It seems every day there is another call for unity for the sake of unity. Be not deceived beloved...

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"I came to cast fire on the earth, and would that it were already kindled! I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how great is my distress until it is accomplished! Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. For from now on in one house there will be five divided, three against two and two against three. They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law." -- Luke 12: 49-53 (ESV)

https://www.charismanews.com/opinion/70934-this-should-be-the-no-1-prayer-priority-for-the-whole-church

What we have seen over the past few decades is coup of the modern church in America. Spurred on by purpose driven paradigms of church growth and seeker friendly norms of behavior, the modern church has devolved into a cesspool of human wisdom wrapped around pseudo-piety designed to generate large revenue and few salvations. I am not even speaking to the motivation beloved. We can be sincere and sincerely wrong. As Paul Washer once said, Joel Osteen exists because he is exactly what the people want and it is not God. This is in line with the path to destruction being broad and the way to eternal life being narrow. Few are those who find it because they are not truly seeking it. That is the core lie of the underpinnings of seeker friendly thinking. Romans teaches us that none seek after God. Thus the only hope for salvation is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Faith comes by hearing. What happens however when the vehicle for the deliverance of the Gospel, the church, chooses instead to change it? To make it more palatable? To make it a little sweeter? To not deal with the sin issue as much and instead play up the love of God? To essentially strip out the power to save and replace it with relevance to the world that is dying all around us?

To understand this question we must understand the key verses. Words from Jesus Himself as to why He had come to earth with the Gospel to begin with. They are not purpose driven words nor are they seeker friendly. They are not designed to pack the house filled with goats but to cull out from among them the sheep that will respond to the call of the Holy Spirit. They contain the wrath of a just God that so many pastors today refuse to be honest about for fear of having less people the following week. Jesus says in no uncertain terms that He has come to cast fire upon the earth! He laments that it is not burning already! Oh you silly pastors chasing your own dreams! Do you think He has come to give peace on earth? No sirs -- division not peace. For hereafter will we be pitted against our own. Mother against daughter. Father against son. Who are my mother and brother except they that do the will of my Father? Ron Allen is a Christian businessman and he wrote the above linked article claiming the most dire prayer priority today is for unity. As we reason together we can see how the purpose driven industrial complex has warped his thinking as so many others in the church as well. This is not a critique of his sincerity. I assume he is very sincere. Unity however, without being concerned what you are unifying with, is sincerely wrong.

'"This year's focus for the National Day of Prayer on Thursday, May 3, was Christian unity.

Jesus started the Christian Unity Prayer Movement when He prayed that the believers would be united in Him and united with each other so the world would know that God sent him.' (John 17:20-23)." -- Ron Allen

Jesus of course did no such thing beloved. John 17 contains a long prayer referred to as the High Priestly Prayer. It is true that within this long prayer He prays for unity but only after he explicitly explains that doctrine is what we unify around. Without sound doctrine and an uncompromised Gospel, there is no unity. The type of unity that Ron Allen is calling for is unity for unity's sake. It is what you will hear increasing as the days grow darker. Soon those that demand sound doctrine will be the agitators, the legalists, and those that will be persecuted.

For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. 2Timothy 4: 3-4 (NIV)

People will not even put up with sound doctrine! They will not tolerate it! Do we understand that this is where we are heading? The notion of unity for the sake of unity is a myth. It is fool's gold. What did Jesus Himself say? Who are my mother and brother except those that do the will of my Father!

