Max Lucado - Church of Christ

Max Lucado's Beliefs should understand that: "There are two methods of removing the cause of faction: the one, by destroying the liberty which is essential to its existence; the other, by giving to every citizen the same opinions, the same passions, and the same interests." James Madison.

It is bad thinking to use Alexander and Thomas Campbell to "prove" that Baptism is JUST ASSURANCE that we have been saved. That is not honest. See how they all follow Leroy Garrett into calling Jesus, Peter, Paul and most of church historiansliars.

Someone off their Prozac for the month came up with the idea that we live in the "Post Modern" and "Post-Denominational" world. Therefore, whatever you learned in the modern age from the Bible is now outdated. Once we could tolerate denominations or religious freedom; in the Post Modern world indivisual understanding of the Bible will not be tolerated. Some of these new movements are spawned by adulterers, rock musicians, alcoholics and "just out of the institution{" gurus. Therefore, perhaps in some drug-fogged mind, came the notion that Jesus is outdated: while Experiencing God you too can do whatever God can do and even be a Christ.

The same threat to political freedom always exists for religious freedom. Max Lucado, establishing the key, keynote for Jubilee 97, calls for God to unite all churches. However, sectarianism is demanded by Christ to separate His tiny remnant from the majority. We are not the judge but we must remove ourselves from any mass movement. These groups are usually Messianic because of the fear that Christ is not making His kingdom work like bubbling wine on the earth. In defense of churches of Christ, founded totally upon congregational principles of "local autonomy," it is very important to say that it is not a goal of churches of Christ to unite with all sectarians just to eliminate sectarianism.

To the contrary, new sectarians arise almost daily demanding that we violate the clear teachings of the Bible and turn to modern revelations. At the heart of many of these "non-sects" is a cult or cult-like urge to control the thoughts and speech of all opponents.

Any call for ecumenical entanglement is divisive and judgmental of those carrying out the will of Christ in their local towns and communities with no "joining" instincts. You will find churches of Christ not under the domination of anyone within or without the group. You will also find that the average congregation takes care of those within their grasp rather than joining movements which always allows you to join only after giving up your liberty in Christ.

The FAX of Life quotes Machiavelli to warn change agents that they will meet opposition. However, the resto fo the story goes like this and is regularly followed by those trying to eleminate the right to choose:

Thus it happens that whenever those who are hostile

have the opportunity to attack
they do it like partisans,
whilst the others defend lukewarmly,
in such wise that the prince is endangered along with them.

It is necessary, therefore, if we desire to discuss this matter thoroughly, to inquire

whether these innovators can rely on themselves
........or have to depend on others:

that is to say, whether, to consummate their enterprise, have they to use prayers
........ or can they use force?

In the first instance (prayers) they always succeed badly, and never compass anything;

but when they can rely on themselves and use force,
then they are rarely endangered.

Hence it is that all armed prophets have conquered, and the unarmed ones have been destroyed.

James Madison wrote that:

"There are two methods of curing the mischiefs of faction: the one, by removing its causes; the other, controlling its effects.

"Again, there are two methods of removing the cause of faction: the one, by destroying the liberty which is essential to its existence; the other,
........ by giving to every citizen the same opinions, the same passions, and the same interests.

"It could never be more truly said that of the first remedy that it was worse than the disease. Liberty is to faction what air is to fire, an aliment without which it instantly expires. But it could not be a less folly to abolish liberty, which is essential to political life, because it nourishes faction than it would be to wish the annihilation of air, which is essential to animal life, because it imports to fire its destructive agency.

"The second expedient is as impracticable as the first would be unwise. As long as the reason of man continues fallible, and he is at liberty to exercise it, different opinions will be formed." (James Madison, Number Ten, The Federalist Papers)

When people call for the unity of all religious groups whatever they may believe you can look for someone who wants to lead the new none sectarian faction. Jubilee 99 and other groups seem intent upon doing so by feeding everyone the same man-made diet predigested by Willow Creek Association.

Contrary to the views expressed below and believed around the country, churches of Christ have no plan to merge with the Catholic church or any group larger than the local congregation..

Another Web Pager is led to believe that churches of Christ are connected with Promise Keepers and that it seeks unity, along with PK, with Catholicism. It is important to understand that this is an unfair blot on the reputation of all churches of Christ even if "association" seems to "breed strange bedfellows." It is important to remove this blot by saying that only Christ speaks for churches of Christ because its members recognize no national spokesmen and its "denomination" is never bigger than the local congregation.

"What follows are notes on a address Given by Max Lucado, a member of the church of Christ, and others at the Promise Keepers Rally in Washington D.C. Oct 4, 1997. Transcribed by Lynn Sebourn from C-SPAN broadcast. Read the rest by Clicking Here

You should read this complete article. We have excerpted it just to make the point that churches of Christ have no plans to unite with any other group.

