WHY WE DO DISAGREEMENT BADLY

'We tend not to have a category for disagreement between equally sincere, intelligent, and well-informed people where there is a genuine and discoverable truth of the matter. And without such a category, we're faced with a choice between (i) giving up on the idea that we know the truth on the issue in question or (ii) thinking of our opponent as insincere, stupid, or ill-informed. If our cause is one we cherish, the second option will be the most attractive. And once we've got our opponent characterized as insincere, stupid, or ill-informed, then mistreatment, mockery, and exclusion from serious discussion - all for the sake of the cause, of course - will come more easily.'

Gregg A Ten Elshof, I told me so: self-deception and the Christian life, p.92.

CHRISTIANITY AS A CIRCLE

'Christianity is not to be considered as a single point or a narrow, repetitive line, but as a circle which provides form but within which there is freedom to move in terms of understanding and expression. Christianity is a circle with definite limits, limits which tend to be like twin cliffs. We find ourselves in danger of falling off on one side or on the other; that is, we have to be careful not to avoid one sort of doctrinal error by backing off into the opposite one.

We must ask God to help us, and we must hep each other, not to fall off the cliffs. There is room for discussion within each circle, but we must not forget that there is a circle to be in.'

Francis A Schaeffer, The Church Before the Watching World, p.93.

THE TRUE IMPORTANCE OF CHRISTIAN UNITY

'We frequently approach Christian unity as something that follows from what we are or what we do: we see Christian unity as constituted by doctrinal agreement or by moral alignment. We consider there to be no meaningful between someone who takes a different position on this or that doctrinal issue or this or that moral position. The way we approach evangelical ethics often reflects this. Even if we have a good emphasis on unity, it is often understood as an imperative modeled on Jesus' willingness to love the other, which still needs a move toward agreement by dialogue. But proper reflection on the sacraments confounds this: for Paul, our unity is a function of our union with Christ, which is a union with the one God, whose oneness becomes ours. Our attempts to draw a circle around those who think like us is fundamentally wrongheaded and, frankly, sinful. Now, this is not to say that it is wrong to pursue moral and theological agreement in the truth; it is important to do so, but we do it to bring the highest glory to God, not to define who is in and who is out. I am united to the believer whose doctrine is dreadful and to those whose life I find abhorrent; it is precisely because they share in Christ's body that I am compelled to speak to both problems, but to do so in brotherly love and affirmation. For Paul, the sine qua non of inclusion seems to be limited to the confession "Jesus is Lord," which can be made only by the acting presence of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor.12:3).'

Grant Macaskill, Living in Union with Christ, p.70.

TRUE CHURCH UNITY

'It is often suggested that because doctrine divides, the best way to unite a church (or churches) is to dumb down and de-emphasize doctrine, because doctrinal distinctives will exclude some who cannot subscribe to them. This is true when the doctrinal distinction is secondary. It is untrue when the doctrine is justification by grace alone. Other distinctives create privileged or exclusive ghetto religion. But grace alone fashions a community which has no pride in its history, its privileges, its morality, its Bible knowledge, or anything that comes from within itself. It is therefore, a community that can live together in harmony and reach out with the barrier-breaking message of grace to a needy world.' 

Christopher Ash, Teaching Romans: Volume 1, p.177. 

GOOD DISAGREEMENT

'..."good disagreement" must allow for situations where "agreeing to disagree" cannot be justified. Broadly speaking, most Christians accept that there are issues of doctrine (e.g. the uniqueness of Christ and redemption only through him ) and ethics (e.g. the rejection of injustice and sexual immorality) which are more important than issues of ecclesiastical order (e.g. ordination and infant baptism) because they reach to the heart of the good news about salvation. Applying the language of "good disagreement" in an identical way to all disputed questions, as if they are equivalent, leads to confusion and fails to distinguish their relative importance. On some issues, it may require discipline, differentiation, or even some form of separation among professing Christians - in which case its "goodness" will be evident by the continuing witness to God's grace and truth in how we walk apart: in humility and sorrow, with blessing not cursing, with gentleness not venom.' 

Andrew Atherstone & Andrew Goddard, Good Disagreement? p.18.

TRUE CHRISTIAN UNITY

'Unity obtained in this worldly fashion, by throwing overboard all disputed points, and ordering the clergy to practise a kind of doctrinal teetotalism, is simply worthless and absurd...Better a thousand times for Churchmen to disagree and be alive, than to exhibit a dumb show of unity and be dead...'

JC Ryle in 'Andrew Atherstone & Andrew Goddard, Good Disagreement? p.9.

