Unity and Identity

W. Carl Ketcherside

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     Will our plea for unity of all believers in Christ cause the church to lose its identity? This is an objection frequently heard. Like many other accusations it proves to be absurd when examined in the light of reason. Jesus prayed for the unity of all believers. He also planted the church. Would he pray for that which, if it came to pass, would destroy the identity of the church?

     How can the church lose its identity? It is the body of Christ. He is the head of the body and the Saviour of the church. As a head, Jesus would have no significance without the body, just as the body would have no significance without Jesus. If the church should cease to be, Jesus would cease to exist as a head. That which makes him a head is his relationship to the body. So long as the head lives the body cannot die; and so long as the body lives it can be identified. That which identifies the church is its connection with Jesus. It cannot lose its identity unless it is severed from Jesus. But if it is severed from Jesus it is not the church and he is not a head.

     Unconsciously, those who voice a fear the church will lose its identity under the impact of our discussions on fellowship, reveal that they are really members of a sect. It is plainly stated by Jesus that the gates of hell shall not prevail against the church. In plain language this means that the church which he planted can never lose its identity. Now, if the church of our Lord cannot lose its identity and the institution to which our objectors belong can lose its identity it is evident that there is a difference between the former and latter.

     The truth is that our brethren have confused the party to which they are attached with the church of God. They are frightened by the thought that all of God's children may become one, and thus put an end to their party as well as all other factions. Since they look upon their faction as the church that would be equivalent to the church losing its identity. One of the fruits of the party spirit is fear--blind, unreasoning fear. Men build walls about themselves and feel secure within their narrow confines. They lose their love for freedom. With their wings kept closely cropped by tradition and penned up inside their interpretative fences they are no longer adapted to the glorious liberty of the sons of God.

     They surrender love of truth for dogmatism and barter hope of grace for legalism. Removed from the main channel of religious thought where the current flows freely they drift into bayous and sloughs where they mistake stagnation for faithfulness and placidity for loyalty. In time they come to believe that the marsh is the stream and that to dry it up would be to destroy the river. But just as a swiftly flowing stream cannot be kept within the narrow banks of a pond so truth cannot be harnessed within the limited confines of a party. When it is directed in its force against the dams men have constructed they must give way before it but this only means the merging again of the waters in the main channel. Truth is dangerous to any party or faction. It is well for factious men to keep it out if they would keep their partisans in. They will need to apply threat and boycott if they are to survive. Every party is built on reverence for the traditions of the fathers, therefore, has its own creed. The party exists on the basis that it has discovered, embraced and enclosed all truth. John Milton in his famous Areopagitica, published in 1644, points out that truth in our age is but dimly seen and imperfectly known. Those who would seek to rule with an infallible authority would confine our knowledge to this present circumference. But man has not been made to endure this tyranny. The Puritan poet writes, "The light which we have gained was given us not to be ever staring on, but by it to discover onward things more remote from our knowledge." This statement is worthy of our consideration.

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     Every factional leader has the dream of "converting" all the members of every other faction to his own party. It is his aim and intention by persuasion if possible, and otherwise by coercion, to bring all into his own fold. This will never be done. The purpose of God is not served by partisan clashes or debates. All religious sectism is wrong. That includes our own. It can never be reconciled with the divine plan. It is only as the parties lose their identity and Christians divest themselves of their special brands that we will draw closer to God.

     This does not require the sacrifice of a single truth by any person. We are not divided because each holds some truth but because no one of us holds it all. It is not by giving up any truth but by entering more deeply into truth that we shall find greater unity. The church will never lose its identity by searching for truth. The party which ceases to do so merely cumbers the ground. It produces no real fruit for good. It is time for all of us to realize that it is not in the defense or maintenance of parties that we serve God, but in rising above the spirit which creates such parties and gives them birth.

     The church of God cannot lose its identity. This is the vain fear of those who trust in an organization rather than in the divine organism. It is an indication that men walk by sight and not by faith. Can a body lose its identity while the head still lives? Can a kingdom lose its identity while its king is seated on the throne and reigns unchallenged? Can a flock lose its identity while the shepherd watches over it? Can a house lose its identity while it is recognized by its owner? Can a temple lose its identity while the Deity dwells within it?

     If the exaltation of the name of Jesus as our rallying point means death to factionalism let it die! If the fulfillment of the prayer of Jesus for unity spells the doom of the party let it die! If the advocacy of the brotherhood of all the sons of God removes the barriers, dissolves the hate and renders the sectarian spirit helpless and useless--let it die! Too long have men kept the family of God apart by proclaiming that the family would lose its identity if all the children came together. Too long have they predicted that the city of God would lose its identity if the breaches in the walls were repaired.

     Men created parties and men can destroy them. God created the church and men are powerless to destroy it. The grave could not retain the physical body of Jesus; it can never receive his spiritual body. Will he who notes the fall of the sparrow allow the church to perish? But we are asked if our recognition of persons in other churches as brethren will not eventually cause the church to lose its identity. There are no persons in other churches. There is only one church. You might as well talk of belonging to other Christs or other Gods as to talk of belonging to "other churches." If others are in a church at all they are members of the one body; if they are not members of it they are not in the church. There are many parties but there is only one church. A man can no more start a church than he can make another God or create another Spirit. There is only one body just as there is but one Lord.

     It is precisely by our formation of parties that we have obscured the church. Men "see through a glass darkly" because of our sectarian conflicts. This does not mean the church has lost its identity. It is still true that "the Lord knoweth them that are his." It is not the man who seeks to dispel the partisan fog who beclouds the church but he who confuses factionalism with faithfulness. The church has no better friend on earth than the one who strips from its face the creedal shrouds with which men have swathed it and allows it to shine forth in the radiant and undimmed glow of spiritual oneness. No man who really believes in the purpose of God will ever entertain the thought that the bridegroom will be unable to identify his bride. Those who harbor such fears are not made perfect in love for perfect love casts out fear. Men cannot see far even on a clear day with clouded spectacles.