Unity in the Body

Beloved, can there honestly be unity in the Body as it stands today? I am generally not speaking of denominational boundaries nor general doctrinal differences but those whom appear to be in error? (ie - word of faith, 5 fold ministry believers and the like...) if so then how?? In Him Scott :-(

Yes, the Body has always been unified -- remember, Jesus prayed that we would be one and his prayers were answered. Surely you've had experiences where you have met another believer and had a complete unity of the Spirit with them -- even though they were of a different denomination, etc.There will continue to be a growing unity in the body as we all grow into this full and perfect unity in the faith. The institution will always stand in the way of this, but God will move sovereignly to bring his people into this final unity.

Jason, I agree that I have experienced running into believers and having that unity of spirit, but I have also run into "believers" and have had the oppposite experience. I realize Christ desires the unity of the Body--its imperative. But I also believe that the enemy has a parallel lie running at the same time ( as he has for every truth of the Lord) for the purpose of deceiving the greater Body as a whole---after all he is not interested in the ones he already has but the ones that got away. My question is is can "believers" be gathered to unity with those that are in strict error ? (as mentioned before) my intention is not to produce division for this would be victory to you know who--but unity must be obtained by His truth.

It's kind of hard for me to put this into words...so bear with me if I say something that seems a bit off.From time to time all of us run into Christians who are sadly mistaken in some of their doctrine. It's a deception, a veil over their eyes. It doesn't mean that they're not Christian by any means just because they are believing a lie. I mean, as a new Christian, early on I thought God really wanted me to gouge my eye out if I looked lustfully at a guy. But there are greater deceptions out there held as truth by decades-old Christians who really should know better."Christians are not perfect, just forgiven." How often have we seen that? We're sinners. And as sinners, we mess up. Sometimes Christians are simply stubborn. The truth is presented to them, and it's contrary to what they believed. So as the cognitive dissonance permeates in their brain, the defense walls are raised against their brother or sister.So while some with these false truths running around in their head are "believers", others are truly believers.I'm in a women's Bible Study Tuesday nights and a few weeks ago we set our hearts on praying for God to dispell for us any lies we had been believing about His character and who He is. One girl thought that she had some sins God refused to forgive, and I was shown that God doesn't turn His back on me and walk away when I do something wrong. We had been humanizing God, and it was a deception. I'm Christian, but I'm still learning and have SO FAR to go, and sometimes I just subconsciously assume certain things to be truth because God just hasn't brought me to that level of understanding yet.Unity of the body is imperitive. And there is only ONE TRUTH. I was witnessing to a girl today who believes herself to be a Christian but I know that she is not, and had to explain to her that truth is not subjective...Jesus is the ONLY way, the ONLY truth, and the ONLY life. I don't care if Allah means God...Allah doesn't exist and no one who follows him will be seen in heaven if they don't get their act together.And because of that basic doctrine of Christ, because of His love, and because He commanded it of us...you are right, Scott. Unity of the body IS imperitive.Ephesians 4:1-6 is a major passage on unity in the Spirit for me. The NIV says "make every effort"! We should make every effort to keep that unity in the body of Christ! The arms on my body don't randomly decide to detach themselves and reside someplace else. (If they did, I'd have some problems.)If a brother or sister wrongs me, I can't just turn my back and walk away. I am commanded to sincerely forgive them over and over and over again. If they are my brother or sister, and have some sort of messed-up doctrine, well 2 Timothy 3:16-17 tells me I use His Word to correct them. And I refuse to give up on them.God endured SO MUCH for us. I think I can put up with a believer who is erred in his thinking. And if they're not a believer? Well, that's a case-by-case scenario. I don't have much patience with false prophets and teachers, but I'll put up with a misguided lost lamb as long as God allows me and their hearts remain open and soft to discussing Christ, that I might have more witnessing opportunities with them.

Thankyou Mary for your well regarded input and I whole heartedly agree with every thing you have said. But what about those false prophets and teachers? If by unifying ourselves with them do we not some how support and agree with what is in error. For the last month I have read and been told by people involved with camps that are headed by what we would consider false teachings(and teachers) about their explicit drive to unify the Body - but only to what their false teachings adheres to - otherwords if we are not unified to how they think then WE ARE IN ERROR, and should be cast aside(read on the posts for the third wave stuff). So I see a parellel stance on Gods commands. I see the enemy utilizing this principle of Gods Kingdom to cause error and division - how do we unify and still maintain the truth without causing division? Is it possible? :-?

