Given the news media's considerable coverage, few of us are likely unaware of the recently concluded Episcopalian national convention and its attendant difficulties. As those who follow church related matters are well apprised, however, the debate over moral perversion is far from limited to to those of Episcopalian persuasion - its promotion finding ongoing expression in various other religious bodies as well.
(Of further concern is the sense of hostility toward both Christian faith and its adherents increasingly evident in some arenas of the academic - primary grades and upward. The ramifications of such trends, whatever the context, are significant. More here at a later time.)
Relative to Church related interests, importance inheres the fact that while Scripture teaches a coming time "in which they will not tolerate wholesome instruction; instead, to satisfy their own desires...they will turn from listening to the truth and will wander off to hear myths" (II Tim. 4:3, Berkeley), Scripture also teaches a coming together of true believers as both opposition and apostasy intensify.
It all brings to mind the biblical episode wherein John informed Jesus: "Teacher, we saw a man using your name to expel demons and we tried to stop him because he is not of our company." Jesus said in reply, "Do not try to stop him. No man who performs a miracle using my name can at the same time speak ill of me. Anyone who is not against us is with us" (Mark 9:38-40; "on our side," Luke 9:49,50).
We are entering day in which need exists for the validly committed to lay aside the peripheral differences and nitpicking that have long divided (and weakened) us. Those standing for the authority of Scripture, moral integrity and personal relationship with Christ are our brothers and sisters.
At this juncture we are also reminded of Bishop Richard Wurmbrand who endured fourteen years of Communist torture in a Romanian prison following World War II. He afterward stated that within this setting he soon learned that it mattered little if another belonged to his denomination or if every doctrinal hair was split exactly the same way. If a fellow prisoner knew Jesus Christ in living faith and commitment, he was a brother - a much needed brother.
It is better that we come to such state of grace out of love for Christ and his Body than to find ourselves coerced by coming pressures into a sense of oneness with those of faith who, in not being against us, are "on our side." Indeed, as time progresses, we should anticipate such.
In the meantime, we need to pray for those refusing to bow to Baal, Episcopalian and otherwise.
Burl Ratzsch
