JSM17, the Church of Christ is just another denomination, so surely it's part of the problem that your OP lays out?
Good point! For this very reason I have set my mark on striving to be open about scripture and have notice some things among my brethren that I am not in agreement about. But nevertheless the OP does not exclude any group it actually includes all groups not striving for biblical unity as Jesus prayed for in John17. The world is made of people with minds. Minds that God gave to them so that they could decide about the things that they need to obey. Since when do we need "Synods," Presbyteries," "Councils," "General Assemblies," and "Conferences" to decide when and how we do things.
As I have stated before, and I will use Baptist as an example (since this is a baptistboard), there are more baptists divisions in the world than any other that I have seen. Why are not all the baptists meeting together? Because they cannot! Why because they cannot agree enough to meet together.
This is not the Lord doing this, it is man. Some of you may know about the churches of Christ, we are dividing among ourselves due to man's enabilities to agree on scripture. That does not make it OK and it does not make it right.
Only those who are in Christ will be in heaven, those who are unified with Christ, those who are unified with other Christians. Sooner or later we must decide whether or not we are unified with Christ, but wonder why we are not unified with all those others that we might claim to be our bretheren yet cannot fellowship with them because we are divided about issues.
Cannot, or will not?
Normally, it is the latter.
Fact: what the Churches of Christ are doing in their buildings on Sunday morning does not normally affect what happens in my congregation's building on Sunday morning.
The problem is that people take things from Sunday morning and make those relevant where they are not. `We will not fellowship or minister with your Christians on Monday because your congregation does do x-y-z in your place on Sunday morning.'
To which Christians ought reply resoundingly: NONSENSE!
The idea that unity depends on agreement over a host of religious details is not taught in Scripture. You will not see it.
We are not divided because we cannot agree; we are divided for two reasons:
1) lack of knowledge about what Scripture teaches regarding unity,
2) carnal desires to divide against those who will not agree with us.
About #1: it is a tradition that without agreement over a bunch of religious questions, we cannot have unity. It is engrained. People assume it with no question. Therefore, if two people disagree about anything, at least one commonly will assume this provides justification to divide. It does not. The tradition is bogus.
About #2: this is more severe. The attitude is `We want nothing to do with you if you will not affirm our rightness by agreeing with us.' To such people, their agreement that Jesus Christ ought to be served is overshadowed by their desire to be agreed with.
Paul said if anyone preaches a different gospel than the one he delivered then let him be accursed. I declare that if anyone on this forum who does not agree with certain essential doctrine of any particular group then you must mark them as teaching a different gospel. The one who teaches such is either not saved or fallen.
...
Which brings me to my last point. If you study the differences among all the groups among us today who claim Christ as theirs; you will find that hese groups do not and cannot agree enough to be saved, yet hold to their differences.
The Gospel in Scripture is NOT the plan of salvation.
The Gospel is the story of what Christ did for us. Read 1 Corinthians 15. Where the KJV has "gospel" the ICB translates the Greek as "Good News" and rightly so. The Gospel is the Good News about Jesus Christ.
The Gospel is not about us. You will not see any indication in Scripture that the Gospel is about things we do. The Gospel = the Good News about what Jesus Christ has done for us.
We can hold different plans of salvation and still be spreading the same Gospel.
The problem with the Galatians is that someone was preaching a different Gospel: that Jesus Christ did not change anything. THAT is a different Gospel if there ever was any.
To my knowledge, all church groups are sharing the same Good News about what Jesus Christ did for us.
