Quote:
Originally Posted by testallthings
The bone of contention under this thread is denominationalism. Spurgeon was not against other Christians (at least in that quotations), neither am I.
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Then with that in light, can you see that it is possible that denominationalism is just a windmill against which to draw your sword? It is nothing other than people. And unless you think something really bad about the leadership of certain denominations (like saying they aren't Christians), then how are you separating the Christians from the organizations in which they are found?
I am not pretending that there is nothing potentially problematic with the kind of organizations that we call denominations (though I have yet to see how that is true). And I do not disagree that the people who constitute them may not always be perfect in every sense of the word. But the fact that assemblies join together in sharing theological resources and come to joint conclusions that they hold to about certain teachings is not, in itself, wrong. It does not appear that everybody is going to arrive at a consensus on enough to simply join together as one. That may be a shame, but for everyone (that means everyone) the problem is "me." I think a certain way and on "this point" I am not sure that someone making an "it seems good to the Holy Spirit and to us" kind of statement about it that is much different is going to fly. Even the LRC and each independent free group would say the same thing.
The problem is not the denominations. It is the importance laid on something that is not clearly something of the core faith in the Bible. Something that is not so clearly defined because it is not what the Bible is really about. And whether you point at a whole denomination of assemblies that think one particular way, or just that single home group that does the same thing in its own unique collection of beliefs, it is not about denominations. That is a boogeyman created to make someone else simply wrong because of the denomination without addressing where you (or I) am wrong despite there being no denomination.
So rather than trying to fix the whole plethora of understanding of side issues, maybe the thing to do is to recognize that all of the others, despite disagreement in the irrelevant, are part of the same body of Christ with respect to the faith. Many are doing that. Whole denominations are clear that they are not themselves, alone, the body of Christ. They do not despise the others.
The goal is to find ourselves as one. And Paul stated the "ones" without mentioning a single side issue. It was Christ, Father, Spirit, baptism (among a few others). It was not guitars and drums, or only piano, or only ac apella. It was not a single goblet of wine and one broken wafer of bleached white four (without yeast) v little individual cups and broken saltines. It was not pre-trib v post-trib. It is not even little dark room v everyone goes straight to heaven.
Is that enough for us to drop our wall of partition and see if the same is happening on the other side? We are charged to be one. And if we are going to get this worked up over the unimportant such that we remain at odds even on the important (where we generally do agree), then may be we are our own worse enemy.