NOT I BUT CHRIST
It is never my intention to be misunderstood and especially not in this post. It is impossible to be a church member without being separated from many other churches by beliefs. Therefore, I am not saying anyone who attends a denomination or a multisite group of churches is lost or living in disobedience. I am evaluating the condition of the church at present and for the past two thousand years.
THE PAST
Since the Church fathers, those who knew the Apostles, there has been confusion about how to understand God's Word. As far back as July 16, 1054, there was a significant schism between catholicism from the Eastern Orthodox. Church leaders had been battling for power with the political rulers of their respective nations. The church was no longer a body of people called out of the world; it was simply worldly leaders fighting for power and calling themselves the church.
Five hundred years ago, Martin Luther, a Catholic monk and professor at the University of Wittenburg wrote about the church's offenses after visiting the church in Rome. Martin was a man unafraid to tackle one of the largest bodies of power in the world at the time. They had the authority to end a person's life because of what that person believed. They did this many times. Division has always been a staple in church life.
Since The Reformation, the church has become so fractured as to remove any resemblance of unity. Jesus, on His way to spending three hours in bloody sweat, a scourging that would in considerable measure remove the skin from His body, and a crucifixion said while praying on route; "The glory which You have given Me I also have given to them, so that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me..." (John 17:22, 23; emphasis added) Please don't think His words were meant only for the Apostles.
THE PRESENT
During the 1950s and 60s, church leaders meant to unify the church; it was the ecumenical movement. Their answer to this massive problem of the division was to eliminate doctrinal beliefs. Brilliant! Guiding the way was The World Council of Churches. Love was said to be the defining characteristic of a Christian. Entering that conversation was a medical doctor turned pastor of two extremely faithful churches, Martin Lloyd Jones.
Born in 1899 to a family that underwent tragedy and financial hardship, he became second to the highest position in wales by 1925. He refused to attend seminary because he did not want to be influenced by the unseen forces of pride that dwell there. In the 60s, not wanting the foundation of the Gospel to slip away, he asked the most divisive question at that time. What is a Christian?
"For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe." (1 Corinthians 1:21). Martin understood, as did the Apostle Paul, without the correct message of the Gospel there can be no salvation.
Lloyd Jones was brilliant, but more importantly, by God's grace, he was humble enough to fear the wrong kind of knowledge. "Concerning things sacrificed to idols, we all have Knowledge, knowledge makes one conceited, but love edifies people." (1 Corinthians 8:1). It has been godly leaders unknowingly corrupted by the king of conceit that has divided the church.
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