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UNITY OF THE FAITH

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Pacific Press Publishing Company · OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA · Aug 2, 1899

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 25, No. 31.

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UNITY OF THE FAITH.

By William N. Glenn

JESUS CHRIST was not a sectarian. That His followers were and are a "little flock," that they were called a "sect," that His children are still scattered among many sects, and some even yet are reckoned as of the world, is not because He so designed. These conditions are the result of unbelief. He did not come into the world to establish any new doctrine, however new it may have appeared to the church and to the world. He came to preach the truth, and to fulfil the Word that had already been given to the world; He came to reform, to restore. To reform, in the true sense, always means to return to the Word of God. So long as men stand by this Word there is no need of reformation.
It was departure from the Word that opened the way for sin to enter—"sin is the transgression of the law;" therefore a reformation is a return to that which Jesus Christ came to fulfil, and He is the way by which the return may be accomplished. He preached the same doctrine that had been proclaimed by Him from the beginning, the same that had before been revealed in the Scriptures, which had been indicted by His own Spirit. 1 Peter 1:10, 11. He came not to destroy, but to fulfil (Matt. 5:17-20); not to change even a jot or tittle of the doctrine that had always been taught in the Word. Of the Scriptures then in vogue, Paul says: "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works." 2 Tim. 3:16, 17.
If the doctrine taught before Jesus came to earth was sufficient to make men perfect, and thoroughly furnish them unto all good works, what would be the need of any new doctrine? Should God change just to accommodate man's apostasy? Not by any means. His appeal to Israel is, "Turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?" Eze. 33:11. "Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen, whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land; and I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them all; and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all." Eze. 37:21, 22.
That all sectarian divisions are because of existent evils is shown in the next verse: "Neither shall they defile themselves any more with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions; but I will save them out of all their dwelling-places, wherein they have sinned, and will cleanse them; so shall they be My people, and I will be their God."
This uniting of kingdoms, or divisions, can only be done in Christ, and by putting away iniquity. The prophecy could not be fulfilled in Israel according to the flesh. There is nomore any recognition of the literal seed. In Christ "there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free; but Christ is all, and in all." Col. 3:11. But the prophecy will be fulfilled, and if literal Israel as such have no place in Christ, who will experience the fulfilment? "We are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh." Phil. 3:3. What is God's ideal of faith and unity?—"Here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus." Rev. 14:12. This is the objective aim of the new covenant: "Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah; . . . this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel: After those days, saith the Lord, I will put My law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be My people; . . . for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more." Jer. 31:31-34.
God has one purpose, one standard of doctrine. "Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God." 1 Cor. 7:19. "Fear God, and keep His commandments; for this is the whole duty of man." Eccl. 12:13. To bring His people to this standard is the purpose of the Gospel, and of the visible church in the earth: "He gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ; till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ." Eph. 4:11-13.
W. N. GLENN.