Denominations, we are told, divide. We are told by apologists for the one true church, both the one true church that bows toward Rome and the other one, those who bow toward Constantinople, that our divisions are damning evidence against us, that we cannot possibly be true Christians because we are not united.
What is perhaps most maddening, at least about the latter group, is that they do not bolster their view with an appeal to tradition, but by turning to the Word of God. In what has come to be known at Jesus’ High Priestly prayer, Jesus Himself petitions the Father, “And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth. I do not ask in behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one” (John 17: 19-21a). If Jesus asks that His church may be one, and if Jesus has now received all authority in heaven and on earth, then isn’t it necessarily the case that His church is one? And if we have many denominations, and many more truly micro-denominations (those little denominations that have only one church in them, the independents that may think they are avoiding the problem by being non-denominational), then manifestly we cannot be the church of Jesus Christ.
The first premise is, to my way of thinking, compelling. If the prayers of a righteous man availeth much, what must the prayers of Jesus avail? What He prays for He gets. The sleight of hand comes in the second premise. It comes by way of equivocation and question begging. Yes, the church must be one. But is being one the same thing as having the same guy sign all our checks? In the Roman Catholic religion we have everyone from a squishy pope, to the liberal Hans Kung, to devout laity, to old order Romanists who think the only trouble with Trent was that it didn’t go far enough, and the only trouble with the Reformation is that it didn’t wait until Vatican II. These are the folks more Catholic than the Pope. Are all these really one?
This, of course, isn’t a new phenomenon. The church at Rome has always had factions, divisions, differing views on this critical issue and that. That they remained one visible institution establishes exactly what? The one true church of the Eastern Orthodox has much the same problem. Every time you show them a church father teaching an ancient version of sola Scriptura, or a patriarch embracing Calvinism, they tell you, “Oh, that’s not the authentic tradition.” How can you tell the authentic tradition? By the convictions of the Orthodox guy you’re talking to at the time. I’ve even had the privilege of watching two “brothers” in this one pure tradition go at it like cats and dogs.
Unity then, cannot be found maintaining some form of institutional connection. If that were the case one could argue that all denominations that are part of the National Association of Evangelicals are “one.” Neither, on the other hand, is unity something utterly invisible. We can’t claim of our unity, “Well, it’s there, you just have no way of knowing. Trust me on this.” There is a visible unity of the church.
It is not in the Apostles’ Creed, but in the Nicene Creed that we confess that we believe in one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church. What makes us one is that we are visibly, or perhaps more accurately, audibly, the apostolic church. Any denomination that upholds the essentials of the apostolic faith, is by definition, a part of the one true church. In fact, the only thing that can unite the church of Christ is the confession of Christ. I am far more tightly bound with Charles Stanley than even Hans Kung is bound with the Pope. I have a greater unity with some eighty-year old sister down at the local AME church than the Patriarch of the Serbian Church has with the Patriarch of the Greek church. She and I have the same Spirit indwelling us because, though we differ on many issues, we profess together the same faith. All that the patriarchs share is their delusions.
We can do better. We can bring into sharper focus the visible unity that Christ calls us to. But the pathway there isn’t by going to Rome, or to Constantinople, nor back to the mainline churches- all three of which have denied the faith. The pathway to unity is to hold with both vigor and precision to the essentials of the faith, and to show forth the love of Christ to those who likewise hold to that faith. Paul and Barnabas went their separate ways. They did not share a common strategy. But they separated in unity. They did so sharing the burden to preach Christ, and Him crucified. They did so as part of the one body of our Savior, whose prayers never return void. Our great High Priest has made us one, and nothing can, or ever will undo that.