Strife and Division by C. H. Bliss

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 11, 1873

Strife and Division.

By C. H. Bliss

As the railroad trains come into the depots of our large cities, filled with passengers, the runners from the different hotels commence their various calls, which occasions such confusion that often the passengers are unable to tell the direction they wish to go.

Such is the condition of things in the religious world at the present day; and a great deal of evil results from it. Many who desire to do right, and who would be bright and shining lights in the Christian world, were they converted, ever remain aliens from Christ, and "strangers from the covenants of promise;" and when asked why they are not Christians, they refer to the many ways which are pointed out by the various religious bodies of the day, and declare themselves unable to decide which are in the right.

Thus precious souls remain out of Christ and are lost, because of division and strife among professed Christians. This class of people are by no means few. Thousands are in this condition. Perhaps many of them have no desire, naturally, to engage in the theological discussions of the day. They prefer peace.

But other evils arise from this divided state of the Christian world. It weakens the faith of the populace in the infallibility of the Holy Scriptures. "For, certainly," say they, "these religious bodies all profess to derive their doctrines from the Bible, and if the Bible teaches us many different doctrines, it is not the book it purports to be—the infallible word of God." And infidelity is the result.

The Saviour prayed that they (his followers) might be sanctified through the truth, "that they all may be one . . . that the world may believe that thou hast sent me." Paul also says, "So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another." Again, "For ye are all one in Christ Jesus." "Now I beseech you, brethren, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind, and in the same judgment."

The members of the primitive church were united. There was "one Lord, one faith, and one baptism;" but at the present time there are many Lords, several hundred faiths, and three or four baptisms.

The members of the primitive church were on fire with zeal, laboring only for the conversion of souls, and the sanctification of believers. A great part of the members of the Christian church of the nineteenth century have a "form of godliness, but they deny the power thereof;" and, instead of laboring only for the conversion of souls and the sanctification of believers, they are engaged in theological quarrels, each striving for the mastery.

Thus, sects are continually arising, and the Christian world are becoming more and more divided. But what can be done to remedy this condition of things? An external union is not the remedy; this has ever resulted in repression and persecution. The following words from D'Aubigne are certainly to the point: "Christian union must proceed, first of all, from unity of spirit."

Says Paul to his Corinthian brethren, "For ye are yet carnal; for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?" The reason of schisms, divisions, &c., in the early church, was because of carnality. If carnality produced division then, is not the same thing produced by the same cause to-day?

Oh! that God might again work in our midst as in former times. Where are the "prophets," and "teachers," and "pastors," and the "workers of miracles," in the primitive church? which were given for "the perfecting of the saints," to bring us into the "unity of the faith." Has God forsaken the earth? Has he withdrawn his Spirit from the church? Has the "Comforter" left his people? Return, O thou great Shepherd of the flock, gather together thy wandering and scattered sheep, and let there be one fold and one shepherd.

C. H. BLISS.