Christian Unity

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D.C. · May 19, 1904

Let us consider first a few verses found in the seventeenth chapter of John, beginning to read at the sixteenth verse: “They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth. Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word. That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.”

In these few verses we have brought before us the aim of the gospel, the object of Christ's mission to this earth, the true purpose regarding the church of God,—“that they may be one.” This is the mystery of godliness, how men and women of different minds, plans, and ideas can unite together, all speak the same thing, and be of the same mind, and yet be so different in their individuality. It is a mystery how there can be unity in diversity, and yet this is what the gospel is to accomplish, and is to be the greatest evidence to the world of the power of Christianity. Satan knows this, and so his plans are constantly to keep people divided. God's purpose is to unify.

I have thought a great deal of this lately. Although a member of the church, I now believe I held views which had in them the very element of separation that is in the world. I used to feel that it was necessary for every man to live up to his own convictions, regardless of what others might think. I must be true to myself. This is the position I have maintained for years. Now, while there is truth in this, there is also a great error in it.

When Peter came to the Saviour and said, “What shall this man do?” referring to John, the Saviour said, “What is that to thee? follow thou me.” This says clearly that God never has given authority to one man to dictate to another what he should do, that we stand related to God as individuals, and that it is impossible for any man to exercise authority of this kind. In another place the Saviour said that among the Gentiles, that is, among men of the world, they do exercise this authority one over the other, but “it shall not be so among you;” for “all ye are brethren.” While it is a sublime truth that man has an individuality, and is to sustain it, yet the carnal heart readily receives this also, and naturally cherishes its own plans, opinions, and ideas; but a sanctified individuality and conscience will feel the need of the counsel, advice, and help that can be received by fellowship; and it is for this very reason we are told that in the closing days “they that feared the Lord spake often one to another: and the Lord hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name. And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels.” That is why the apostle Paul exhorts us not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is, and so much the more as we see the day approaching.

I wish to refer to a few texts to show you that the conscience is not a safe guide. It can not always be relied upon. I will speak first of the experience of St. Paul. In the twenty-third chapter of Acts, the first verse, we find the following words: “And Paul, earnestly beholding the council, said, Men and brethren, I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day.” I have no doubt that Paul stated the truth, and he was thoroughly conscientious, as we call it. He had lived in all good conscience before God and man up to that time, and thought he was doing right. He had thought that he had a conscience of his own, and that he must be true to it. “I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day.” The twenty-fourth chapter of Acts and the sixteenth verse makes it plain that this was Paul's idea, he must be true to his conscience. “And herein do I exercise myself,” he said, “to have always a conscience void of offense toward God, and toward men.”

In the third chapter of Philippians, the third verse, we find that Paul had a conversion upon this point; for the time came in his experience when he said, “For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. Though I might also have confidence in the flesh. If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more: circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.”

Turning again to the twenty-sixth chapter of Acts, beginning at verse nine, we notice some of the things this conscience led Paul to do. “I verily thought with myself, that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. Which thing I also did in Jerusalem: and many of the saints did I shut up in prison, having received authority from the high priests; and when they were put to death, I gave my voice against them. And I punished them oft in every synagogue, and compelled them to blaspheme; and being exceedingly mad against them, I persecuted them even unto strange cities.” This is what conscience led Paul to do; and what it caused him to do it will cause any other man to do who takes the same position, who makes a god of his conscience.

I think we might with profit study the experience that came to Paul, as recorded in the ninth chapter. In the record of the stoning of Stephen, in the seventh chapter, it is stated that “the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man's feet, whose name was Saul.” The first verse of the eighth chapter says, “And Saul was consenting unto his death.” The third verse of the same chapter says, “As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering into every house, and haling men and women committed them to prison.” The first verse of the ninth chapter speaks of the continued attitude of opposition to the church of God that Saul adopted: “And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest, and desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem.” While Saul was journeying to fulfil his mission, “he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven: and he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?”

The Lord could have told Saul what he had for him to do. The Lord could have said, I want you to go into Arabia, or to such a place, and preach the gospel. But if the Lord had done that, it would have forever kept him separated from the body of believers, the church of God. So when Saul said, “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” the Lord said to him, “Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do.” God by this action united Paul to the church, and showed that he was to recognize God's voice through the church. From this we see that the true object of the gospel is to draw men together, to lead men to feel that although they have an individuality of their own, they can

not get along without one another, that they are dependent upon one another for counsel and help; to recognize that they are not a complete whole in themselves, but that it takes different members to make the body. “The eye can not say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you.” A true, sanctified individuality leads men and women to feel their dependence one on the other, and will lead them to submit one to the other in the fear of God.

