Unity

Christian unity can often seem difficult to achieve. Whether it’s between Christian friends, couples, or churches, there can often seem to be more discord than unity. But the Bible tells us that Christians are united because of our union with Christ. Therefore, believers should strive to display...
Psalm 133:1 extols, Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! It teaches us to appreciate how God ’ s good blessings are especially experienced in the worshipful union and communion of His saints. This pleasantness is something Christians enjoy in local...
We may not always realise it, but the Bible has a theology of conflict. Indeed, when we stop and think about it, we are literally no further than 57 verses into Genesis before we find ourselves in the conflict zone that changed the course of history. And the conflict that emerges there in the...
You learn a lot about what matters to someone by what drives them to extremes. Think of a person camping out, lining up in the rain, to get concert tickets. Think of a couple paying physical and emotional costs to adopt a special needs child from overseas. The same is true for God. In the New...
Grant Castleberry
There is something transcendently unifying when a group is engaged together in a singular, heroic cause. For instance, historians have often highlighted the camaraderie and esprit de corps they have found among the members of the Marine Corps. The Marine Corps embodies, perhaps more than anything...
Some years ago, our friend Terry Johnson (senior pastor of Savannah's Independent Presbyterian Church) wrote an article suggesting an opportunity for constructive dialogue in the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA). Terry classified the two main PCA camps in positive terms, seeing some brothers as...
You will have heard of the " Benedict Option " for coping with the culture wars. I would like to propose to Reformed Protestants the "Zwinglian Option" for ending the worship wars: eliminate all music from our public services. Zwingli, the outstanding musician among the Reformers, removed all music...
Without in any way wishing to take away from the ongoing conversation about the dire need for the church in North America to focus on attaining unity among ethnic diversity by means of the Gospel, I have long felt the challenge of fostering Gospel-unity and fellowship among existing diverse...
In his Address to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation of 1520, Luther takes aim at the Roman Church's "flimsy and worthless" claim to possess the exclusive authority and ability (by virtue of some unique spiritual gift) to interpret Scripture. "It is a wickedly invented fable," the Reformer...
Michael P Jensen
I've been slowly working my way through Katherine Sonderegger's Systematic Theology Volume 1: The Doctrine of God . Released this year, it is the sort of book that pastor-theologians or theological students could make the focus of a reading group. It is beautifully written, fresh, biblical in...