On Mon, 17 Aug 1998, Dave Hiatt wrote: > >I have some questions for the whole list of Christians. What would > >>Christian unity< look like? Maybe one version of it will look like Deseret. If there are those who say a unified Christian Commmunity/Culture/Civilization/Nation is not like Deseret then the onus is one them to spell out their alternative plan. Do we have it fully already? If not, then > what > >would it look like? What practical form does it take for us now? Does > it > >involve all Christian denominations? What is the definition of a > Christian, > >or a Christian denomination? And what kind of unity does God want us > to > >have in Jesus? Any ideas? > > > > It would be nice to see true Christian unity everywhere, among all > denominations. Most denominations agree on basic doctrines, on the main > ideas, and only differ in how to run their churches. They should spend > less time focusing on traditions and spend more time digging into the > Word. > > Many denominations are branch-offs of other Christian denominations. > And most of these formed by people rebelling, in a sense. The > protestants broke off of the Roman Catholic church, being sick of the > twisted doctrine the church was propogating. The protestants wanted to > get back to basics, to the Word. But others, down through history, > branched off, trying to be opposite of what they branched off from. > > That is what I believe to be part of the trouble with denominations and > Christianity today. There are too many extremes. You have one group, > and another group that branched off, trying to be totally opposite of > the group they abandoned. So therefore you have two extremes. It is > often difficult to sort out the tangled mess and find true Bible > believing churches now, as some denominational churches (individual > churches) seem to act like they belong in other denominations, or even > as independent churches. One searching for a church home needs to test > the teachings of the church against scripture and see how rooted the > church is in Christ alone, and make sure it is not based on traditions. > > But from another point of view, many denominations do teach Christ, and > since differences are often minor. Thus, we are exhorted not to let > minor differences separate us. One must pray for unity. > > ############################################ > Dave "The Edge" Hiatt > edge777@... > dsh84447@... > http://members.tripod.com/~edge777 > > "For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and > lose his own soul???" --Mark 8:36 > > > ______________________________________________________ > Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com > -- > To unsubscribe, send ANY message to <christianunity-unsubscribe@...> > *** To subscribe to list discussions on: a model sustainable village for 5,000, www.onelist.com/subscribe.cgi/FalseCreek; a robotized megafloat, www.onelist.com/subscribe.cgi/TradeandConvention; the world's first direct electronic democracy, www.onelist.com/subscribe.cgi/BCPolitics ***