The following was first posted in this endeavor some years ago. We believe it bears repeating.
The apostle Paul did not view the early Church as having experienced ultimate attainment. Indeed, given the problems and difficulties with which he was regularly confronted in serving its constituency, he would likely have wondered concerning the present ambitions of some to recreate "the New Testament Church."
As exemplified in the Corinthian church, for example, one of the issues with which the early community struggled involved the matter of sectarian strife and division. This, despite the fact that in his last recorded prayer, our Lord had specifically requested that the believing Body "be one, even as You [Father] and I are one" (John 17:21,22). That we continue to experience a notable shortfall in this area requires little elaboration.
Nor is profound insight required to recognize that resolving the problem does not lie in a further splintering of the Body by means of newly minted organizations accompanied by "super spiritual" identities of a self-focused nature. We recall, for example, a pastor who, having previously served in a major denomination, now led a congregation that had experienced "deliverance from sectarian bondage." In fact, he enthused, their fellowship now consisted of five such churches - seeming oblivious to the fact of having exchanged a multi-church denomination for a five church denomination. As any student of Church history is well aware, endeavors of this nature are far from unique.
We would here propose three catalysts that will almost certainly prove conducive, not only to fulfilling our Lord's petition, but Paul's vision of a united, matured Bride "without spot or wrinkle...holy and blameless" as well (Eph. 4:11-13; 5:27).
1. A coming move of the Spirit wherein Christ's "High Priestly Prayer" of John 17 finds fulfillment among the truly committed;
2. A coming time of persecution in which, of necessity, believers will become dependent upon one another (Matt. 24:9);
3. A requisite sense of oneness in opposing the culminating apostasy of a deviant and rebellious world - including those spheres of compromised faith allied with the world and its corrupted values (Rev. 18:4).
Does the preceding imply a requisite renunciation of present biblically based associations and identity in the interets of a self-contradictory "non-sectarian sectarianism?" The answer is "No." As demonstrated by simple observation itself, quests of this nature, in and of themselves, can become self-defeating. What is rather called for is an ultimate, transcendent sense of identity inclusive of:
a. "All who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours" I Cor. 1:2);
b. "All who love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity" (Eph. 7:24);
c. "All who love [Christ's] appearing" (II Tim. 4:8).
To the degree that the foregoing become the determinant factors in faith, fellowship, and identity, the rest - including the "unity of faith" enjoined in John 17:21,22 and subsequently foreseen in Ephesians 4:13 - will increasingly come into place.
Burl Ratzsch
