Quote:
Originally Posted by Evangelical
The Baptist pastors "cause division" every time they choose to attend their own church rather than the different church right next door.
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Why do you not apply that to the pastors and members of that different church next door?
And if you do, then on what basis do you think they should or must meet together? If there are nearly too many for a reasonable meeting in either one, then two is almost assuredly called for. What do you now have to dig down into for the purpose of deriding them? That they disagree over how communion/Eucharist should be labeled, observed, and how often? Over the mode of baptism? That one is truly Calvinist while the other is less so? Would you insist that the two forget it all and just constantly mix among themselves so as to make the differentiation immaterial?
What would you then say about the need for a unified message? A clear sounding of the trumpet to put it in LRC terms?
The fact is that the two groups sitting across the street from each other allow for peaceful meetings without conflict over unimportant things. You will generally find that the two groups are not so "divided" to use your terminology. They are both clear that the other is part of the body of Christ. And they are typically clear that their differences are not a bar to salvation or to actively joining together for the work of Christ in the world.
The "division" that you insist is there is not really so divided. Nothing like the problems going on in Corinth.