And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. - Ephesians 4:11-16 (ESV)
Should We Cut These Verses About Unity Out of Our Bible? Charisma News
Perhaps no greater subject has been abused and misunderstood more than unity within the church. That is because of two great divisive facts regarding unity. The first is that unity is wielded by false teachers as a way to cut off correct criticism of their false teaching. The second is that far too many people have an incorrect understanding of what we are supposed to be unified in. Unity for the sake of unity is what will lead us to the one world religion. The primary reason why the world hates Christ and thus Christians, is the exclusivity of Christianity. NONE come to the Father except through me. For a world steeped in sin, it is far easier on the conscience to believe there are multiple roads that lead to the same God everyone serves. The modern church feeds into this because it strives to be liked by the world. It seeks to be relevant to the world. Any purpose driven, seeker-friendly pastor will always admit to such because that is how they have been taught by the Rick Warrens of the world who sacrificed doctrine a long time ago upon the altar of carnal growth. I say this as the backdrop to the latest offering from Dr. Michael Brown, linked above, which posits the question whether we should cut out of the bible the verses about unity. At best this title is clickbait because the question is silly and even Brown knows it. He is using the question to open a dialogue without seeing how he himself has contributed to the disunity he seems so dismayed by. So let us reason once more together and truly understand what godly unity is so we can tell it apart from the carnal unity sold by the apostate church.
"If there is one thing that seems spiritually certain it is that the church will always be divided. Our factions and differences and divisions seem as fixed as the rising of the sun. Yet the Bible speaks of a day when we will all come together in the unity of the faith. How can this possibly be true? To be clear, when I speak of "the church" I'm not speaking of all who profess to be followers of Jesus. I'm speaking of those who are genuine believers, those whom God considers to be His sons and daughters, those who have been truly redeemed. But the truth be told, even in our local assemblies there is often massive disunity, let alone in the various assemblies within our community, let alone in our city or state or country, let alone the whole world. How can there possibly be even a semblance of unity? It really does seem impossible and far-fetched." - Dr. Michael Brown
Here is today's deep theology - the church is not divided. The real church that is. The real church that is unified not in any carnality of this world but rather bonded by the word of God, sealed by the Holy Spirit. The fixed divisions Brown speaks of are within the apostate church, which Brown serves. Now that may seem harsh but remember that there is no fellowship of light with darkness. Dr. Michael Brown is on record how much he loves Bill Johnson, one of the world's greatest heretics. Brown has taught at Johnson's heretical school of the supernatural, where they try to teach the gifts of the Holy Spirit to people. Brown has defended Benny Hinn as a good brother in Christ. He has literally defended Jennifer LeClaire's "sneaky squid spirit." He is a contributing writer to Charisma News, a virtual cesspool of false teaching and dominionist propaganda.
Perhaps there is no more egregious contributor to the division Brown speaks of than the very dominionism he supports. Sure, Dr. Brown likes to put out the occasional article criticizing politics in Christianity but he has been at the forefront of mixing the two through his obvious water-carrying for the former president. When your opening position eliminates half the population, it is hard to then come crying about division. While Brown is always craftier than most he still stands side by side with those who are not. Mario Murillo, who I am sure Brown considers a good brother in the Lord, recently wrote that anyone who voted for Joe Biden was going to hell unless they repented. Gee, I can't understand why our differences seem as fixed as the rising of the sun!
"Yet Paul himself wrote these words: "So Christ Himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip His people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ" (Ephesians 4:11-13, my emphasis). Yes, this is something that is supposed to happen in this world, before the Lord returns, as opposed to something that will happen after He returns, when we will have shed our fallen humanity. As Paul continued, "Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of Him who is the head, that is, Christ. From Him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work" (Ephesians 4:14-16)." - Dr. Michael Brown
