Previous Challenge Entry (Level 4 – Masters)
Topic: Division (07/13/23)
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TITLE: Managing Our Inevitable Divisions | Previous Challenge Entry
By Doug Laird
07/20/23 -
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Sad to say, but spiritually immature Christians bring into their local assemblies the ungodly attitudes and practices that are a part of their everyday lifestyle.
The same negativity that divides society, can divide a congregation.
It is by no coincidence that many congregations consist largely of members who desire to fellowship with people who share the same race, cultural, language, religious (but not necessarily Biblical) teachings and practices, as well as similar social, historical, and political viewpoints.
But such things are not the “ties that bind” that God had in mind for the Church that He designed. The glue that draws and holds the Church (that God designed) or a congregation together should have nothing to do with race, gender, politics, or socio-economic backgrounds (1).
The ties that bind should be accurate Bible Doctrine and its application (2).
Born again believers are all equally saved, but are not at the same level of spiritual maturity. Since we are all at different levels of spiritual maturity, divisions are inevitable.
The list of divisions that spiritually immature Christians bring into the local assemblies is endless, and so is the evil they produce.
In addition to these distracting social issues, there are the inevitable differences in the interpretation and application of Scripture, and the accompanying practices that these different interpretations produce.
When such differences become irreconcilable, they result in an ongoing creation of more and more man-made denominations and groups within the Christian Community, with each one believing it is their group who has gotten it right.
The Church that God designed was established in Jerusalem, Israel, shortly after the Ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ.
It had hardly gotten off the ground, before schisms forming separate groups began to manifest themselves within the developing local assemblies (3).
There were several epistles circulating among the 1st Century local assemblies, addressing what had been the controversial issues within the developing Church of that day.
After some 1500 years in the making, God’s tangible source of instruction and guidance (the Bible), was completed around 96AD.
But along the way, and especially here in the end times (4), the Word of God has been ignored, added to, taken from, misinterpreted, and misapplied, by so-called “religious” authority and laymen alike.
This has resulted in the multifaceted Christian Community of our day.
Never-the-less, although born-again believers will find themselves being in a minority (5) within each generation of the Church Age, they have the Matt. 16:18 assurance that the Church that God designed will endure, and complete its mission (6).
The Church that God designed, consisting of all born-again believers, can be found within and outside of the “churches” that were, are, and will be, the products of Man.
The ongoing battle to maintain and to promote the unadulterated Gospel Message for salvation, and the battle to maintain and promote accurate Bible Doctrine for the making of disciples, will be an uphill climb for each individual believer, and for the Church that God designed.
False teachings and practices grow deep roots over time and can be difficult to remove. In this the devil is well-pleased.
. . .
To divide and conquer has been a successful strategy used by the devil. It worked quite well when he deceived the woman (Eve), and when Adam chose to do what he knew was forbidden after listening to the woman.
Looming divisions force decisions that reveal our priorities and or our doctrinal convictions.
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(1) Gal. 3: 28 (2) 2Pet. 3: 18/James 1: 22 (3) 1Cor. 1: 10 – 13/Gal.1: 6, 7 (4) 1Tim. 4: 1/2Tim. 4: 3, 4 (5) Matt.7: 14 (6) Matt. 24: 14 (7) Hosea 4: 6/James 1: 22 (8) Matt. 28:19, 20 (9) Rom. 12: 18 (10) 2Cor. 6: 17, 18 (11) Luke 14: 26/Mark 4: 19 (12) Matt. 6: 24
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