The importance of unity

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angell1

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i think i now understand why Jesus stressed for unity. how else is a person suppose dto know where the true church is?

for example, let’s say you encounter a christian who is not catholic and you try to explain the true church to them. but it just so happens they are illiterate. so you can’t use writings of the eCF or scripture passages. what other way could you convey this concept to them. likely, they are immersed in their own church and would have no reason to look elsewhere. that being said, seems like christianity has become a bit of an intellectual battlefield. now if there was one church, like there was for a long time, you wouldn’t have this problem

do you agree?
 
I think that’s true. I was recently thinking about this too, as the rest of my family is all Protestant. I noticed something interesting when we look at Christ’s High Priestly prayer in John 17, where He prays for Christian unity, in which He says:

John 17:20-23: “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— 23 I in them and you in me—**so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me **and have loved them even as you have loved me.”

Christ says that Christian unity shows the world the He was sent by the Father. It seems to me that the inverse of that must also be true-- if there is Christian disunity then the world won’t know that He was sent by the Father!

And what do we see rise out of the Protestant Revolt? The Revolt laid the groundwork for the springing of the “Enlightenment,” which spread secularism, atheism, and agnosticism, the belief system which denies Christ is God and is destroying Western culture.
 
A person who is completely illiterate in any language is probably uneducated. Such a person is difficult to minister to in an apologetic manner.

But, if the person has a rudimentary understanding of philosophy, it might be easier. Jesus was accused of casting out demons by the power of satan. He countered this accusation with the philosophical statement that “a house divided cannot stand.” (Mk 3:25)
 
last time i checked, being educated wasn’t a requirement for anything church related. it’s just all the schisms have targeted these people and now it’s hard ti get things figured out. personally, i think the people who cause division will be more responsible than those who followed but weren’t able to tell the difference
 
KEP1983 said:
I think that’s true. I was recently thinking about this too, as the rest of my family is all Protestant. I noticed something interesting when we look at Christ’s High Priestly prayer in John 17, where He prays for Christian unity, in which He says:

John 17:20-23: “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— 23 I in them and you in me—**so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me **and have loved them even as you have loved me.”

Christ says that Christian unity shows the world the He was sent by the Father. It seems to me that the inverse of that must also be true-- if there is Christian disunity then the world won’t know that He was sent by the Father!

And what do we see rise out of the Protestant Revolt? The Revolt laid the groundwork for the springing of the “Enlightenment,” which spread secularism, atheism, and agnosticism, the belief system which denies Christ is God and is destroying Western culture.
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exactly, and what’s worse, it wekens our case as a whole. it’s so easy for atheists and others to dismiss christnity now because they just take one look at us and are like “man, those christians can’t agree on anything, why should we believe them?” and let’s face it, how many are actually going to do an in depth study of the whole thing?
 
angell1 said:
exactly, and what’s worse, it wekens our case as a whole. it’s so easy for atheists and others to dismiss christnity now because they just take one look at us and are like “man, those christians can’t agree on anything, why should we believe them?” and let’s face it, how many are actually going to do an in depth study of the whole thing?
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This is exactly the reason I was never closely affiliated with any particular denomination. I attended Methodist as a child, Lutheran when my sons were young so they could be confirmed but we only attended occasionally-definitely not active members. I’ve hit and miss some charismatic, revival stuff over the years with my parents, mostly just out of curiosity. They never attended any church when my sister and I were growing up so it’s interesting to see how they’ve embraced this born again, spirit filled, style of worship. I’m not putting it down, because in many ways they seem happier at least while they’re there. I find all the different religions confusing and just never felt any real connection. I felt that I was a Christian but didn’t care for organized religion. Now that I’ve been studying Catholicism I see the importance of organized religion and am so glad I agreed to raise our daughter in the faith. In fact, my youngest son is in the Navy and has been attending Catholic Mass. He said in basic you either went to Catholic or Protestant services and that the latter just seemed too nondenominational for him to get into so he chose the Catholic. I keep praying, would love to see my whole family convert. At least now if I’m confronted by an atheist and they start going on about all the different churches I can agree and tell them that’s why I chose to be a Catholic. I’m sure they’ll still think I’m some kind of Jesus freak though but that’s ok.
 
Surely, they are there to see in the Nicene Creed.

One - Holy - Catholic - Apostolic 👍
 
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angell1 said:
i think the people who cause division will be more responsible than those who followed but weren’t able to tell the difference
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I totally agree. We also have a responsibility to SHARE the truth, as those of us with the Truth will be held to account on that standard.

However, this does not absolve people of SEEKING the truth and not just being satisfied in an earthly way with the community he or she has chosen to worship with.

Sean
 
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