Over the years, I have written several collections of material on the general subject of things that cause, or are used to justify, visible divisions in the Church, and ways to reconcile these issues. I have collected them below, with a proposed outline for a larger work of which some major revision of them might become a part. Note that I view the web pages linked below only as seeds or as sources for ideas in writing the proposed book. Which of these web pages, if any, will be incorporated into the final work, and how they will be modified, will be a team decision. I hereby request the participation of another qualified Christian leader (or, possibly, several leaders), as both a mentor and a co-author, partner or even principal author (sharing my vision) in completing this work. I also urge anyone the Lord has called to collaboate with us to join us, regardless of their human qualifications, as explained in the "note on qualifications" linked below. All details are subject to discussion.
This section will approach the general topic of how faulty reasoning and hidden incorrect assumptions about God, the Church and ourselves individually are used to perpetuate and institutionalize divisions in the Church. Faulty reasoning and bad assumptions are not the underlying cause of most divisions—the underlying cause is our own selfishness, the "lusts that wage war in our members," as decribed in James 4:1-2 and explained in Chapter 11 of Our Oneness in Christ. But most divisions would die with their founders if they did not become institutionalized through organized insistence on the fuzzy reasoning justifying them. The web pages linked below are presented as seeds to begin the process of writing this section of this proposed book.
Erroneous Methods of Inference
Errors Involving Generalizations
Textual Interpretation Methodology Errors
Substantive Errors Regarding God
Substantive Errors Involving Individual Believers
Substantive Errors Involving the Church
Just as fuzzy reasoning is necessary to perpetuate and institutionalize divisions in the Church, wordly political divisions (often, though not always, racial or ethnic in nature), are often the deciding factor which force these divisions to become irreconcilable at the institutional level. To use just one of many exmples here, it was German imperial politics that prevented the major branches of the Reformation (Lutheran and Calvinist) and the Catholic Church from seriously discussing reconciliation rather than armed extermination of each other while institutional reconciliation was still possible. Because divisions in the Church thus tend to defend themselves by wrapping themselves around secular political divisions, reconciliation in the Church must come from the "bottom up"—or, more accurately, down from the TRUE Head of the Church (Christ) through His individual members. It will not arise solely from attempts at institutional union. The articles linked below are seeds for thought in the writing of this section.
Develop first part (?) from Chapters 13 and 14 of Ian Johnson & Lauston Stephens', Our Oneness in Christ.
The Radical Rejection of Politics as a Means of Promoting the Gospel
God Appoints Individual Rulers
Rulers are Appointed to Perform Limited Functions
God Says: Keep it Out of Court
Early Pentecostals, Spirit Baptism, Racism and the Wesleyan Second Blessing
Charles Sheldon, Charles Parham and the Revivals that Almost Started [in Topeka, Kansas]
Racism and the Early major Division in the Pentecostal Movement
Secular Political Origins of Most Major Divisions in the Church
The issue of speaking in tongues—or, more precisely, of whether speaking in tongues is the only admissible "initial evidence" of baptism in the Holy Spirit—has divided the Church for the last hundred years. There have been basically only two camps (although more moderate groups are now beginning to arise), one group proclaiming that speaking in tongues is always the initial evidence of baptism in the Holy Spirit (so that those who don't have it are spiritually inferior) and the opposing group proclaiming that speaking in tongues ceased to occur after the First Century and those who claim to so do it today are therefore either deceived or demonized. There is a third approach to this subject, however, that recognizes the validity of speaking in tongues and the possibility that it may function as a demonstration of the Spirit's activity in the lives of some, but also recognizes that it is not the only, or even necessarily the usual, evidence of the Spirit's work. The seeds of this approach are set forth in the links below.
A conciliatory approach to tongues.
Individual Experience versus Universal Rule
Have Some Gifts of the Spirit Passed Away?
An Open Letter to John MacArthur regarding his book Charismatic Chaos.
What is Baptism in the Holy Spirit?
Being Filled with the Holy Spirit
The Sealing of the Holy Spirit
The Promised Gift of the Holy Spirit
Is Tongues Present Every Time Someone is Baptized in the Spirit in Acts?
The Purpose of the Spiritual Gifts
May Specific Gifts be Requested of God?
Note on qualifications of joint authors and lead authors
Books by others about ecclesiology.
Books by others about the issue of speaking in tongues.
E-mail me if interested, or with nominations.
©2007 Ian B. Johnson