SACRIFICING THE TRUTH ON THE ALTAR OF UNITY!

Mike Jeshurun

Christian unity is desirable and something that we should strive for and
maybe even pray for. “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for
brethren to dwell together in unity! It is like the precious ointment upon
the head, that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron’s beard . . . .for
THERE the Lord commanded the blessing, even life for evermore”.
[Psalm 133]

The Apostle in the same vein of thought says- “Now I beseech you,
brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the
same thing, and that there BE NO DIVISIONS AMONG YOU; but that
ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same
judgment”. [1 Cor 1:10].

This unity however should not be gained at the price of Truth! The
Truth of God should never be sacrificed on the altar of unity. God is
more concerned about preserving the truth of His Word in the church
than so-called ‘peace’, ‘love’ and unity. As Owen rightly said, "For what
peace in the Church without truth? All conformity to anything else is but
the agreement of Herod and Pilate to destroy Christ and His Kingdom".
And again, "An agreement without truth is no peace, but a covenant with
death, a league with hell, a conspiracy against the Kingdom of Christ
and a stout rebellion against the God of Heaven".

Not long ago a true committed Sister in Christ wrote to me about how
she was discussing the Bible with an old friend who claimed to be a
‘born-again’ Christian. She said- “But she just was not receiving the
basic truths of Scripture that I was telling her, like man’s total depravity,
we choose Christ only because He has chosen us, and the Paganism of
Christmas, Rock music is the Devil’s music etc. I just did not get the
witness like she was one of us. Maybe I could be wrong in my judgment,
Mike”. Etc.
Here is the reply I wrote to her –

“Don’t kid yourself dear L! Your judgment here and elsewhere, when
you felt that someone ‘possibly couldn’t be saved’ is usually
CORRECT!

Let me share something on this. Do you remember how King Saul

allowed little David to go fight the giant Goliath? That was staking the
lives of the WHOLE Army! ‘Cause if David got killed then THEY
would all be dead meat!

So how come Saul trusted young David?

You see Saul was once an anointed man and had killed his thousands!
But shortly afterward Saul LOST his Anointing due to disobedience.
That SAME Anointing later came on little David. So when David now
approached Him and offered to take on Goliath. He consented
irrespective of his size and age! How come?

Because Saul SAW what David possessed. The ‘Anointing’!

The POINT being, when you meet someone who has what YOU have;
you right away SPOT IT! One sheep will spot another in any given
crowd! There’s no mistaking here! “As in water face answereth to face,
so the heart of man to man”! [Prov 27:19] Their SPEECH always
betrays them! Remember what they said of Peter? Surely THOU also art
one of THEM: for THY SPEECH agreeth thereto! [Mark 14:70].

The Apostle said - We having the SAME spirit of faith, according as it

is written, I believed, and therefore have I SPOKEN; we also believe,
and therefore SPEAK! [2Cor 4:13]. When the subject of religion is
brought up in any given conversation, folks usually start sharing what
THEY PERSONALLY believe. If not in the very FIRST sitting, after a
couple of talks, you’ll know for sure what they really believe! For out of
the abundance of the HEART the mouth speaketh! [Mat 12:34]
That is why the Lord always put people ‘on the spot’ when it came to the
question of their Faith; by bluntly asking – “How readest thou”? [Luk
10:27] In other words: what do YOU think? On another occasion the
Apostles where telling the Lord who the people thought He was; Some
say that Thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or
one of the prophets.

Then the blunt ‘million dollar’ question – But whom SAY YE that I
am?! [Mat 16:13,15].

Off course, no two people (even good theologians) will be or can be

agreed on EVERYTHING. But if they can’t agree on the VITAL
POINTS of the Faith, then you can count them out. Period”!

Many are regenerated while believing that man has a ‘free will’ to
‘accept Jesus Christ’. But after you have opened the Word and showed
them Scripture after Scripture that salvation is not of him that willeth,
nor of him that runneth but of God that showeth mercy’ [Rom 9:16],
they still stubbornly insist on mans ability and merit, like John Wesley
did; you cannot count them as a brother!

But did not Christ say Christians should all be one? Jesus’ prayer in John
17:21, “‘that they all may be one’” is often cited as the biblical basis for
the ecumenical movement. But what did Jesus really pray for in John
17?

The prayer of Jesus in John 17 was not an appeal to the disciples to

produce unity. The unity He referred to was already there. Jesus was
not dealing with something at which the church should aim. He was not
even speaking to His disciples or to us. He was praying to His Father
that God might keep His followers in that unity which He, through His
Word, had already brought into existence.

The essence of this unity was that between Father and Son (vs. 21). This
unity is a spiritual unity, not some organizational unity. And this
spiritual unity has always existed among true believers. It is not a
superficial unity that negates God’s Word for the sake of political or
social goals, as worthy as some of them may be.