"Almost since the beginning of Christianity, believers have quarreled about Christian doctrine and church government. The first Jerusalem Council served as an example of a favorably resolved dispute (Acts 15). However, other disputes resulted in division and treatment of opponents as non-Christians. For example, some Protestants who believe in salvation only through faith will recite many doctrinal differences with Catholics, claiming those make them un-Christian although Catholics share their belief in salvation only through faith. The critics have forgotten the words of the apostle Paul, "Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you" (Rom. 15:7a, NIV)." -- Ron Allen

It is certainly true that people have argued over doctrine throughout the history of Christianity. The Biblical examples he gives are not being represented correctly however. The Jerusalem Council was dealing with heresy. There was a group of former Jews who were insisting that the new gentile believers also had to be circumcised in order to be saved. This is not an example of a favorably resolved dispute -- it is an example of a correction. This is the same error that the Judaizers were committing in Galatia. Paul rebuked the Galatians for it saying if you insisted on one part of the law then you sever Christ from yourself and make Him useless to you! That hardly sounds like a Kumbaya unity moment beloved. That is how Allen is selling it though. He then breezes past a fundamental error within the Catholic faith. They believe that salvation is based upon a mixture of works and grace. Catholics do not share the Protestant belief of faith alone. Considering falsely believing could lead someone to believe they are saved when they are not, I would think that is a pretty big deal. As for Romans 15, Allen leaves out the context:

May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God. -- Romans 15: 5-7 (ESV)

What is the harmony (unity) based upon? Being in accord with Christ Jesus! It is not just willy nilly, say you love Jesus and you're in. The Mormon Church is not in accord with Christ Jesus. The prosperity gospel is not in accord with Christ Jesus. The word faith, NAR, false signs and lying wonders and any other number of false teachings today are not in accord with Christ Jesus. To try and lift half a verse out of context shows the lengths Allen will go to in order to prove his point which is simply unbiblical.

"Instead of myriad doctrinal tests, the apostle Paul tells how to know if we are in Christ: "If you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved, for with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation" (Rom. 10:9-10). In other words, those who are justified by faith and say so are in Christ. If you are in Christ and those with whom you disagree are in Christ, you are united with them in Christ whether you admit it or not." -- Ron Allen

Wow, how breathtakingly naïve. Perhaps this is just the end result of seeker friendly theology. When altar calls are dumbed down to three sentences and a cloud of dust it is no wonder that someone can read these scriptures and think it some kind of a magic spell I just have to recite. The soundness of doctrine to which we have been speaking is directly attached to the requisites found in these verses. One does not merely believe that Jesus was resurrected but why He needed to be. We are saved because we confess our sins and turn from them. We are saved because Christ is the final sacrificial lamb. The Lamb of God. To Ron Allen we are all in the family of God if we say any version of the sinner's prayer that touches these two verses, dismissing all of the remainder of Scripture that deals with salvation. How dangerous is this? The Mormon Church believes that Jesus is Lord and also believes in the resurrection. Jehovah Witness believers also believe in both of these. According to the logic of Ron Allen we are united in Christ with them because of this and that is frankly absurd.

"Although our unity comes through Christ, many denominations and doctrines create a great diversity within the body of Christ. Lutheran theologian Oscar Cullman said, "Unity in the church ... is unity in diversity ... recognizing others in all their variety as true Christians." Pope Francis has said, "Unity brought by the Spirit can harmonize every diversity." Unity in diversity recognizes the contributions of other streams of Christianity and blends them together in a symphony of harmony. It is a unity of the Spirit, not in doctrine or church government." -- Ron Allen

No offense to Oscar Cullman but I will stick to what the Bible says and not the wisdom of man. Yes there are some differences around the edges but the core has to be consistent or we should not be a part of it. Pope Francis? Seriously? Beloved this is the path to the ecumenical one world religion prophesied about in Revelation. Look how utterly warped and perverted this rationale is. Christianity can contribute NOTHING to why we are unified. Christ already provided it all. There is no symphony or harmonizing with what is opposed to Christ. The spirit is Christ and Christ is His Word so the notion that there can be spiritual unity without doctrine is simply ridiculous. Unless you mean an antichrist spiritual harmony. That we will definitely see increasing as the end times deepen. We have already seen Rick Warren, Kenneth Copeland and countless other leaders of the apostate church seek to hold hands with Rome. This is the one world church forming beloved. Be very aware.