Excerpt concerning Max Lucado praying that God will unite all churches:

Max Lucado, church of Christ We are... amen..(pause for applause) We are at a very important point and the reason we are here today and that is to ask the almighty God to unite His church. We are asking this afternoon for the miracle of millennium

Michael Timmis, Catholic, Promise Keepers Board of Directors>

"My brothers, the dictionary defines sectarianism as a bigoted or narrow minded adherent to a religious denomination. (End of erroneous statement.)

However, according to my dictionary, a sect is "a path, a way, a method, party, faction. Any group of people having a common leadership, set of opinions, philosophical doctrine, political principles, etc."

The word "sectarian" has become a tool of considerable judgmental violence used by those who disagree. To call one a "sectarian" is a bullying tactic to try to disarm you in order to enforce their opinion. However, the ecumenical urge is itself a "sectarian" movement devoted to nonsectarianism. Its main claim to breath and life is to lash out at those who believe that the church is called out of the world including its horde of religions dedicated to hiding the True Christ.

Therefore, as those who have left the "sect" of the traditional churches of Christ to become community churches or "the family of God," they had to make a choice, choose a path or way. It may be the broad way but it is still a sect. It may be part of the strait which is the collection of the masses trying to call us away from the narrow way of the thirsty soul out on the highways of preacher-created anxiety trying to be cured of "Post Stress Syndrome" even if it is less than traumatic. Indeed, the broad way may be the right way but we still have the right to pick.

Mass movements cannot exist without the judgment that the "old deleterious" way needs to be replaced with my new wineskin, or, as in Mexico's Aztecs Jubilees, or periodic burning down.

Timmis uses Webster's third definition of sectarian which is way down into the sectarian-defined misuse of the word. His ignoring of the primary meaning of the word displays a specific agenda. However, this is not precision thinking but is a way to charge those not of the Catholic sect or unwilling to join in fellowship, with being bigoted and narrow minded. The Catholic agenda of merging with Promise Keepers, Jubilees or any other mass movement is to cluster all denominations under the Mother Hen. However, Timmins uses a self-defined meaning and disagrees with the Bible totally. The Biblical meaning is--

"Not heresy in the later ecclesiastical sense, but a school or party, a sect, without any bad meaning attached to it. The word is applied to schools of philosophy; to the Pharisees and Saducees among the Jews who adhered to a common religious faith and worship; and to the Christians." (Inter Std Bibly Ency., Sect)

Therefore, sectarian first means "devoted to, or prejudiced in favor of some sect or group." It does, however, mean "narrow" and many people just hate that. For instance, Jesus demanded that to be saved one has to be a narrow sectarian. He said:

Enter ye in at the strait (away from the crowds) gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Mt 7:13

Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way (route), which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. Mt.7:14

Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing (sheep's skins), but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Mt 7:15

If we understand the prophecy that Messiah would never call out in the sense of calling a mass movement, and His claim that "the kingdom of God is within you," we can say that mass meetings to try to collect all of the chicks under one mother hen is defacto proof that it is part of the broad way so popular just now. This would agree with prophecy that the end-time church will be a Babylonian form.

Before we seek to unite with all religions, it is important to understand that the strait gate is the one literally covered up with false prophets. The overwhelmingly majority of the jostlers are false prophets. Many are there to keep you out or kill you. Some are there telling the searchers that there is a better, broader way which include everyone. They flash their foreshortened "sheep skins" but the many are like wolves ready to eat you alive. They are often telemarketers selling merchandise. They are harpach type who are extorting by selling 3X5 card sermons for the price of a steak dinner. According to Isaiah 55:1f many are repackaging and selling you your own property and you just love it!

The narrow way is not the popular way. The narrow, sectarian, way is the way of persecution and suffering and exclusion. The applause of man totally disqualifies us from that way or sect. Heaven does not applaud any but those who come to God in and through the way of Jesus Christ the Suffering Servant. There can be no applause for those who deny the words of Jesus that the broad way is the way of the great mass movements. They kill prophets, you know. But they may just consign them to the mud at the bottom of empty cisterns.

In churches of Christ, we understand that the "many" can be dangerous because inspiration knows that they "see godliness as a means of financial gain" according to Jude they have learned how to Navigate the Winds of Change (Lynn Anderson, Jubilee 99) rather than "get in out of the storm" where Jesus will protect us:

Woe unto them for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gain saying of Core. Jude 1:11

These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots; Jude 1:12

Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever. Jude 1:13

Jude writes a direct quotation from the book of Enoch. Jesus also quoted Enoch and someone has counted at least 128 direct quotations. The book of Enoch begins by warning:

Chapter 2

1 Behold, he comes with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment upon them, and destroy the wicked, and reprove all the carnal for everything which the sinful and ungodly have done, and committed against him.

