Christian Unity according to Internet

Following are 30 questions that relate with Christian Unity that I'd like one to reflect upon for your edification. In fact,, these questions could be used in your Bible class as you discuss Christian Unity, which is so much needed today.

QUESTIONNAIRE ON "HOW TO DEAL WITH CHRISTIAN UNITY"

A) AMONG CHURCHES THAT MOST PEOPLE CONSIDER CHRISTIAN

1- What do you think causes Christian Divisions? A) Is denominationalism (Christians dividing)

a sin?

2- What is Christian Ecumenism and how do you feel about it?

A) Do you believe for Christians to possess complete spiritual unity, you need some form of Church Organizational Unity?

3- How do you think we have to proceed in our controversies on the Lord's Supper or Holy Communion?

Empowerment Through Education ) How can you interpret the Lord's Supper?

B) Do you believe that in interpreting the Lord's Supper, we're really using different words expressing a similar thing, which, to a certain degree, will always remain an earthly mystery?

C) Who do you believe should take Holy Communion? get more info often? And how important is the use of both elements (bread and wine) in Holy Communion?

D) How essential is the Lord's Supper, Holy Communion or the Mass to Salvation?

4- How can you think we should proceed in controversies over Baptism?

A) How can you interpret Baptism?

B) Should Baptism be only for those who are capable of belief, for believers and infants of same, or definitely not be an outward ceremonial act?

C) Just how many Baptisms is it possible to have, and is "Baptism of the Holy Spirit", where speaking in tongues can be an essential manifestation, just another Baptism?

5- What is a sacrament, and just how many activities can you recognize as such? Is this issue a significant component in any ecumenical dialogue?

6- So how exactly does Free Will and Predestination fit into your over-all belief system?

7- What does it mean to stay the ordained ministry?

A) Who can you believe is capable of doing Priestly functions (Baptism, Holy Communion, etc.)?

B) Do you believe that the ordination of Christians could eventually disappear because it divides Christians into two distinct classes?

8- How will you feel we have to proceed in our controversies over the organizational structure of the various churches, if we're looking for organizational unity?

A) Would you eventually accept the Pope as the head of the entire Christian Church?

B) Do you believe that a United Organizational Church ought to be strongly controlled with limited diversity or loosely controlled with a wide selection of diversity?

9- Do you believe that the theory of Evolution can to some degree be appropriate for God's Doctrine of Creation? From what extent? Why or why not?

A) Is creation still taking place?

10- Do you believe that the Bible literally describes the finish of time? Give a few examples. What might be various other interpretations of the examples?

11- May be the debate among Christians over the beginnings and the continuing future of life really that important; and should not our concentration be more on the present and how we can serve God now?

12- Do you believe that the Bible is the Word of God or contains the Word of God? Martin Luther once compared the Bible to a baby carriage with the infant inside. There may be errors in the carriage, however, not with the baby. Does the Word of God exceed what's included in the Bible?

A) What is your interpretative approach to Scripture? Can you believe the Bible is infallible according to each word that's written, or the message it contains?

B) What part does tradition play in your interpretation of Scripture?

C) What part does experience play in your interpretation of Scripture?

13- Do the Christian conservatives (literalists) and Christian liberals (contextualists) need one another for the church to flourish? (see below)

Conservative Emphasis

1) Scripture is authoritative

2) Creeds and Confessions are valuable and Vibrant Expressions of Faith

3)The Gospel changes lives

4)Personal Piety is a response to God's Grace without having to be legalistic

5)Stewardship is really a Joyous Responsibility

Liberal Emphasis

1)The Gospel must engage contemporary culture.

2)Christians must invite change in the non-essentials.

3)The Gosspel is really a force for social change.

4)The Gifts of all Christians should be claimed by the Church.

5)Christians should be Ecumenical in Dialogue

14- What part does traditions play in your Belief System?

15- Do you think Priests should have the right to marry?

16- Could you accept a Pastor who is divorced and remarried? If so, under what circumstances? Because of the trend in increased divorces within society, can you feel an answer might be long-term comprehensive pre-marital counselling sessions?. Or even, how do you feel we should deal with so many divorces?