CHURCH UNITY

'Unfortunately most Evangelical ministers only come in contact with non-Evangelical thinking conditions of reactive encounter. Much of their assessment of the gifts of non-Evangelicals comes out of situations in which each party is so acutely aware of the peculiarities of the other's enculturation that its own response is polarized and exagerated. If one addresses a congregation of bulls while wearing a red suit, one is likely to conclude that dialog is useless. Leaders who manage to project an image which has been purified from enculturation, who are courteous, charitable and free from intellectual self-righteousness, are likely to see a different side of the opposition. Ultimately both sides must come to recognize that they are dealing, not always with raging wolves, but often only with confused and angry sheep.'

Richard Lovelace, Dynamics of Spiritual Life, p.326.  

CHURCH UNITY

'...the participants in dialog must accept their responsibility to love, respect and empathize with one another, and not draw back from this as if it were a dangerous heresy. All parties must be ready, at least provisionally, to learn something from Christ through one another and to recognize something of Christ in one another. Evangelicals must admit that many of the values present in the original evangelical movement are still preserved in non-Evangelical sectors of the church, sometimes more fully expressed there than among themselves. We must realize that our opponents are not always rejecting orthodoxy but only our handling of it. We must seek to help others to reach truth rather than passing sentence on those with imperfectly sanctified minds. We must grow to understand the historical forces which have distorted the faith of others and learn enough of the semantic and cultural roadblocks in their minds that we can speak in a tongue which will reach them. All must remember that there is plenty of historical evidence for the worst stereotypes the parties have of one another - and then forget the stereotypes and deal with the present reality.'

Richard Lovelace, Dynamics of Spiritual Life, p.323.

EVANGELICAL UNITY

'...the separatist and the inclusivist should respect one another, keeping in mind that great buildings are sometimes raised on rejected cornerstones.

Both of these ecclesiological postures require constant attention and criticism, of course. They are makeshift correctives for the opposing errors of schism and indiscipline which afflict the church in its imperfect historical existence. Each is slightly off balance, and needs repeated tuning so that it can avoid collapsing into parochial sectarianism or indiscriminate spiritual chaos.

The separatist needs to be reminded to maintain realistic contact with inclusivist denominations and federations and seek federal (and where possible, organic) union with other Evangelical bodies. The fact that separatists often neglect these unitive procedures and even indulge in further separations is presumptive evidence that the original separation from the parent body was not fully principled but motivated by parochialism, hypercritical perfectionism or the source which Paul indicates as the root cause of schism, an exagerrated view of one's tradition, party or personal leadership which puts any one or all of these ahead of the unity of the body of Christ.

The inclusivist needs to be warned to exercise discipline where this is necessary for the health of the church and be advised to strive for sharp doctrinal clarity in the midst of twilight surroundings. Some inclusivists have remained in their denominations mainly because they have always been a little fuzzy in their doctrinal awareness. They can easily fall into a posture of downplaying doctrines altogether as a divisive factor and sustituting experience.'

Richard Lovelace, Dynamics of Spiritual Life, p.312.   

THE CHURCH

'Dividing the church in the interest of renewing it is no more feasible than severing the parts of a body to improve its health. Even if the severed parts survive, they suffer loss, and they will never function properly until they are reunited in fellowship. Leaders who secede from imperfect denominations and denominations which eject imperfect leadership simply lose the values of the group they reject while they insure the unrestrained growth of its defects in a body of future converts.'

Richard Lovelace, Dynamics of Spiritual Life, p.306.

CHRISTIAN UNITY

'Remember that genuine experience of Christ has generated several different theological languages during the church's history. Because of human limitations and the grandeur of the subject, no single language has been adequate to convey this. Reporters on Christian experience who describe it in a language strange to us may only be viewing the same thing from another perspective. We need to listen with care and sensitivity for the distinctive notes of true Christianity expressed in unfamiliar patterns.' 

Richard Lovelace, Dynamics of Spiritual Life, p.20.   

CHRISTIAN UNITY

'It is a great and common sin throughout the Christian world, to take up religion in a way of faction; and instead of a love and tender care of the universal Church, to confine that love and respect to a party. No but that we must prefer, in our estimation and communion, the purer parts before the impure, and refuse to participate with any in their sins; yet the most infirm and diseased part should be compassioned and assisted to the utmost of our power; and communion must be held as far as is lawful, and nowhere avioided, but upon the urgency of necessity...'

Richard Baxter, The Reformed Pastor, p.157.

CHRISTIAN UNITY

'Ah! Christians, God loses much, and you lose much, and Satan gains much by this, that you do not, that you will not, walk lovingly together so far as your ways lie together. It is your sin and shame that you do not, that you will not, pray together, and hear together, and confer together, and mourn together, because that in some far lesser things you are not agreed together. What folly and madness is it in those whose way of a hundred miles lies fourscore and nineteen together, yet will not walk so far together, because they cannot go the other mile together; yet such is the folly and madness of many Christians in these days, who will not do many things they may do, because they cannot do everything they should do. I fear God will whip them into a better temper before he hath done with them. He will break their bones, and pierce their hearts, but he will cure them of this malady.'

Thomas Brooks, Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices, p.207.