The problem began when the fallen angels taught Genun (a composite of Jubal, Jabal, Tubal-Cain and Naamah) how to seduce the Word-honoring Sethites down from God's holy mountain and down into the dark valley of the Cainites. Their weapons wer carnal: mixed sex choirs (worship teams), instrumental music and intoxicants.

-"In pagan traditions, musical instruments are invented by gods or demi-gods, such as titans. In the Bible, credit is assigned to antediluvian patriarchs, for example, the descendants of Cain in Genesis 4:21. There is no other biblical tradition about the invention of musical instruments." (Freedman, David Noel, Bible Review, Summer 1985, p. 51). (Proof Here).

Narrow was the sectarian way of Jesus. He spoke to the broad way of the multitudes in parables because "seeing they do not see and hearing they do not hear." He explained His narrow message to a very narrow group. And he received a heap of trouble. The narrow path is covered over and hidden with people selling sick sheep or exchanging money. Strait is:

Thlibo (g2346) thlee'-bo; akin to the base of 5147; to crowd (lit. or fig.): - afflict, narrow, throng, suffer tribulation, trouble.

They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goat skins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented; Heb.11:37

In fourth Maccabees, a woman saw her husband and seven sons tortured on the drum frame until their "bones were out of joint." They were narrow, sectarian Jews. They refused to be accepted into fellowship with the pagans who insisted that they just taste a tiny morsel of pork and they could live. I love them. They were sectarians. They suffered much the way Jesus suffered and died. Paul wrote of the Maccabean account by saying:

Women received their dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance (fellowship); that they might obtain a better resurrection: He 11:35

See how the tortured as musical instruments

Job said that they made him into a tabret or tambourine as they spat upon him. They tortured Jesus in the same way as they played their little flutes. They literally replaced the old wineskin from their drum and stretched your hide as they drummed you to death with a rod or baton. Tortured for being a sectarian was:

Tumpanizo (g4178) toom-pan-id'-zo; from a der. of 5180 (mean, a drum, 'tympanum"); to stretch on an instrument of torture resembling a drum, and thus beat to death: - torture. (Tyre Typanum, the one Lucifer came equipped with).

The clergy Jews were "worshipers." They were sectarians but they were part of the right minority. Jesus said that He will not recognize the "Lord, Lord sayers."

Psalm 41 said that Judas and the mocking clergy would not triumph over him. When this torture is performed by children "panizo" points to the clergy. The drumming is from g5180 which fulfills Job's "comment" that they made Jesus into a "tambourine" as they spat upon Him while worshiping Him:

And they spit upon him, and took the reed (baton), and smote (g5180) him on the head. Mt.27:30

And they smote him on the head with a reed, and did spit upon him, and bowing their knees worshipped him. Mk.15:19

This was the musical dance of Baal and of Asherah. Bending the knees was a direct fulfillment of the Elijah anti type in John the Baptist as the Jewish clergy was following a Baal or Dionysus form of musical worship. Because Jesus would not dance with the effeminate chorus, they mocked Him in their musical dance.

But and if that servant say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; and shall begin to beat the menservants and maidens, and to eat and drink and to be drunken; Lu.12:45

The lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in sunder, and will appoint him his portion with the unbelievers. Lu 12:46

Even the sincere disciples were like the rest of us. They reasoned that it doesn't seem natural that sincere worshipers will not be saved in a universalist's paradise. However, uniters don't always ask God. He gives an answer hard to accept:

Then said one unto him, Lord, are there few that be saved? And he said unto them, Lk 13:23

Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek (worship in the wrong way) to enter in, and shall not be able. Lk 13:24

When once the master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door, and ye begin to stand without, and to knock (rap) at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us; and he shall answer and say unto you, I know you not whence ye are: Lk 13:25

In the Septuagint, when David drummed upon the door and imitated the mad prophet to gain entrance, the word is the same as the instrument of torture laid on people by children. David was seen as a mad man and the king didn't need another one.

Those who seek to find the tiny gate are worshipers of God. However, zeteo means to worship God in a bad sense. It is to try to "get over the fence" in some other way. The way is narrow. It is impossible to be popular or even tolerated along the way of the lepers.

The Christians were sectarians or heretics because they had made a choice. It is not unusual that universalists among us do not want us to have a choice. They do this by making everyone acceptable and those who deny it into sectarians. Paul told the "many" preachers plaguing Corinth that they were not the right stuff competent to lead them because they were not willing to suffer. This was a common pagan call:

For we have found this man a pestilent fellow, and a mover of sedition among all the Jews throughout the world, and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes: Ac.24:5

Don't expect applause and expect judgmental attacks accusing you of a pestilent fellow and seditious to the "brotherhood" if you choose the narrow way.