17- How can you think we should check out dialogue with a Church that emphasizes Mariology and the Saints?

A)Exactly what is a Saint based on the Bible?

18- How does Sanctification (making someone Holy or Good) and Justification by Faith rank in order of priority in your belief system?

19- Do you consider organizational unity ought to be a major goal in order to achieve Spiritual unity within the Christian Church? Do you know the advantages or disadvantages of Christian organizational divisions?

20- What role do you feel women must have in a church organizational structure?

I strongly feel that the future trend in churches will be churches which are Christian non denominational. What do you consider?

B) AMONG CHURCHES THAT MOST CHRISTIANS CONSIDER AS SECTS

1. How does one think we should proceed with those Christian Sects (Christians Scientists, Jehovah Witnesses, Mormons, etc.) that deny the Trinity (one in three persons and three in one person) once we understand it? Can you have confidence in the trinity?

A) Any kind of other factors that determine whether a Christian Church is really a Christian Sect?

2. How will you feel we have to proceed having an ecumenical dialogue with the Christian Scientists?

3. How will you feel we should proceed with a more active dialogue with the Jehovah Witnesses, particularly when their belief dictates that Jesus, THE TERM, and God are completely separate beings, but in the Jehovah Witness's own Scripture it states in John 1:1a "In the beginning the Word was, and the Word was with God". WHEN I understand it from my interpretation of these Scripture it seems to indicate that Jesus and God are one, but as well two separate beings aswell, which contradicts the basic Jehovah Witness' doctrine. What do you think about this and other Jehovah Witness' doctrine?.

4. How will you feel we ought to proceed with a far more active dialogue with the Mormons, especially when you realize that in the Book of Abraham in the Pearl of Great Price, among the three books combined with the Bible which has equal authoritative status, you discover that God told Abraham to lie, which suggests that, if this were true and although God could do anything He wants, He would be going against His very own nature? In the Bible, it only states that Abraham lied without God being involved at all (Gen 12:12-13). How do you deal with this latter concern and other Mormon doctrines.

5. Which Christian Sect would be most difficult to manage?

6. What can we study from the Christian Sects? What do you think they can study from us?

7. Would a far more effective way to create a more vigorous dialogue with the Sects be to invite members of the Sects to a Christian discussion group, or a Bible study group?

8. Can you disagree with someone but still respect her or his opinion since you almost certainly are speaking from two different backgrounds?

9. What would your reaction be if someone thought to you "Are you currently born again?"?

A) How will you look upon Salvation?

10.How else might you enhance Christian Unity on the list of Christian Churches?

1st Internet Question: IS ORGANIZATIONAL CHRISTIAN UNITY REALLY HAD A NEED TO HAVE MORE EFFECTIVE SPITITUAL UNITY?

THE RESPONSES COME FROM 3 CHRISTIAN WEBSITES

1) Stephen says: Organizational unity is for me a complete no, no,. Spiritual unity is an absolute necessity.

2) Corbin says: Personally i think it is important to have organizational Christian unity, but only if it leads to true Spiritual unity.

3) Tom says: Humans are social, yet we frequently fear organization. Why is this so? We fear whatever we need. Spiritual unity can only be accomplished if you have an organization that allows us to come together and seek it. My knowledge of organization is simply a precise space where everyone understands and follows exactly the same rules while in that space. Without this common ground how do we create sacred space to talk about that which provides about unity. Do we fear organization since it calls us to follow rules? Without rules spirituality is impossible.

4) Anne says: I tend to be somewhat an anarchist and rebellious at heart and belonging to a church is really problematic for me. I belong to one now and what brought me back was having small kids. I had the need to bring them up in the traditions and teachings of the church, feeling that I wanted community support alongside what I taught them. I guess I have already been very fortunate in that I haven't been through any terrible horror stories so far as churches are worried, but I know of suffering caused by some churches with church people going awry

5) Shirly says: Today we Jehovah's Witnesses are organized to carry out Jesus' command to preach the good news of the kingdom worldwide. We have been united spiritually in a manner that no other group claiming to be Christian can compare. Regardless where you might go on the planet, Jehovah's Witnesses believe a similar thing doctrinally. We remain people with many differences as to culture. likes, dislikes, etc. Yet we are a true brotherhood. We do not mix with the politics of the world and do not use up arms against our brothers of any nation.