As far as false prophets and false teachers go, I refuse to unify myself with them.Brought to mind is 1 Corinthians where we're told not to marry non-believers. It's like unifying the body of Christ with a prostitute in a sense, who can claim to be "a good person" but is truly detestable in God's sight.As Christians, we are in Christ, and one doesn't need to have the gift of discernment to know through Christ that some people are really not in-line with God. We watch Benny Hinn and others on television and you KNOW that these people are not Spirit-led nor Spirit-filled!Should my true brother and sister in Christ decide Benny Hinn is the best thing since sliced bread, I'll tell them why I believe they're horribly mistaken and show them Biblically all of my support. They may listen to me, and they may not. If they choose not to, do I say, "Well then, poo you"? No! lol They're my brother/sister, and I will never abandon them, just as Christ never abandons us. And you know what, as a true believer, God will reveal to them the truth over and over again until their stubborn loyalty to a false prophet/teacher is broken.From personal experience, I tell you that it's hard watching a brother that you love get sucked in by such people. Cults, for example, are a greater danger to new Christians than we believe. In their excitement, they can easily get caught up in false doctrine.This is one of the many reasons God has given more mature believers the responsibility of discipleship, part of His great commission to us. I think we neglect it too much.Great, we've witnessed to someone and God allowed us to lead that person to Him and He has saved them, but how dare we leave it at that! We are to encourage them in their walk, assisting them in their growth as God allows us and teaching them through our words as well as our lives.You asked, how do we unify and still maintain the truth without causing division? Is it possible? Yes, it is. We unify through Christ and maintain the truth through Christ. He did not come to bring peace, but division -- not among believers, but between those who are His and those who are not!As believers we have the responsibility to maintain unity. There are basic doctrine that all of us can agree on -- He died the death penalty that our sins deserved, and rose from the dead three days later, thus achieving victory over death!! Through Christ and Him alone we have life!! YIPPEE!!How can there be disunity and condescending attitudes toward one another with this in mind? You will come across believers who overshadow what really matters with their pride and their resolute steadfastness to THEIR believes. Oh, well. Don't reciprocate their treatment of or attitude toward you. Ephesians 4..."make EVERY EFFORT".

Not to beat a dead Horse, but all those requirements for a unified brethren are those that many of the false prophets and teachers believe in. I am saying what about those that promote the true Gospel through their own agendas(the true Gospel) are they yet still our brethren ? The Benny Hinns the Kenneth Copelands the John Hagees the T.D. Jakes and yes the good ol' Creflo Dollars? these are the ones today that dominate the Christian Camp at large--these errors permeate the greater church throughout the world today? if we alienate them do we alienate all that are under there teaching? It is these "believers, prophets and teachers" that are standing shoulder to shoulder promoting their unity in the body---- These are the ones that have the giant money engines that move there rhetoric at a phenominal pace......in the end I know God will prevail....I just want to be the most effective tool for him that I can be to accomplish that goal.

QUote:"We watch Benny Hinn and others on television and you KNOW that these people are not Spirit-led nor Spirit-filled!Should my true brother and sister in Christ decide Benny Hinn is the best thing since sliced bread, I'll tell them why I believe they're horribly mistaken and show them Biblically all of my support."Will you do this for me? One step at a time? If you will, please start another thread about it.

As I read some of the comments about the ministries of some modern day celebrity preachers; I was impressed to go and read again Romans Chapter 14, and the entire book of I John. I heard one of my favorite preachers from days gone by Dr. Jack Hyles say, " You'll NEVER hear me criticize another preacher of the gospel". Unless you had been a Fundamental INDEPENDANT Bible believing Baptist LIKE ME, (before I got into HolyRollerism about 4yrs. ago) you may have never heard of Dr. Hyles. Dr. Hyles was a country preacher, and pastored a small country church in Hammond Indiana. Over the course of over 30 years, his church ( 1st Baptist Church, of Hammond Ind.)won untold numbers to the Lord, and averaged over 40,000 in Sunday School for over 20 years. Anyway, in light of all that's been said here, I thought his statement was worth remembering.Clutch

Hey Howard,The only difference is that there are those who preach the gospel and there are those who claim to preach the gospel. And again, the words of man are nothing compared to the words of God. :-)

OK, start in Romans 14.

I open to Romans 14 and immediately I see "welcome all believers" right at the beginning. I do. A false preacher or teacher is not a true believer...those are the ones Christ will turn away, like in Matthew 7.Go to the new Benny Hinn thread Greg (wrtbooks) made a link to earlier in this thread. I just posted a bunch of Scripture laying him out as false.

The one truth I think we can gleam from these verses is that in the end we won't be worrying about the brothers that are false or have false teachings. We will be concerned about ourselves and our responsibility to 'give account' of ourselves to God. Agreed. I also took a look back through these verses at the suggestion of Clutch (Love that nickname!)But won't part of our accounting be that we at least attempt to "correct, rebuke, exhort" in love, those that have been led astray or into error?2 Tim 4:2-4 "Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables."2 Peter 2:18-20"For when they speak great swelling words of emptiness, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through lewdness, the ones who have actually escaped from those who live in error. While they promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is brought into bondage. For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning."I know that I am truly thankful for the voices that challenged me in my thinking (and still do!)and led me out of error. Rightly said, the teachers/preachers will give their own accounting as we all will.Speak the truth in love.Hate what God hates.Deception, from false teaching/teachers, the world, the devil and even our own flesh. We can easily deceive ourselves, which I am only to painfully aware of, I can hardly trust my own thoughts. 2 Cor 10.Yet we are called to learn and grow and humble ourselves, to be teachable and accountable.I guess we tend to be more vocal about the things that have stung us and want to prevent others from being hurt in the same way.Motives, who knows? They could be sincere (or not) and that's why it is not an attack on their 'being', their personhood, but on what they are saying. Testing all things, being a good Berean. We are still called to judge, but with a righteous judgement, not of pride or slander, only God can judge the heart.

All comments, reproofs, and admonitions; received , considered, and accepted. Well said folks! Phillipians 4:8" FINALLY, brethern, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely,whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue,and if there be any praise,think on theses things.Clutch :-P