"The church has come a long way since the 16th and 17th centuries, when being a Protestant in France or a Catholic in England could be a death sentence. The French Edict of Nantes, in effect for less than a century, and the English Act of Tolerance were important steps toward Paul's admonition to accept brother Christians. The revivalists of the Great Awakening and the second Great Awakening first transcended their denominations, achieving a forerunner of unity in diversity. The charismatic movement brought about spiritual unity, as Christians across many denominations shared in the same experiences and often worshiped together." -- Ron Allen

Two different points here. First of all, I agree that it is good that denominations do not kill people who disagree with them but isn't that muddying the waters a bit too much? I would like to believe that we can disagree with someone, not break bread with them as if they were our mother and brother and at the same time not kill them. Secondly, I would hardly categorize charismania as being overly infatuated with unity. It is the Pentecostal experience that ostracizes fellow believers if they have not had this subjective baptism in the Holy Spirit as evidenced by speaking in tongues. Many of this belief claim you are not saved until this happens! Within Charismatic churches there is always a spiritual competition for just who is more spiritual. Who is slain the most, who wears the most pious prayer shawl, or who has the loudest gift.

"Even so, much remains to be done to bring together the body of Christ. Today one of the worst schisms in the American church has arisen between the social gospel and the evangelical gospel, and the accompanying politicization of faith. We must come together to care for the poor and needy while reaching the lost with the love of Jesus. We must also transcend politics, guiding both of our political parties to embrace Christian policies." -- Ron Allen

It is true that the evangelical base has embraced republican ideology as somehow being righteous. In doing so, anyone who deviates is branded as a less than Christian if saved at all. The mistake is in assigning any righteousness at all to a carnal political party. There are not two gospels but one. It is both social and evangelical. We must recognize this line of thinking for what it is though -- pure NAR. It is the same dominionist language you will hear from Bethel and IHOP. The notion that we must guide two political parties who both believe we are utter fools, to embrace Christian policies is asinine at best. This carnal solution is from NAR theology because they want to save this world. They are fixated with faux revival. They love living in Sodom because of the excess Sodom brings. We are supposed to be pilgrims and sojourners through this world understanding our true citizenship is in heaven. We need to stop rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic and start pointing people to the lifeboat, Jesus. Allen concludes:

"After the pope sent a video of reconciliation to Kenneth Copeland in 2014 many national and international church leaders joined together in Christian unity. However, the urgent need to unite the body of Christ now must be communicated from the national leadership of movements and denominations to the local churches. The city fathers must become champions of unity, bringing the body of Christ together to impact their communities. The prayer of Jesus in John 17 is not only about unity. It is for unity with a purpose, "That the world may believe" (John 17:21b). Let us join with Jesus in His prayer for unity." -- Ron Allen

Beloved pay careful attention here. Kenneth Copeland has stored up 650 million dollars from making merchandise of the Gospel. The current advisor to the president, Paula White is on her third marriage and has earned 5 million preaching rank heresy. The reason why the church will fall prey to the one world religion in the end times is because those that lead it are not operatives for Christ. They are the hirelings Jesus warned us about. They are leading lambs to slaughter and will lead the way to accept the Mark of the Beast. What do they care? They have no fear of God before them. This is why the Gospel matters. This is why the Gospel is the final arbiter. Unity for the sake of unity has Pope Francis reconciling with Kenneth Copeland and then they get together with Paula White and Joel Osteen. Soon Joseph Prince and Robert Morris join in with Rick Warren and TD Jakes. Throw in some Oprah and Tyler Perry and some slick marketing and you have the recipe for what Revelation warns us about. The one world religion. When it happens most will not realize it because their own pastors will be leading the charge. The song playing in the background of that charge will be Kumbaya and the rallying cry will be unity.

Not without doctrine beloved. Not without doctrine.

Reverend Anthony Wade -- May 9, 2018

Authors Bio:
Credentialed Minister of the Gospel for the Assemblies of God. Owner and founder of 828 ministries. Vice President for Goodwill Industries. Always remember that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.