That They May Be One

The following comments apply to chapter 23 of Batsell Barrett Baxter's book, The Family of God.  The chapter starts with the prayer of Christ in John 17 and discusses the serious issue of division in the church.

In discussing chapter 22 on fellowship, we said that John 17:20-21 expresses the hope of Jesus that the fellowship of the church would be all that it should be.  If it is, then the unity Christ prayed for will be prevalent.  In full unity, the church is easy to identify worldwide.  It stands as an example for the world and is the ultimate endorsement of the teachings of Christ.

As Baxter notes, the apostles gave numerous warnings to the church about staying on track, remaining together in heart and mind, and not listening to any harmful ideas that would surely come from church members and leaders who, for whatever reason, were motivated to change the church from what it should be to what they wanted it to be.

Paul's message to the Ephesian elders in Acts 20 included the advice to take heed and watch over the church, because grievous wolves would come and ravage the fellowship.  Galatians 1:8-9 includes the famous passage in which Paul says that if he or an angel from heaven presented to the church a different gospel than the one first delivered to them, let that individual be "anathema."

This word is explained in most commentaries as meaning "accursed."  It combines the Koine Greek terms ana and thema.  Ana means lifted out, separate, outside, and to some extent against.  Thema refers to the theme, group, faith, fellowship, or belief of the church.  In other words, whoever preaches such a false gospel should be considered as outside of the fellowship (and blessing) of the church.

Of course 1 Timothy 4:1-3 includes a well known passage saying that people would face the temptation to turn aside to myths, seeking what their itching ears want to hear.  2 Peter 2:1 has a stern warning about false prophets and false teachers, and 1 John 4:1 begins with the apostle's advice to prove the spirits, not simply taking for granted that everyone will be motivated to teach the truth of the gospel.

In spite of all the earnest efforts evidenced by these verses, and in spite of all that is recorded about what Paul did to combat division and factions in the church, departures did occur in later years.  Baxter lists several of them, ranging from doing away with the plurality of elders to a heirarchical structure to changing the age and method of baptism to using different names and different add-on creeds to govern the church.

Baxter then outlines some noble efforts to reform the church, but those efforts were not quite far reaching enough to bring back the new testament church that the Lord established.  Later, in different places and at different times, groups formed with the goal of actually restoring the church.  Those groups, which were often unaware of the others like them, finally succeeded in restoring the church, and the response was tremendous throughout the nineteenth century.  Although there have been struggles to keep the restoration movement intact, it remains the modern version of the church that Jesus died for, to this day.

One more thing Baxter emphasizes that is very important is that in what we call the restoration church or the Lord's church, we do not go back to any nineteeth century preacher to trace the origin of the church.  We go back to Christ, the pioneer and perfecter of the Christian faith.  A hallmark of restoration churches is that nothing newer than the New Testament is used as a guide to govern the church.  All we need is there in God's word.  We just need to teach the Bible, or as first uttered in Jeremiah 6:16, "ask for the old paths."  That puts us in good stead with the prayer of Christ for unity and the earnest plea of the apostles.