WHY DO CHRISTIANS DIVIDE?

In a recent issue of the Firm Foundation, published in Austin, Texas, the associate editor set forth a premise “On Splintering” that I question. He says splintering or divisions among Christians is caused by convictions. Where there are no convictions there are no divisions, he says, and, oddly enough, applies this to our sisters and brothers in the Christian Churches, to wit:

Members of the Independent Christian Church have wide areas of disagreement, but they have no division because they have no conviction. The withering gaze of their constituents makes them afraid to lift a dissenting voice, and therefore they are at peace. They have the same peace as a rock, or the common clod. They enjoy the unity of a vacuum.

One is tempted to conclude off hand that it is this kind of ungracious and unloving spirit that causes far more splintering than a barrel full of convictions.

If the associate editor knew as many folk in the Christian Church as I know and had as many conversations with them as I have had, he would know better than to say that they have no convictions. Their list of convictions may not be precisely the same as the editor’s, particularly in reference to marginal issues, but they certainly have their convictions. I would say after many years of associating with both Churches of Christ and Christian Churches that there is no substantial difference in terms of a “level of conviction.” When it comes to the basics of the faith, such as Jesus Christ and him crucified and the seven ones of Eph. 4, we are all in both churches equally persuaded and equally convicted. There are many in both churches who would die for their faith, if it came to that, including the associate editor of the Firm Foundation. I would only urge our fellow editor to be more gracious toward his sisters and brothers who disagree with him in non-crucial areas, such as the use or non-use of instrumental music. People who would die together for their faith surely have a great deal in common —far more than they have differences.

Nor is the editor correct in saying that there are no divisions among our Christian Church brothers. Within the lifetime of many of us they separated themselves from the Disciples of Christ. And even as a separate fellowship they have not been without their conflicts and altercations, and it would not be going too far to say that their many Bible colleges tend to line up on one side or another on various issues. There is presently a rather serious confrontation among some of their leaders over the claims of Fundamentalism, especially in reference to inerrancy. For our brother editor to suggest that they are of “one heart and one mind” is as erroneous as to say that they have no convictions.

If our brethren in Christian Churches have not been as divisive as we in the Churches of Christ (the Firm Foundation editor quotes a source that lists sixteen divisions among Churches of Christ), it is not likely to have any bearing upon either the number or the intensity of convictions. It is not differing convictions or opinions that cause Christians to divide, but the attitude they have toward each other over those differences. There are many believers who hold varying convictions on numerous matters who go right on accepting each other in a loving fellowship. They disagree but they are not disagreeable. This is what our pioneers meant by “In matters of opinion (differences in conviction), liberty.”

Divisions are caused by making a law of God of our opinions and convictions and by making a test of fellowship where God has not made one. Every Christian has the right to his or her own conviction so long as it is sincerely held and is consistent with what he or she believes the Bible to teach. In fact one must be true to his convictions, for “Whatsoever is not of faith is sin” (Rom. 14:23). But the same chapter teaches that one must not judge his brother who holds a different view: “Let each be fully convinced in his own mind” (verse 5). This clearly shows that the convictions or scruples may differ without fellowship and unity being impaired. Such is the force of Rom. 14:1: “Receive one who is weak in the faith, but not to disputes over doubtful things.”

This means that splintering, fracturing, and dividing is a sin. In Gal. 5:20 “parties, factions, and divisions” are listed as carnal and as sins that keep us from inheriting the kingdom of God. We are called to be peacemakers, not piecemakers. We are to receive one another with all our errors and weaknesses, for that is the way Christ received us (Rom. 15:7). To do otherwise is to sin against God’s law of love.

It could be argued that we divide because we do not really love one another as Christ has loved us (Jn. 13:34), for it is love that is the bond of perfect unity (Col. 3:14). Christians who love each other do not divide, just as couples do not divorce so long as they really love each other. It is not oneness of opinion or doctrinal conformity that holds a couple or a church together, but mutual love and affection.

Another motto of our pioneers says it well, “We are free to differ but not to divide.” They meant of course that we are free to differ on non-essentials of the faith, for they insisted on “In essentials, unity.” They also claimed that nothing can be made essential that God has not made necessary for going to heaven. The essentials are what the Bible clearly and distinctly says, not what we think it means by what it says.

We are free to differ because there is no way for us to see everything exactly alike. God called us to be our unique selves, not carbon copies of each other.

But we are not free to divide. The reason is because division among Christians is “a horrid evil, fraught with many evils; it is anti-Christian, anti-Scriptural, and anti-natural,” to quote Thomas Campbell. The reason we divide and sub-divide as we do is because we do not really believe what the Bible says on the subject or what Thomas Campbell was talking about. And so we sin against God, against Christ’s law of love, against holy Scripture, and against our own heritage as a unity movement.

There is but one answer to all this. We must repent of the sin of division. —the Editor