In the Spring of 2008 my wife and I moved back to the United States from Japan. One day as I was driving the back roads in our part of rural Mid-Ohio, I drove past a church sign that caught my eye. I cannot quote exactly what the sign said, but I remember the gist of its message. Under the name of the church the sign said, “fundamental, evangelical, Bible believing, KJV, Pre-Tribulational Pre-Millenial, Dispensationalist church”. (I think I am missing some, but you get my point). The church name included the name of the township where the church was located: Harmony.
A quarter century ago, Bible college student Randy probably would have not only agreed with most of their stated doctrinal positions, but I would have applauded them for putting them out front and center. But, as I grow older, I wonder what such a church, much less church sign, does for promoting harmony in the universal church.
Last year I was talking to a few friends who previously attended church together in a southern state. However the church fractured, with members going multiple directions. Now one church makes up several smaller churches. I could relate to my friends, because during my formative years, the church my family attended went through two church splits.
Our churches are not alone in this experience. Statistics show that Christians are becoming more fractured as the years go by. As of 2019 there are more than 2.5 billion Christians in the world, and over 41,000 denominations (https://www.learnreligions.com/christianity-statistics-700533).
By the numbers, that means there is a denomination for roughly every 49,000 Christians. When you consider more than half of Christians worldwide are Roman Catholics (1.3 billion), the average number of people in the remaining denominations decreases greatly.
In John 17 Jesus prayed that we would be one (vs. 22), living in unity (vs. 23). This, He said, would let the world know that the Father sent Jesus and that the Father loves the world (vs. 23). Nearly 2000 years after Jesus prayed this prayer, those who claim to follow Jesus are increasingly fragmenting.
A number of years ago I stumbled on a video of Rich Mullins. In the video, Mullins spoke about how his song Creed came about. While he and a friend were on the road, they were talking about what is necessary for someone to be a Christian. After who knows how long, they whittled down all the beliefs that are found in churches into a short list of the essential beliefs for Christians—a list common in the creeds of the early church.
I believe in God the Father
Almighty Maker of Heaven and Maker of Earth
And in Jesus Christ His only begotten Son our Lord
He was conceived by the Holy Spirit
Born of the virgin Mary
Suffered under Pontius Pilate
He was crucified and dead and buried
…
I believe that He who suffered was crucified buried and dead
He descended into hell and on the third day rose again
He ascended into Heaven where He sits at God's mighty right hand
I believe that He's returning
To judge the quick and the dead of the sons of men
…
I believe in the Holy Spirit
One Holy Church
The communion of Saints
The forgiveness of sin
I believe in the resurrection
I believe in a life that never ends
This list is relatively short, but targets many/most/all(?)of the major tenants of the Christian faith. I believe Mullin’s point was other issues, while they may feel significant, are not crucial to one’s Christian faith. I agree with him.
I believe the list of essentials to be a Christian is rather short. I also acknowledge that there are a lot of secondary issues in which Christians can disagree with each other on, while still being a genuine follower of Jesus. Without spending a lot of time thinking about it, here are some examples that come to mind of what I consider secondary issues:
-Christians relation to the state (voting, military service, saying pledge, etc.)
-mode/meaning of baptism
-the role of women in the church and church leadership
-origins (literal 6 day creation, old earth, theistic evolution, etc.)
-eschatology
-inerrancy of the Bible
-hell (eternal conscience torment, annihilationism, etc.)
-how to interpret/read the Bible
When it comes to secondary issues, there will be disagreements amongst Christians. Some of these disagreements may be big, and may lead individuals to not choose to fellowship together in a local church setting. But, when it comes to secondary issues, I think it is important for us not to draw circles around such issues, delineating who are Christians and who are not.
As I look back over the past 25 years or so, two contrasting experiences come to mind.
Around the turn of the century, I was attending a conservative evangelical college in Ohio. While in school I worked part time for the university. One day a co-worker said “I’m not sure I could ever work with a Democrat.” For her, who someone voted for was a deal breaker on who she was willing to fellowship with.
Another example came a few years later when my wife and I were living in Japan. While living and working in Japan, we attended Bible studies and a small church with an eclectic group of individuals. In the group there were charismatics, Roman Catholics, Mennonites, etc. And yet, when we considered the number of Jesus followers in the city of probably 45,000 were probably less than 100, the differences in our beliefs paled in comparison to the commonality of our core religious beliefs. We had disagreements among the 12-15 of us, but as I look back I find we had more that united us than divided us.
In addition to Jesus’s prayer for unity, I think it is important to consider what the Apostle Paul said at the end of I Corinthians 13(vs. 13). There he said that in the end three things are left on the table: “faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” More important than our faith is love. More important than our hope is love. And so, when we consider disagreements with others seeking to follow Jesus, will we let our beliefs, our faith, and our hopes determine how we interact with others, or will we let love be a driving force?
Divisions over disagreements are easy. We have seen them demonstrated time and time again. Choosing love over perfection is more difficult. Consider this: One can still remain Christian and move from one denomination to a different one every day for well over a hundred years without running out of options. But, what would change in our homes, our churches, our communities, and our world if those of us who claim to follow Jesus focused on the things important to Jesus, and were less focused on having the perfect theology? After all, when this life is over and we stand before God, not one of us will have had perfect theology. All of us will have fallen short. And when we look back on our lives, do you think we will be more concerned about whether we had perfect theology, or whether we loved as best we could? My guess is true harmony will result more from the love we demonstrated towards others, and less from having checked all of the right theological boxes.
