Daily I pray for the unity of all believers in Jesus. Sadly the world is so divided that we are impotent in our witness for Jesus as the Christ for a fallen world. In fact we in our religious communities stand in direct opposition to the prayer of Jesus in John 17:20-26 (ESV).
20 “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. 24 Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. 25 O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. 26 I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”
Some say we are all one, but that is a deceitful statement, for we are not one. We are not one in faith, we are not one in our message, we are not one in practice. We mostly agree verbally that Jesus is the Son of God. But our agreement ends there. Some encyclopedias cite as many as 31,000 denominations plus worldwide. This is a staggering number and it gets more fragmented with the passing of time. We disagree on how one becomes a Christian, some say we are Christian when we recite the “sinners’ prayer”, some say that all you have to do is “believe only”, some say infants must be baptized (Roman Catholic sprinkles; Greek Orthodox immerses three times), others say only accountable people are to be baptized, while still others argue no baptism is needed or required of God. This makes it plain, we are not in agreement on even HOW one becomes a Christian.
Some of the confusion on baptism is because of the word itself. We can blame the translators of the King James Version for this. To be fair we should note their lives were on the line. When they were commissioned to translate the Word of God from the original language they were instructed to be accurate to the original languages and forbidden to contradict the “Church Fathers”…under penalty of being beheaded. They understood their charge and when they came to the Greek word Baptitzo which means immerse, they were stuck. The “Church Fathers” had taught for a thousand years that baptism was sprinkling, which is a contradiction of the original language…so off with the translators heads…what were they to do? They invented a new word (transliterated) which has helped to cloud the religious world in confusion. Even though every Greek scholar, and serious Bible students know this, excuses are made to dismiss the very command of Jesus to immerse. They willfully seek to change the command of Jesus.
The truth is we have people that are dishonest about what God wants us to know and do. Jesus commanded immersion Mark 16:15-16; Matthew 28:18-20. His Apostles commanded it in Acts 2:38; Phillip the Evangelist immersed the Ethiopian Eunuch in Acts 8: 35-40; Paul was immersed Acts 9: 18 (a fuller account of this is Acts 22:1-16); Peter commanded Cornelius to be immersed…over and over again. It cannot be they were sprinkled or immersed for the word always meant in the 1st century, immersion.
We shall remain divided and weakened unless we can all give up our sectarian thinking and return to the only authority for the Christian faith, God’s Word. The great Apostle Paul had this to say in Ephesians 4:1-7 (ESV):
4 I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. 7 But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift.
We must stop playing word games. How many bodies are there? The world recognizes over 31,000, God recognizes ONE. How many immersions (baptisms) are there? The religious world says multiple, God says ONE. If any of us are party to this division, let us stop. Let us humble ourselves before God and let us agree with God’s Word:
Romans 3:4 (ESV)
By no means! Let God be true though every one were a liar, as it is written, “That you may be justified in your words, and prevail when you are judged.”
In the coming weeks it is my purpose to examine this subject more in depth. We have lost our sense of purpose and forgotten our focus, which is to be like Jesus, let us start with His prayer for all believers. We have forgotten that we are to be a movement about unity. Not ecumenical, but Biblical unity based upon God’s Word. We are to build bridges using the Word of God to find that unity. The sad reality is that we have stopped trying to bring divided believers together. We can all be one, if we all follow God’s Word. So follow me each week on my blog www.missionthailandblog.wordpress.com
Steven Webb, evangelist
(c)2016
Unity of the Faith 