Schisms

Schisms are heresies, division of the Body of Christ, sectarianism. It comes from s chismata, which is the word for rents in a garment. The proof of it is their party spirit, their strife, their factions, their divisions. Those called schismatics break away from the church over issues of faith and establish rival churches.

We need not condemn people, only the errors and their insistence to divide and cause the schisms. Many of them are heresies and many are schisms and plain false doctrine. The church is in a mess, we are not here to put up with false doctrine and pride and hatefulness for the sake of unity, but identify and separate from the confusion so that we can go on to put the church in order and sound the alarm. It is the nature of love to warn others of a fire in our midst. True unity begins with the spirit of truth.

The two most serious breaches of unity were the "Great Schism" of 1054 AD dividing the eastern and western church, a division which persists to the present day between Eastern Orthodoxy and the churches of the West. The second was the Reformation of the 16th century, at which time Roman Catholicism and Protestantism became divided from one another, and Protestants among themselves engaged in centuries of further proliferation. That the momentum of these centuries of divisiveness is now not only being arrested but reversed constitutes one of the central facts of the ecumenical revolution.

There is a passage in I Corinthians 13:8-10 that give us a good example of a schism that separated the spiritual from the unspiritual, the faithful from the unfaithful: "Charity never fails, but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail, whether there be tongues, they shall cease, whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part. But when that is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away." This is one of the greatest schisms of the church in that the perfect refers to the completed New Testament and that the sign gifts passed away in the first century. The misunderstanding of this passage split the church asunder, making the greater part ineffective and incomplete. Pastors and teachers who denied the fulness of the spirit spread the schism and it is taught in many Bible Colleges. This is actually the best example of schismatic false doctrine that there is in the modern church. Those here already adhere to the reality of the five-fold ministry today so it is not a problem but this is a proper plumbline to help reveal the false church. Heresies must be manifested among us so that we can recognize truth from error but repentance is also necessary. Those that cannot put away false doctrine so that we can come to one accord will not be part of us in the restoration process, it is unfortunate but the only way that God will bring the remnant together.

The belief that division in the body is heresy and to be avoided at all costs is part of what we believe that God had taught us and we are stirred in our hearts to attack what we think is an attack on the body. We need to learn and teach that we should be speaking as one to the point that a doctrine of division in the body will be hard for us to accept - real hard. There have always been those that separate themselves from us because they cannot recognize the truth and refuse to be of one accord. When Paul and Barnabas were divided, the faith spread twice as fast, but neither of those apostles were called to division. God will be doing the sifting and the separation and there are differences among us, the sheep and the goats and the wise and foolish virgins.

Please be patient with ignorance. Jesus alone will make these judgments through us as we are called to unity. We need not hate those that have caused these divisions, we do need to hate the division. The Nicolaitan idea of the pecking order of apostles is foreign for us except in the worldly sense. We must not be on either side of a clergy and laity separation but rather stand along side in unity with the truth. It is the army of the Lord that marches together in a line and that's what you need to be a part of. God will put us in a position where others will help us and we must delegate responsibility. We all need to be a servant to them and not a master. We all need others to work with us and not for us. We really need the other brothers and sister to help us out with this if we are to correct these errors. We hear His voice, the Lord has taught us wonderful things, He has taught us how to heal division and we need to share these things so that we can get on with it. We need and should solicit the advice and encouragement of others. Every day, we should all feel that we have farther to go and more to learn. Our enthusiasm and gladness to be a part should never be too much for us to handle or the weight of our responsibility too much to bear.

There are still weakness in the walls of our temple restoration. It may have begun many years ago by the Nicolaitans and the false authority of the we and them mentality within the church but that is not our concern here. There are weaknesses in all branches of the church; the restoration of the first love and unity of the spirit is the plumb-line. Division has reigned supreme throughout the history, we cannot look at the past and judge and condemn the actions of others, that is the job of satan and his people. We are to skip all the nonsense and get back to the foundations that have already been laid for us in the early church and yes, the progressive revelation of God throughout history given to His ministers. We are to forget former times of ignorance and have the mind of Christ. To do that we MUST put away the traditions of men and the doctrines of demons that have caused the divisions. To do it God's way we must have the gifts of the spirit but more importantly is that we are to minister in the FRUITS of the spirit: love, humility, patience and the like. If we cannot love our brothers and sisters, whether Protestant or Catholic, we lie if we say that we love God. We are not ONE with Jesus until we are ONE with His body.

The body of Christ as one in the Lord is a good way to feel but we have not yet arrived. The body is a divided body. Some division is good, we are to be separate people so the true and the false is a distinct division, the problem remaining is that it is not always that clear no matter how spiritual you think you are. What unites us is love for each other no matter what. The disunity and division in the church is the result of the Babylonian confusion that pits brother against brother through the denominating influence of party strife, petty jealousy and pride including those that see the bad apples and then throw out the whole barrel. Not all evangelists are caught in sin or error and those that have been are only human anyway. It is the most sinful of people that cast the largest stones at them. We are to love those in error if we are to have any influence but discernment and correction is necessary for healing of the whole. If the end-time church is to be identified by its correct theology it must be a theology based upon love. None of us have it all together unless we can do this. We may in fact never get it completely right but the only way that we can tear down these walls of division is by being more like Jesus and that is to lay down our lives for the brethren.

It's true, you know. There are false ministries but sometimes we should not be so hard on them. After all, we are all learning here if you are open to it and the church is not yet perfected, so no one can boast. The five-fold ministry is only made up of imperfect souls trying to do their best among the rest of us. Our only perfection is our position in Christ. All of us. We must have a strong foundation. Spiritual gifts are good yet it is the fruits of the spirit that will win others over. We need wisdom, discernment, love and humility. Ask of God.

Billy Graham understood the division that the improper use of spiritual gifts has caused: "Of one thing I'm certain: neither the Holy Spirit nor any of His gifts were given to divide believers... When the gift of tongues is abused and becomes divisive, then something has gone wrong. Sin has come into the Body of Christ."

Even Mohammed understood this, you need to know that I believe there will be one Muslim sect that will ultimately accept the gospel. Quran: "As for those who divide their religion and break up into sects, you have no part in them in the least; Their affair is with God: He will in the end tell them the truth of all that they did."

Teilhard knew that today's great objection to Christianity is neither historical or theological, but that it consists in the suspicion that our religion makes its adherents inhuman, that it leaves them on the fringe of humanity. "Good Christians" must flee from evildoers, the wicked, the contaminated. They must shun progress for it is allied with the devil. In this way Christianity has created its own deserters and false brothers, and for this many men of our time cannot forgive it. You can tell what a man's relationship with God are by looking at his relations with other men.
[35, 36, 111, 117, 128, 296]



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