6) Jimmy says: I trust Shirly about her organization, but I strongly disagree with her about her doctrine.

7) Barbara says: This is not a"one size fits all" issue. The answer to your question is based on the level of faith of the Christian. We are all at different levels-the reason for a Church organization would be to give teaching, support, strength, and most importantly, fellowship by example, to those weak in their faith. Those of us who have a solid faith and also have found the Truth have a stewardship toward those who struggle still to get the "mustard seed". We must answer the call of our Lord and go where He directs us, to manage to His Sheep, our siblings in Christ. This might, or may not be, in a Church organization. Actually we must all achieve Spiritual unity before organizational unity may be accomplished.

8) Johnny says: This is apparently a movement towards a shallow unity at the trouble of truth, which might be based largely partly on the protest movements of the 60s and 70s. True unity must involve both an inner change of heart and life with doctrinal and practical uniformity.

2nd Internet Question: WHAT WILL BE THE BIGGEST PROBLEM IN ORGANIZED CHRISTIAN UNITY - THE LORD'S SUPPER, BAPTISM, CHURCH

GOVERNMENT STRUCTURE, WOMEN ISSUES, BIBLICAL INTERPRETATIONS, THE PAPACY, ETC.?

1) Corbin says: I really believe it will be the Papacy because how can you cope with the infallibility of the Pope on moral issues.

2) Johnny says: That's really an interesting question, You've definitely picked a large stumbling block for Protestants, Corbin, with papal infallibility. Especially since the Catholic Church condemned much of the Reformational ideas and reformists. Then there's the Evangelical's emphasis on being "born again" and all they mean theologically with that. On the one hand, it is encouraging that the Episcopaleans and Lutherans exercised ways to accept each other in unity, in a position to supp together and administer all rites together. However, 20+ years of dialogue seems terribly long to resolve together two denominations that a lot of of the world can't even tell apart. Personally, I believe they all have to recognize that there are plenty more grey regions of doctrinal interpretation than they realize. Thank you for the question that handles a matter that is near my heart - the necessity for much more Unity of the Spirit between the brethern.

3) Melvin says: The pope has only been infallible since the 1800s and that was as the pope said that he was infallible, this means nothing if he is fallible. Besides, nobody knows what that means. I think that sharing communion is about the best that people can hope for.

4) Johnny says: Although it has never been stated before 1800s, I believe the infallibility of the Pope was implicitly understood since the beginning of the Papacy.

5) Bernard says: The biggest problem for me personally is that organizational unity can never be real in heart, it must

by its nature be coercive.

6) Mary Anne says: I agree Berny. Organizations are naturally, static and ultimately death-dealing to the life span of the Spirit. Spirit moves. It really is fluid, dynamic, and changeful. Box it up in a pile of laws and statutes and codes and contracts and pretty soon it's dead as a doornail. Unity I really do not support. Love and wonder and appreciation in diversity I do. Love your individualism. I hope it's contagious.

7) Morgan says: I recall a vintage saying which went "in essentials, unity; in non-essentials, diversity; in all

things, charity". I believe there is a lot to be said for that. I work ecumenically, and I find that valuable and worthwhile. But ecumenism, and for that matter, multi-faith understanding, has never been about seeing what is the cheapest common denominator which to base a spurious unity, but an appreciation of the diversity of faith and the celebration of this diversity, alongside a recognition of where we can connect with one

another whilst retaining our differences.

8) Jane says: For me personally, the biggest obstacle to almost any human unity may be the humans themselves. I don't have to look further than my very own front door to note that. As far as Christian unity goes, it seems that the second biggest obstacle to unity is the definition of what it means to be Christian. I've seen so many definitions of this and it could be very confusing.

