Here’s another quote, this one from Lesslie Newbigin, a missionary bishop in the Church of South India:
“The disunity of the Church is a denial of the promise and a contradiction of the purpose for which the Church is sent into the world. How can the church give to the world the message that Jesus is able to draw all men to Himself, while it continues to say, ‘Neverthless, Jesus is not able to draw us who bear His name together’? How will the world believe a message which we do not appear to believe ourselves? The divisions of the Church are a public denial of the sufficiency of the atonement.”
Back to studying….
Bekah
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Hi Bekah!
Here is an excerpt from the next chapter of the book, God Had a Son Before Mary Did. Just today I added it.
John 17
20. Not only do I pray for these but also for those who believe in me through their word,
21. that they all might be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they may also be one in us, so that the world might believe that you sent me.
22. And the glory you’ve given me, I’ve given them, that they might be one, just as we are one;
23. I in them, and you in me, that they might be perfected in unity, and so that the world may know that you sent me and that you loved them just as you loved me.
Paul said: “We have received the Spirit that is from God, that we might know the things that are freely given to us from God” (1Cor. 2:12). Paul wanted everyone who received the Spirit to take advantage of their gift from God, to learn from the Spirit and come to understand the things of God, but he was forced to admit that such was not always, not even often, the case (e.g., Gal. 4:9). Through the Spirit, the children of God share the Father’s life with Him, with His Son, and with one another. The very purpose for the Spirit being given is so that we who believe in Jesus might call on the name of the Lord together and serve Him as one (Zeph. 3:9), thereby offering a testimony to the world of the love and power of God. The fact that the children of God are divided, that they do not call on His name together or serve Him as one, is a horrible reflection on Jesus, and great reproach on his name.
The disunity of God’s family on earth may be the greatest tragedy that has ever befallen mankind, surpassing even the tragedy of the original fall of man in the garden of Eden. At least, in that case, Adam and Eve did not have God’s kind of life within them. The confusion that reigns now among those who believe is a disgrace. It is a testimony against us, and to the world, against Jesus. We are all less in Christ than we could be because of it, and only God knows how much less. All our praise of God should be mingled with fear, lest on the Day of Judgment, when all things will be made known, the righteous Judge find any of us to the least degree responsible for the divisions that exist in the family of God.
Dad