Those who are living at this time in human history are privileged to see
the fulfillment of prophecy taking place. They are privileged to have a
part in that spiritual unity, which all true believers, whatever their church
affiliation, share. It is a unity based on the Word of God, not on some
smarmy, sloppy agape which rejects the truth. It is a unity that
safeguards God’s teachings, rather than changes and accommodates
them.

True Christian unity comes from above. It is a God-created spiritual

unity, not an outward organizational unity created by sinful human
beings. As individuals, we may become part of this spiritual unity
through regeneration, conversion, revival, and reformation in our lives.
This should be our goal.

Again we ought not to refuse or reject a brother or sister in Christ just

because they hold a DIFFERENT VIEW concerning the Second
Coming! True Christians through the ages have held many
Eschatological views concerning the last days and the Second Coming
of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. But all are agreed that Christ will
come again in glory with His holy Angels to judge the living and the
dead!

Here again as in all cases caution is needed. There is a group of

‘Christians’ who teach that Christ already came in 70A.D. and that there
shall be no visible Second Coming or Resurrection of the saints. Some
of these men are very string Calvinists. But can we count these men as
brethren? Read my article –

http://michaeljeshurun.wordpress.com/2010/07/21/%E2%80%98preteris
m%E2%80%99-another-eschatological-view-or-heresy/
I guess the most difficult of all for the Christian to come to terms with is
the fact that many if not all in his household are lost!

“A prophet is not without honor, but in his own country, and AMONG
HIS OWN KIN, and IN HIS OWN HOUSE”. [Mark 6:4]

I do not think it can get any plainer than this. As a rule, in 99.9% of the
cases, a true Christian who is testifying about his Sovereign God, His
Absolute Sovereignty and also crying out against the Apostasy of his
family’s nominal Christianity will not be accepted; especially amongst
his kin and in his own house! Why so?

It is because of this - The Lord said, He came to seek and to save His
lost sheep, and His sheep are scattered in ‘families’ both Christian and
non-Christian. So when the Lord calls His sheep out of these families the
division is INEVITABLE.

Remember? “A man’s foes shall be they of his own household” [Matt.

10:36]. The ‘MAN’ in this passage is the LORD’S SHEEP whom He
has chosen to save as opposed to the REST of his family whom he hath
chosen not to save. He says “five in one house shall be divided, three
against two, and two against three.” At times the Lord may choose to
save two or even three in a family of five, BUT NOWHERE IN THE
SCRIPTURE DOES THE LORD PROMISE TO SAVE THE WHOLE
FAMILY!

A.W. Pink put it very well when he said – “The gospel of Satan is not a
system of revolutionary principles, nor yet a program of anarchy. It does
not promote strife and war, but aims at peace and unity. It seeks not to
set the mother against her daughter nor the father against his son, but
fosters the fraternal spirit whereby the human race is regarded as one
great ‘brotherhood’

But sadly in many cases it takes quite a while for the Lord’s child to
WAKE UP TO THE FACT THAT HIS NATURAL FAMILY IS
NO LONGER HIS REAL FAMILY. He has been adopted into
ANOTHER family, even the family or household of God and his first
allegiance should be to THEM who are the brothers and sisters of the
Lamb! [see Gal 6:10] As the Master Himself said, “Behold my mother
and my brethren! For whosoever shall DO THE WILL OF MY
FATHER which is in heaven, THE SAME is my brother, and sister,
and mother”. [Mat 12:49,50]

Many are regenerated while still a part of the Church of England, the
Assemblies of God or one of the majority (not all) of the Baptist,
Methodist or Lutheran denominations, which are daughters of the
GREAT WHORE! [How can I dare say this? Because thy don’t preach
against her, but count her as one of them and hold ‘United Christmas
Celebrations’ with her]

But if our loved ones are truly saved, the Lord will sooner or later show
them the Apostasy of these ‘Churches’ and BRING THEM OUT!

But even after you showing them the compromise and error of these
‘Churches’ and their practices they still insist on being a member of
these Apostate ‘Churches’, saying “we have to go to some church on
Sunday”, they are showing their true character as goats no matter how
eloquently they can expound doctrine!

To grin and bear it when your Dad is testifying of the glorious Christmas
service he attended is nothing short of denying the Lord! He that loveth
his father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me! See ‘Letter to
my Roman Catholic Dad’-

http://michaeljeshurun.wordpress.com/2011/03/16/letter-to-my-roman-
catholic-dad/

To be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers includes our well

meaning lost relatives as well!

Let me say in conclusion, it is a pretty lonely life for the true Christian
who is taking a stand for the Truth. If you choose to live like the Master
and confront those around you with the truth like the Master, [see John
7:7] then without doubt you will wind up like the Master- ‘despised and
rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief’! [Isa 53:3]

But the Day is soon coming when you will hear- “Well done, thou good
and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will
make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy Lord”.
[Mat 25:21]