Unitantism

One major difficulty within the protestant church today is with the application of unity. This is an unfortunate state, yet indeed it is within our spiritual heritage. The founding fathers of protestant Christianity placed themselves in rebellion to the Roman Catholic Church. It was necessary for them to do this in order to walk rightly before God as they were called.
Certainly it was a good thing for Martin Luther, and other protestant leaders to break from the Roman Catholic heritage due to the occultism within it as well as the heavy handedness of the papacy, which required obedience and compliance to unscriptural doctrine. In order to truly live their lives by faith and scripture over reverencing the ‘Holy Roman Church’ a breaking was required. Indeed for centuries necessity was made for the protestant movement to be forcefully set apart from Roman Catholicism.
Yet now we must clearly note that as we watch the ‘progression’ of protestant churches, there remains a continual breaking. First there was Lutheranism, yet in even in the midst of Luther’s breaking from the doctrines of the Church of Rome, factions and dissentions arose, creating Zwinglianism and Anabaptism right away, soon followed by more and more breakings within the protestant movement. At many points historically it seems that each change of doctrine nearly requires a new church to be formed. We have come to such a degree now that books are published about the hundreds – or more probably thousands – of different denominations that exist. Even this century in America we have an entire region crossing several states in the South, which is referred to as ‘The Bible Belt’ because there have been so many church splits that there can be found in many places a church on every street block (I mean this quite literally for anyone who’s never been to the aptly named bible-belt).
Indeed today we see church splits over the meager-est of theological disputes. It is not as though a foreign papacy is claiming to be the literal voice of God, inventing doctrines and telling us that we can only receive salvation is by paying indulgences (essentially purchasing stock in the Church) – which were just a few of the things that necessitated the protestant reformation.
For this reason I put in quotations ‘progression’ when speaking of the protestant movement; for the greatest progression to Protestantism generally comes in moves of the Spirit which we call ‘revivals.’ These movements are essential to growth of the church; indeed I believe that they are appropriate outpourings of blessings from the Spirit of God which come in the due season appointed for them. However, between these movements of the Spirit, do we walk and live by the Spirit? Certainly there are those who do. Yet often we see that it is between revivals that factions are made.
One group is excited about a certain blessing that came out of the movement and create new doctrines out of them. If others of the body of Christ do not accept the blessing that came in that movement they are often shunned, or belittled. Another group cuts themselves off, feeling that they did not receive the blessing that they were awaiting, or hoping for, and pursues with monk-like diligence the next move of the Spirit or the next blessing. Even in the midst of revivals there has been much disunity, we have been jealous over the blessings of other congregations, or prideful in the way that the Lord chose to work in our midst.
We must realize that this is, in part, due to the spiritual heritage of Protestantism; we no longer have a great reason to protest doctrine, we are free to live and believe as we choose without being burned at the stake for it, as many of the protestant fathers were. We are free, as Christians to live as we are called by the Spirit, the only true opposition to us now comes from those without the church, and yet currently these are not killing us over our want of spiritual freedoms.
The time for ‘protest’ against the Church is evaporated. What we need now is a spirit of reconciliation to return to unity with each other, even extending a hand to the Catholic church; no longer in submission to, but now in loving acceptance of, brothers in Christ. Now is the time in which we should overcome the ‘protest’ and become ‘Unitants.’
How can we ever progress to the deeper things of God if we do not eagerly pursue the heart of God?
We know the heart of God regarding His body, and what is it? John 17:21 says it clearly: ‘That they all may be one; as thou, Father art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.’ (KJV) For, ‘if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.’ (1 John 1:7 NIV)
We often hear preached from the pulpit that if a Christian is not growing in the Lord, he is, by default, backsliding. How much more true is this of the entire body of Christ! If we are not progressively reforming to the image of Christ, then we must be backsliding. You see in the above passage (John 17:21) we see that only when we – the body – are one as Jesus is one with the Father will the world believe that Jesus is sent from God.
Even a few chapters earlier we see a similar remark; in John 13:35 Jesus says: “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (NIV) Yet we often misquote this verse, and say: ‘All men will know you are my disciples by your love.” Yet here we miss the key element of what Jesus said: ‘if you love one another.’ If we act as Christ’s body by being united in love, only then will the lost know we are His disciples, it is not marked by our love for them (the lost) but, according to Jesus, by our love for one another.