UNITY OF THE CHURCH by John Nevins Andrews

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Sep 22, 1859

UNITY OF THE CHURCH.

By John Nevins Andrews

DURING our recent tent-meeting at Parkville I listened to a sermon by a Methodist minister on the unity of the church, which was, however, designed as an attack upon us. It seemed to me that he was endeavoring to set aside the text on which he was professedly preaching, rather than endeavoring to set forth what it taught. But of this the reader can judge. I present the text, and the leading ideas on the occasion.

"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." John xvii, 20, 21.

"I have no sympathy for the whining deceivers that cry out, 'Union, union,' to get sympathy. Individuality is stamped on the minds of men, as well as upon their faces, and consequently in no church do the members all think alike. A certain persecutor endeavored to make everybody believe as he did. But finding it impossible to make two clocks go alike he relinquished the attempt to bring men to see things alike. God never designed that the members of the church should agree exactly in doctrine. To use a common expression, no two minds are cast in the same mould. Those who cast out devils, and followed not in the company of the disciples, did a good work.

"The apostles did not think alike, and after Christ's death one said, 'I am of Paul,' &c., and another, 'I am of Christ;' and the one who claimed to be of Christ was the worst and meanest of all. There always was, and always will be, differences in doctrine and usage in the church. I will show the bond of union in the evangelical churches; and those who do not agree in these things are not entitled to that name.

"1. We all agree that water baptism is necessary; but all admit that the thing is more essential than the mode. 2. Another strong bond of union is the belief in one God. 3. We all believe that there are three persons in the Godhead. 4. We all believe in the fall of man. 5. In total depravity. 6. In the new birth, and in the actual creation of a new heart. The carnal mind is taken away, which is enmity against the law, and the believer delivered from the sentence of the law. 7. All believe in sanctification. 8. And all believe in future rewards and punishment, which latter is eternal conscious being in torment. God will punish a reality and not a shadow. Destruction would be no punishment, for once we did not exist, and to be reduced to the same state again would be no punishment. 9. All evangelical christians agree in a general judgment, not one thousand, or ten thousand years long, but one day. No evangelical christian is disreputable enough to deny that the judgment will be in that one last great day which God has appointed.

"How can christians best unite? Some say, abolish all but our church. But the evangelical alliance advised that each church should stick to everything in its organization and church government. Union is not by all seeing alike, but by being of one Spirit. No other union ever can be. The Romish church is an example of the folly of union. Yet it is made up of sects within a sect. And this church has given us many pernicious errors.

"Divisions of the Jews caused them to watch each other, and thus the Bible was kept pure. The same thing is good now. Union would have ruined the Christian religion. Divisions have advanced the work. Thus Methodists can gain access to a certain class that Baptists and Presbyterians cannot, and so each denomination can reach some that the others cannot reach. These different churches are like the states of this Union, all with separate constitutions, yet all united under the constitution of the United States. Such a union as this convinces the world. When we cross the river of death we shall sing, Alleluia! for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth!" J. N. ANDREWS.