Notice now a verse in the eleventh chapter of Proverbs: “Where no counsel is, the people fall: but in the multitude of counselors there is safety.” What is the good of counsel if a man feels that he is a complete whole in himself, and that he is directed by God, and must under all circumstances be true to his own convictions or feelings? If we have this confidence in the flesh, what is the need of counsel? There is no safety in that, but there is safety in the multitude of counselors. Again, notice the scripture in the fifteenth chapter and the twenty-second verse: “Without counsel purposes are disappointed: but in the multitude of counselors they are established.” Again in the twentieth chapter, the eighteenth verse: “Every purpose is established by counsel.” Also in the twenty-fourth chapter and the sixth verse: “For by wise counsel thou shalt make thy war: and in multitude of counselors there is safety.” There is safety in nothing else.

Here is a statement from a little work I have that sets the matter very clearly before us, and what is addressed to one is addressed to all: “The Lord saw the danger that would result from one man's mind and judgment controlling decisions and working out plans, and in his inspired Word we are commanded to be subject to one another, and to esteem others better than ourselves. When plans are to be laid that will affect the cause of God, they should be brought before a council composed of chosen men of experience; for harmony of effort is essential in all these enterprises.”

“Many of your councils do not bear the stamp of Heaven. You do not come to them as men who have been communing with God, and who have his mind and his merciful compassion, but as men having a firm purpose to carry out your own plans, and to settle questions according to your own minds.”

“God has made his church a channel of light, and through it he communicates his purposes and his will. He does not give one an experience independent of the church. He does not give one man a knowledge of his will for the entire church, while the church, Christ's body, is left in darkness.”

“You do not realize that independence is a poor thing when it leads you to have too much confidence in yourself, and to trust to your own judgment rather than to respect the counsel and highly estimate the judgment of your brethren, especially of those in the offices which God has appointed for the saving of his people. God has invested his church with special authority and power which no one can be justified in disregarding and despising; for in so doing he despises the voice of God.”

“Christ and his church are inseparable. To neglect or despise those whom God has appointed to lead out, and to bear the responsibilities connected with his work and with the advancement and spread of the truth, is to reject the means which God has ordained for the help, encouragement, and strength of his people. To pass these by, and think your light must come through no other channel than directly from God, places you in a position where you are liable to deception, and to be overthrown.”

“Christ is the fountain. The church is the channel of communication. Those who boast of personal independence need to be brought into closer relationship to Christ by connection with his church upon the earth.”

“I have been shown that no man's judgment should be surrendered to the judgment of any one man. But when the judgment of the General Conference, which is the highest authority that God has upon the earth, is exercised, private judgment and private independence must not be maintained, but be surrendered.”

“You greatly err in giving to one man's mind and judgment that authority and influence which God has invested in his church in the judgment and voice of the General Conference.”

“When this power which God has placed in the church is accredited to one man, and he is invested with the authority to be judgment for other minds, then the true Bible order is changed. Satan's efforts upon such a man's mind will be most subtle and sometimes overpowering, because he thinks he can affect many others through this mind. Your position on leadership is correct if you give to the highest organized authority in the church what you have given to one man. God never designed that his work should bear the stamp of one man's mind and one man's judgment.”

“As all the different members of the human system unite to form the entire body, and each performs its office in obedience to the intelligence that governs the whole, so the members of the church of Christ should be united in one symmetrical body, subject to the sanctified intelligence of the whole.”

“Unbelief suggests that individual independence increases our importance, that it is weak to yield our own ideas of what is right and proper to the verdict of the church; but to yield to such feelings and views is unsafe, and will bring us into anarchy and confusion.”

“Christ is leading out a people and bringing them into the unity of the faith, that they may be one as he is one with the Father. Differences of opinion must be yielded, that all may come into union with the body, that they may have one mind and one judgment.”

From these extracts it is clear that it is God's plan to unify, to bring together, and that it is the work of the enemy to scatter, and sooner or later we must all learn this, and this very experience we shall have to pass through. (To be concluded)