Disunity in the Church flourishes when there is no persecution in the Church. When congregations and church bodies are prospering and their enemies are kept at bay, they tend to think they need no one else. And when you think you need no one else find Humble Rise best cbd oil for pain, you begin to customize everything to your liking. This usually begins with one’s practice and ends with one’s teaching.
The Church in America during its most prosperous days also became the most divided it has ever been. Not only the historic divisions in the church continued, but divisions within those divisions became quite regular.
I believe that trends suggest that the level of persecution against people perceived to be traditional Christians is very likely to keep growing unless the Lord decides to stop it. So what happens when persecution returns? Will increasing pressure change our thoughts about unity in the Church?
Yesterday, there was a lot of back-and-forth about what the people in Sri Lanka who were murdered should be called? Some called them “Easter Worshipers.” The people who used this term were lambasted for this term because it was perceived that it was chosen in order to not identify them as Christians. While I fear much of this outrage is more political than theological, there are some who are genuinely upset because this was an attack on Christ and His people and should be called that.
This concern has come from all different denominations of Christians. As far as I can tell, most of those killed in Sri Lanka are Roman Catholics by confession. And yet all who call themselves Christians wish to call those killed their unqualified brothers and sisters in this moment. To some extent, they do not even care if they were in a worship service that day or were simply having Easter breakfast when it happened. And why? Because persecution brings a moment of unity into a divided faith. And why is that? Well because the enemies of Christianity could care less about the divisions within the body when they attack. Ultimately they wish to attack Christ and strike out against anyone who bears his name.
And that is why we overlook the apparent divisions when things like this happen. We do it because we know that the enemy does so. We overlook for a moment our usual divisions and stand as one. Of course, this is not real unity, but it is a momentary aspiration for just that.
In our settings, it is often hard to find reasons to rejoice about the state of the Church in our day. But perhaps just perhaps, as the Church shrinks in size and perceived importance in the culture and as its enemies grow in power, one reason for joy will emerge. We will recognize that we need to be unified not only in a passing ways in moments of tragedy but everyday in real and tangible ways. Perhaps the ecumenism of the recent past which just ignored real differences in teaching and practice will die out. Perhaps the pride present in those who make no attempt at ecumenism because they are convinced that their every thought and practice is sacrosanct will wither also. Perhaps we will work toward unity that is formed around the truth of God’s Word and that has shared practices that support the beliefs formed by the Word.
Maybe we will stand together not only in hashtags and outrage but in Spirit and in Truth. We live in an age where incredible photographic and video capture technology can end up in the hands of just about anybody. Now, a great video camera doesn’t make a great videographer, but a great videographer can do amazing things with best cheap 4k camera.