9) Debbie says: The principal problem with Christian unity is that of differing traditions/doctrines/and/ beliefs. They all cannot be correct; however, each of them could be wrong, but it's impossible for all to be right concerning the nature of God and Salvation.

10) Mary Jane says: I have to agree with those who say that disunity in the understanding of Scripture is just about the biggest problem in the way of unity. Listening to all the chatter about what this verse means and what that verse means makes one believe 99% of people have bitten the apple if you know what I mean. That is, suffered the result of some sort of self pride that enticed us to eat of the tree of the data of good and evil and now we all appear to think we have been gods and we are able to decide what's right and wrong and what makes one a Christian and what can't possibly make one a Christian, and what's or isn't essential to believe. Another term to spell it out this is original sin.

11) Herbert says: Jane, your feet aren't only wet, you're really swimming now.

12) Samuel says: The only Christian unity that may come will be by the end of time.

13) Clifford says: I believe the biggest problem would be looking to get everyone to agree on what is the right thing to believe. There are so many several types of churches today because whoever started them had a slightly different idea about how exactly something ought to be interpreted, and when someone else agreed with him, it started a fresh church, So how do you get them all to trust the same thing?

14) Celeste says: I trust Cliff. I think that is impossible, so I think we should make an effort to build our unity on

love and respect regardless of the differences, and that is something I believe could work, because we all desire to love God and God tell us to love one another.

15) Corbin says: Another problem may be the meaning of Apostolic Succession. The Roman Catholics think that Apostolic Succesion just came from Peter, but I believe Apostolic Succession actually came from all the Apostles so that every Christian is representing Christ here on the planet with the Bible as our guidebook.

3rd Internet Question: ONE RESPONSE TO CHRISTIAN UNITY MAY BE FOR CHRISTIANS TO ARRANGE AN ECUMENICAL CHRISTIAN CHURCH WHERE THE CHURCH WOULD RECRUIT ALL CHRISTIANS, INCLUDING ROMAN CATHOLICS, TO BE MINISTERS TO WHOMEVER NEEDED HELP. WHAT DO YOU THINK?

1) Jim says: This can be a nice idea. Unity is obviously what the planet needs today. And the branches of Christianity began with this idea in mind, the issue being that with each new one, despite having the unification of Christianity in mind, it is just adding itself to the list of branches of Christianity. THE PLANET Christian Encyclopedia estimates that in 1900 there were 2000 sects of Christianity whereas in 1990 there were 21,000. Almost 5 new ones each year.

2) Stephen says: My connection with ecumenical endeavors is that the mainstream churches generally work well together whilst recognizing our various traditions do create differences, but these can be a source of positive diversity and richness.

3) Corbin says: I'm an associate of this type of church down here in Argentina, and we're really one big happy family so far as Christian unity can be involved. Of course we have our family squabbles like all families do, but this is strictly in-house

4) Melvin says: Corbin, I believe this kind of church appears like a dream. I've heard of other churches enjoy it and I think that when we can get it to work in more places, it will definitely be considered a big step in the proper direction for the whole of Christianity.

5) Miichael says: I think that would be a good idea. We Christians then could work a lot more efficiently in solving Global Issues.

The names of the commentarians have already been changed to protect the privacy of the Internet contributors, but their comments are accurate.

AN AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

I was born in NEW YORK in 1931, was raised on Long Island, graduated from Roanoke College in Virginia with a BA in Political Science, and from NY Theological Seminary with a Masters in Religious Education. I became a committed Christian in 1958, and after a period of time became a committed Ecumenical Christian. I worked being an accountant in a variety of companies for approximately 25 years in New York City, then moved right down to Argentina and worked for about 21 years as a small business English conversationalist teacher with a number of the top managers. I also became a Stephens Minister (trained counselor) while down here. I was married twice (the last to an Argentine), widowed once, no children, and one cat. If you want to contact me, you can write if you ask me via (corbinw@hotmail.com).