ONE Church...

What are your thoughts on a unified Christian Church?

I think all would agree that there is strength in numbers (a very important factor in the political world we live in) so are we working towards a mutual understanding that might lead to ONE Christian church and one unified voice?

What are your thoughts on the ecumenical climate in your particular Christian church?

May we all be one!
Scott

Scott -

I love you buddy, but this one looks like a dream to me. You stand NO CHANCE of uniting the various sects of the Christian Church. Just think of what it would take to get the extreme fundamentalists to see eye to eye with those that truly love mankind and want to help. I live in Kentucky, and from my original hometown, I could be at a Church that drinks Strychnine and handles snakes every Sunday in about a 30 minute drive. And they would be the first to tell you that you were going to Hell if you didn't believe as they did. That said, they would be the first to pray for your soul.

Even in your most magnanimous moment, I don't think even you could embrace that.

May you walk with God as you see him,
TVOR

Its been tried...in the beginning..and the over 300 secs of Christianity is the result of the measure of its failure. It wasn't like there were many branches and there still are today. It was..there was one and over disagreements there are now many and probably 100 years from now there will be even more subsections. A bigger question may be while are there so many subsections of that religion. My theory is dogma. Christanity is the most dogma run religion there is. There is orthodox Jews and ****e muslims but that is one per group. But the Christian belief in dogma and different intrepretations of that dogma creates the natural result of the many different Christian beliefs. To further complicate it suggestion that the Bible is the manisfestation of divine intervention which would suggest that all interpretations would have to be absolute. If the religion could dismiss the idea of divine intervention of his holy works and relax on the ideology of dogma may but with the way the worship is constructed in many of the chruches..and definetly not all but many, complete or even a high level of collaboration is not likely.

Man does the judging now because this is man's day. But there is a day coming when God will do the judging. After the Church of the Body is gathered together in Christ, when the dead in Christ shall rise and the alive shall be changed, then we will finally have one Church.

robtex said:

... It was..there was one and over disagreements there are now many and probably 100 years from now there will be even more subsections.

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Could we say that this was the "Big Bang" of the Christian Church?

TVOR

true blood said:

Man does the judging now because this is man's day. But there is a day coming when God will do the judging. After the Church of the Body is gathered together in Christ, when the dead in Christ shall rise and the alive shall be changed, then we will finally have one Church.

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I agree...but if we tried to have one christian church there'd be an arguement about WHO would lead this church...the POPE? Perhaps Billy Graham? It'd never make it...all could believe in the same thing(not that they ever will till God returns) and still not agree on who would head up such a church.

SOGFPP said:

What are your thoughts on a unified Christian Church?

I think all would agree that there is strength in numbers (a very important factor in the political world we live in) so are we working towards a mutual understanding that might lead to ONE Christian church and one unified voice?

What are your thoughts on the ecumenical climate in your particular Christian church?

May we all be one!
Scott

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Well for starters, I don't think that the "One Church" has ever ceased to exist. Just because somebody breaks off, it doesn't destroy the whole. It simply means somebody broke off from the Church.

For that reason, I don't do the ecumenical thing. I won't judge those in other denominations, but they are normally schisms of schisms of schisms and so on. Ecumenical negotiation requires mutual recognition and basically repudiates the doctrine of One Church. After all, everybody was equally valid before hand, so what's so important about it.

IOW, it requires accepting a Protestant ecclessiology. The only true Church must be wholly invisible and scattered amongst various bodies. It's invisible and unkowable.

It is my assertion that the inter-Christian dialogue we have should be for understanding each other. We shouldn't compromise a single claim (ecumenical unity is impossible without that), we should respect one another, and we should quite likely leave the way we came in. If someone changes, whether to my faith or to someone elses, well that is good, but an ecumenical unity is a syncratistic unity, and that compromises everyone's faith, unless the person in question makes no assertions nobody else disagrees with.

It's a pessimistic view, but I think it's a realistic view .

may said:

LOGICALLY there must be just one true religion. This is in harmony with the fact that the true God is a God, "not of disorder, but of peace." (1 Corinthians 14:33) Furthermore, Jesus Christ spoke of those who practice such religion as worshiping God "with spirit and truth," and truth is never at disagreement with itself. (John 4:23, 24) But who are these true worshipers today? How can you identify them and know that their worship is indeed the one approved by God?




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This cannot be decided simply on the basis of what people and organizations claim to be. In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus pointed out that many would call him "Lord, Lord," claiming to have done notable things in his name. Yet he would say to them: "I never knew you! Get away from me, you workers of lawlessness." Not only words but also appearances can be deceptive. Jesus said that false prophets would come in sheep’s covering, while inside they would be like devouring wolves. However, he gave us a rule by which we can distinguish between the true servants of God and the false ones, saying: "By their fruits you will recognize them." He showed that what really determines whether we are true worshipers of God is not merely our claims or even our apparently commendable works, but our actually doing the will of the heavenly Father.—Matthew 7:15-23.

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Arrghhhh!!! Why do so many Christian's believe that quoting the "Bible" is proof of everything they say?

Hmm... idealism. It would be great if all denominations could reconcile their differences and form one ecumenical body, but right now those differences are too great. Heck, it would even be great if all the peoples of the world could decide on one Truth that all believed in, and stop fighting over differences of faith... but this is nothing but a pipe dream.

I have always wanted not just a unified "Christian" church, but a unified church, period. If people could stop and think of the core beliefs that would unite them, instead of what would continue to divide them, it could happen.

Hi Everyone

The Bible clearly shows there can NOT be one unified church, and that his church and/or congregation would be small in number. First let's consider both Luke 13:24 and Matthew 7:13-14, it is in both of these that the road followed by true believers would be narrow and cramped, Luke 13:24, "Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able." (Authorized King James Bible: AV); And Matthew 7:13-14, "Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, abroad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: 14 Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it." (AV); thereby, clearly showing few would be entering the narrow gate "which leadeth unto life." In reality, it will be difficult for even true Christians to enter as testified to at 1 Peter 4:18, "And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear." (AV). In order to enter, we must have the right sort of guide, Luke 1:79, "To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace." (AV). Now, if one picks the wrong group, just because it is popular or the so called 'one to belong to in a community' and not because of Bible Truths, there is an important warning given at Matthew 15:14, "Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch." (AV). In fact, being with the wrong group can mean you are NOT having fellowship with the Son of God, Jesus (Yeshua) as testified to at 1 John 1:6, "If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not [have] the truth." (AV). This danger is made abundantly clear at Luke 12:32 when Jesus (Yeshua) spoke of his true followers as a little flock and not a large one, "Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom." (AV). Simply stated, his true followers will be relatively few in number which should cause all sincere individuals to question whether mainstream religion with its vast membership is heading for the narrow gate!
Your Friend in Christ Iris89