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.
It has been 2000 years and that prayer of the Son – “I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one” on the most intense night of his life is still only a dream. The fantasy is compounded – because Jesus like Paul requests “unity among his followers” three times and that thrice unanswered prayer is Jesus only recorded personal private prayer to His Father.
Did Unity cease along with the Gifts of the Holy Spirit in the First Century, or did the Gifts cease when the Unity ceased? Yeshua the “Head of the Church” has not been able to recreate those conditions ever since. They gathered in one accord – the ONLY word used to describe the group on Pentecost. Over and over they are described eating meals and meeting together with one accord. God using one description, one clue to the miracle – they did it all in ONE ACCORD – Acts 5:12 And by the hands of the apostles were many signs and wonders wrought among the people; (and they were all with one accord in Solomon’s porch).
I watched the “fire of complete unity” yesterday – when the Reformed contemporary leaders John MacArthur, Phil Johnson, Steve Lawson, R.C. Sproul, Tom Pennington warned the church about the Charismatic error in the “Strange Fire Conference.” These men are champions of Calvinism and upholders of the 5 Solo’s of the Reformation. Then they focused their attention to their other Reformed Brothers – fellow heirs of God – with identical teachings – who also uphold the 5 Solo’s and proceeded to discredit John Piper and Mark Driscall.
The world got to see headlines like “Driscall crashes Convention” and tweets like “they confiscated my books.” Satan just demonstrated what the world already knows…. that Christianity is as harmonious as the politics in Washington. The leaders are no different.
I might suggest the next Conference be called “Korah – No Fire Needed” and rather than speaker’s only criticizing brothers and fellow heirs of God – we actually put our faith into action – and go out and just torch each other’s sanctuaries.
The founders of this nation are to have said “We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.” They understood what the early church practiced. We are like the the besieged people of God in Jerusalem in A.D. 70 who set fire to each others food stores inside that city….while the Roman armies just waited for starvation to do what their weapons could not. So what can the current 34,000 christian groups be so disagreeable about? Well, 34,000 different things, I guess.
Meanwhile the Head of the Church just lives to intercede…..but with useless, fanciful prayers like….. I have given them the glory that You gave me, that they may be one as we are one…..