There is no question that there are many theological divisions among Christians, and that is not even taking into consideration what is often called Christianity but is not, as some or all of the foundational doctrines of Christianity are denied. Christianity, made up of those belonging to Christ and as is defined by Christ Himself and the apostles He appointed to set the foundational (teachings), is a definite. It does not have movable boundaries when it comes to who He is, what He did, how it is applied. This includes the Trinity, virgin birth, sinless life of Jesus, His substitutionary death, His resurrection. His ascension. It includes the justification of the believer through the substitutionary sacrifice of Jesus, the impartation of the Holy Spirit for sealing the believer and for sanctifying and training the believer in righteousness, and this for Christ's glory not in order to save ourselves through our own righteousness. It includes the atonement.
The Bible speaks of those who are in Christ as being one body, His body. So why all the divisions we see? And why, at least in the format of forum but I suspect within many churches as well, are these differences in doctrine or theology never actually dealt with but simply argued over?
I have arrived at the suspicion, and it is not based on nothing but rather careful and concerted thought done mostly within the scriptures, that the most damaging thing that has happened in the modern church, is the very thing that stirs up the most anger and hatred from within the body of Christ towards one another, is the abandonment of Reformed theology. What has pretty much been reduced to the term, and that used in a negative way, Calvinism. Specifically the TULIP, even though that is only a small part of reformed theology, but is the premise from which all of scripture is understood and interpreted. Oddly enough, most of the church agrees on the conclusions that this premise leads to, though without this premise, those conclusions are only llp service. And by that I do not mean that a person is believing those truths of salvation in vain or without sincerity of faith. I only mean that if they followed their premise of free will consistnatly, rather than the premise of God's absolute sovereignty and man's fallen sinful nature as taught by the total depravity doctrine,and original sin, they would not arrive at the same place. The idea of man having a will that is willing to serve and love God and God alone, and that our salvation is dependant, not on what Jesus did for us but on what we do, our choice, of whether to accept this or not, completely tears down the premise of the total sovereignty of God. Anyone who has ever read with reverence and understanding Job chapters 38 through 41, ought to give pause when suggesting what God can and cannot do, what He will and will not do. Or ever having it cross their mind that they should reject a doctrine or doctrines that have been a part of Christ's church from its birth. That is, the doctrine of original sin, and mankind's unwillingness to come to Him with any kind of a pure heart, and God being the One who saves and chooses those He saves because He is sovereign in all things. These doctrines were not pulled out of thin air. They came out of the word of God, and they are in almost every confession of faith that came out of the Reformation. There were differences and divisions then too---but they were over minor things that did not pertain to salvation. It is thanks mainly to a man named Charles Finney in the 19th century, that these doctrines began to be overturned, and the gates of the church were torn down and left wide open for every wind of doctrine to march right into the church, so that now even the walls are burned to the ground.
If we begin with the premise that God is truly sovereign at all times and in all things----as the Bible makes clear that He is---we will have an entirely different view of Him and ourselves in relation to and relationship with Him. If we do not start there, and maintain that premise on every page and sentence we read, we will have contradictions in the Bible. If we stay with this premise, over time and with diligence, we can unravel those apparent contradictions, sometimes like the day dawning, and sometimes with the knowledge that it is a paradox or a mystery not yet revealed,or the secret things of God that our finiteness cannot fathom but that faith takes to heart, but that we have no more business probing than we have of going through a strangers personal things. The most common way we have of dealing with apparent contradictions is to pick the one that suits our image of God the best, or requires the least amount of thought, while ignoring whatever contradicts the belief we choose. While also shouting loudly that we are doing no such thing.
So I ask this. Is there anywhere in the Bible where God leaves a single element of His purpose and His plans determinate in the hands of mankind? Does not everything and everywhere always work towards His purposes? Does He not say this Himself? So why, at the most crucial point in His redemptive plan, that final step of a person being saved, or not, does He suddenly step back, out of the picture, and say I love you so much I will leave it up to each person whether or not they are redeemed. Mind you, this would be after He sent His beloved Son, and the Son came in the likeness of us, and sent Him to the cross to His suffering and death, to redeem a people, rescue them from their sin and from death. He then turns the efficacy of Christ's life and death and resurrection and ascension, over to a tiny, fallen, corrupted, creature? Gives the result of this into the hearts of the enemies of the cross? Gives to the rescued the glory due the Rescuer? I think not. May it never be!
And lest the argument come up that God did this because He wanted people who loved Him voluntarily, let's look at that a bit deeper. What we have are people who come to God for self preservation. Whereas, if we have a people who come to God because He has snatched them out of the kingdom of darkness and brought them into the kingdom of the Son of HIs love, what do we have? We have a people who love the Father and come to Him because He first loved them to such a great degree the He sent HIs Son to die in their place, for their sins, gave them personally to the Son, imputing Christ's righteousness to them in place of their filthy rags. And giving them what they need to trust in Christ and Christ alone---the very faith to believe the gospel when they hear it.
There are many other ways in which the abandonment of both original sin and predestination have weakened and change the church and our understanding of scripture that we can explore.
