the
Spirit amongst the brethern.
3) Melvin says: The pope has only been infallible since the
1800s and that was because the pope said that he was infallible,
which means nothing if he is fallible. Besides, nobody knows
what that means. I think that sharing communion is about the
best that we can hope for.
4) Johnny says: Although it has never been stated until the
1800s, I believe the infallibility of the Pope was implicitly
understood since the beginning of the Papacy.
5) Bernard says: The biggest problem for me is that
organizational unity can never be real in heart, it must by its
nature be coercive.
6) Mary Anne says: I agree Berny. Organizations are by nature,
static and ultimately death-dealing to the life of the Spirit.
Spirit moves. It is fluid, dynamic, and changeful. Box it up in
a pile of laws and statutes and codes and contracts and pretty
soon it's dead as a doornail. Unity I do not support. Love and
wonder and appreciation in diversity I do. Love your
individualism. I hope it's contagious.
7) Morgan says: I recall an old saying which went "in
essentials, unity; in non-essentials, diversity; in all things,
charity". I think there's a lot to be said for that. I work
ecumenically, and I find that valuable and worthwhile. But
ecumenism, and for that matter, multi-faith understanding, has
never been about seeing what is the lowest common denominator on
which to base a spurious unity, but an appreciation of the
diversity of faith and the celebration of that diversity,
alongside a recognition of where we can connect with one another
whilst retaining our differences.
8) Jane says: For me, the biggest obstacle to any kind of human
unity is the humans themselves. I don't have to look further
than my own front door to see that. As far as Christian unity
goes, it seems that the second biggest obstacle to unity is the
definition of what it means to be Christian. I have seen so many
definitions of this and it can be quite confusing.
9) Debbie says: The primary problem with Christian unity is that
of differing traditions/doctrines/and/ beliefs. They all cannot
be correct; however, they all can be wrong, but it's impossible
for all to be right concerning the nature of God and Salvation.
10) Mary Jane says: I have to agree with those who say that
disunity in the understanding of Scripture is probably the
biggest problem in the way of unity. Listening to all the
chatter about what this verse means and what that verse means
makes one think that 99% of folks have bitten the apple if you
know what I mean. That is, suffered the effect of a kind of self
pride that enticed us to eat of the tree of the knowledge of
good and evil and now we all seem to think we are gods and we
can decide what is right and wrong and what makes one a
Christian and what can't possibly make one a Christian, and what
is or isn't necessary to believe. Another term to describe this
is original sin.
11) Herbert says: Jane, your feet are not only wet, you're
really swimming now.
12) Samuel says: The only Christian unity that will come will be
at the end of time.
13) Clifford says: I think the biggest problem would be trying
to get everyone to agree on what is the correct thing to
believe. There are so many different types of churches today
because whoever started them had a slightly different idea about
how something should be interpreted, and when someone else
agreed with him, it started a new church, So how do you get them
all to believe the same thing?
14) Celeste says: I agree with Cliff. I think this is
impossible, so I think we should try to build our unity on love
and respect despite the differences, and that is something I
believe could work, because we all want to love God and God tell
us to love one another.
15) Corbin says: Another problem could be the meaning of
Apostolic Succession. The Roman Catholics believe that Apostolic
Succesion just came from Peter, but I believe Apostolic
Succession actually came from all the Apostles so that every
Christian is representing Christ here on earth with the Bible as
our guidebook.
3rd Internet Question: ONE ANSWER TO CHRISTIAN UNITY MIGHT BE
FOR CHRISTIANS TO ORGANIZE AN ECUMENICAL CHRISTIAN CHURCH WHERE
THE CHURCH WOULD RECRUIT ALL CHRISTIANS, INCLUDING ROMAN
CATHOLICS, TO BE MINISTERS TO WHOMEVER NEEDED HELP. WHAT DO YOU
THINK?
1) Jim says: This is a nice idea. Unity is certainly what the
world needs today. And the branches of Christianity started out
with this idea in mind, the problem being that with each new
one, even with the unification of Christianity in mind, it is
just adding itself to the list of branches of Christianity. The
World Christian Encyclopedia estimates that in 1900 there were
2000 sects of Christianity whereas in 1990 there were 21,000.
Almost 5 new ones every year.
2) Stephen says: My experience of ecumenical endeavors is that
the mainstream churches generally work well together whilst
recognizing that our various traditions do create differences,
but these can be a source of positive diversity and richness.
3) Corbin says: I'm a member of this type of church down here in
Argentina, and we're really one big happy family as far as
Christian unity is concerned. Of course we have our family
squabbles like all families do, but this is strictly in-house
4) Melvin says: Corbin, I think this kind of church sounds like
a dream. I've heard of other churches like it and I think that
if we can get it to work in more places, it will definitely be a
big step in the right direction for the whole of Christianity.
5) Miichael says: I think that would be a great idea. We
Christians then could work much more efficiently in solving
Global Issues.
The names of the commentarians have been changed to protect the
privacy of the Internet contributers, but their comments are
accurate.