Posts Tagged ‘Unity’
Unity in Diversity
Despite being in the mountains of West Virginia we are everything but excluded from people. Everywhere we turn, look, or move there are people. In Morgantown, there are people all over; when students are back, lots of people. My guess is there are lots of people in your city as well, and with those people…
Read MoreTogether for the Gospel? Thoughts on Baptism and Christian Unity
Recently Joe Rigney, president of Bethlehem Baptist Seminary, argued that infant baptism need not be an absolute bar for membership in a Baptist church. If Christians of various persuasions can get “together for the Gospel,” why can’t they get together in the church? By Rigney’s thinking and in the spirit of catholicity they can if…
Read MoreDoing God’s Work Together
Titus 3:12-15 At the risk of over-stereotyping, please allow me to suggest that typical Midwestern Americans (and Americans in general) tend to function in an individualistic way. We keep to ourselves, rely on ourselves, and interact with other people to a limited degree. This individualistic lifestyle contrasts with the more social, relational, and community-oriented lifestyle…
Read MoreThe Holy Spirit, Like A Dove
Why did the Holy Spirit choose the dove to illustrate His ministry? In the Scriptures, there are three prominent illustrations of the Holy Spirit. He is like a dove; He is like the wind (John 3:8, Acts 2:2-4); He is like oil (especially in anointing, 1 Samuel 16:13, Isaiah 61:1, Acts 10:38). For a few…
Read MoreThe Unity of God’s People
Psalm 133 begins with this title: “A Song of Ascents [written] by David.” In total, there are fifteen Psalms called “A Song of Ascents” (Psa 120-134). Other names are the Gradual Psalms, Songs of Steps or Pilgrim Songs. Some believe that Jewish people sang these songs as they traveled up the road into Jerusalem to…
Read MoreUnity and Purity In The Church
A Historical Survey As early as the second century, two contradictory trends had developed that would affect the doctrine of the church until the present time. One trend was toward external unity; the other was toward internal purity. These two directions were present prior to the Reformation, as Catholicism formed around the concept of an…
Read MoreUnity in a Baptist Church?
Charles R. Phelps FrontLine • March/April 2009 Some have said, “Baptist churches multiply by division!” Such an observation must not be taken lightly, for it was our Savior’s prayer that His disciples be models of divine unity reflecting the very tri-unity of the Godhead (John 17:22). The absence of unity in the church requires prayerful,…
Read MoreUnity vs. Uniformity
Kit Johnson When people ask me what it is like to pastor Life Point Baptist Church, I typically respond by saying something like this: “Pastoring Life Point is incredibly hard but incredibly exciting.” Both the difficulty and the excitement are tied in part to the theological and philosophical diversity of our church. Life Point is…
Read MoreIndependence Is Not Isolation: Baptist Networks, Past and Present
Greg Linscott This article first appeared in the Baptist Bulletin Magazine, a publication of the General Association of Regular Baptists. We republish it here as a matter of interest to our readers and by permission of the author and original publisher. Baptist fundamentalism was in decay and decline. Conservatives were fracturing away from one another,…
Read MoreChurch Unity or Church Purity?
Bud Talbert It was June of 1962. The place? The legendary Westminster Chapel in London, England. The keynote speaker was the host of the Westminster’s Ministers’ Fellowship, Dr. David Martyn Lloyd-Jones. He began, No question is receiving so much attention at the present time in all branches and divisions of the Christian church as the…
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