A sectarian is also a heretic which is:

Hairesis (g139) hah'ee-res-is; from 138 (to take for oneself) ; prop. a choice, i.e. (spec.) a party or (abstr.) disunion: - heresy [which is the Gr. word itself], sect.

Webster says that a heretic is: "A person who holds beliefs opposed to church dogma." If the masses hold one view and we oppose it then we are heretics and must be silenced. Honest searcher, did you know that you are a heretic? That just means that you have "made a choice" and I will fight for your right to make it.

For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you. 1Co.11:19

However, some heretics make the wrong turn perhaps from too much wineskin tolerance. The broad way is really simple-minded or perhaps just "getting on" with the crowd. Contrary to anti-sectarian sectarians the "many" of Paul's letters were self-seeking and destructive. Therefore, it is not wrong to believe that most people making a living in religion are false teachers. That has always been a provable fact because only a few will suffer:

BUT there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. 2Pe.2:1

The heretics, in an evil sense, were always the many or the self-seekers trying to dominate the masses while trying to silence those out furnishing the gospel without cost to the hungry and thirsty world:

Because that for his names sake they (1) went forth, (2) taking nothing of the Gentiles (Seekers). 3 John 1:7

We therefore ought to receive such, that we might be fellowhelpers to the truth. 3 John 1:8

I wrote unto the church: but Diotrephes, who loveth to have the preeminence among them, receiveth us not. 3 John 1:9

Wherefore, if I come, I will remember his deeds which he doeth, prating against us with malicious words: and not content therewith, neither doth he himself receive the brethren, and forbiddeth them that would, and casteth them out of the church. 3 John 1:10

The dominant pastor system leads to a world filled with Diotrophes.

Again: Michael Timmis, Catholic, Promise Keepers Board of Directors agrees with Max Lucado

"Unity is not something that we as followers of Jesus Christ should have to try to achieve. Unity is the condition that God created in his body. At the last supper as my brother said Jesus prayed to his father in the most intimate of all prayers that all of his disciples might be one with one another as Christ is one with the Father so that the world would know that the Father sent Him.

Sectarianism is disunity. It is division. It is the seed of the devil. We do not work for unity.

We work to end and erase disunity. Unity is of God. Disunity is of man. And this disunity applies whether it is sectarianism or racism. God created us as equals before Him. But we have divided ourselves. We must rid ourselves of disunity that is in our spirits. To go back to the way that God created us. God created the church to be his bride. To be married to him. To be pure. Therefore to be in a state of disunity is a sin before God. Each of us, each of us here has been guilty of the sin of division. Let us now in the silence of our hearts examine our consciences and where we see the disunity in the body and where we are part of it. Please bow your head in self-examination.

"Father, many of us here think that we know all the truth. That we are better than others. I confess this sin. Show me Your truth. Father, many of us think that the way we worship You is the only way to You. Father I confess this sin. Show me the truth. Father, many of us here think that because others belong to a different denomination than we do that they cannot know You and accept You. I confess that sin. Show me the truth. Father show me where I am the agent of division, of disunity, of sectarianism. The simple plain unmistakable fact is that disunity is a sin because it is acting contrary to God's clear command and Jesus' ultimate prayer. Disunity prevents people from meeting Jesus because the world will not know that the Father sent Jesus unless we are one.

<crowd applauds>

(Note: Jesus did not pray for organizational unity but organic unity. He and the Father were numerically one: "I have the Father with me." What the external image of God heard from the Spirit Father inside He spoke without deviation. This creates one "body" because it teaches the same thing and has no truck with the foolishness of "unity in diversity.")

When you substitute the words of clergy or synods or councils you have lost the high road to unity. All division is created by deviating from the Word. If we are going to shame "sectarians" by appealing to the prayer of Jesus, you must understand that He died to leave us "words by which we may be saved." They could "supply all things pertaining to life and godliness." That word made (according to Alexander Campbell) not an inch of room for professionals mediating the Words of Christ and emptying them of the power to unity:

Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; Jn 17:20

That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. Jn 17:21

And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: Jn.17:22

While we should not waste our time trying to judge others, it is a fact that there can be no "oneness" when the arms flail around in one direction and the legs stomp in another.

<Max Lucado, church of Christ>

"And now with one voice, Almighty God we ask for the miracle of the millennium. Our world has never seen since the first century the united church. May the world see it now. May the world see in the church what the world has never seen in education, or in government. May the world see united hearts. But Lord God we confess with one voice that we cannot do this. But You can. You can Father.

You collapsed the Jericho walls. Please collapse the walls between Your people.

You raise the dead, please raise a new hope in us. You stilled the storm on the sea of Galilee, please still the tempest that exists.

You cleansed the temple, we invite You O Father, come and cleanse it again.

And then when the church is united O Father we will give praise to You and You alone to the holy Jehovah O Almighty God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. In Jesus name, and all the church said---

See Isaiah 5 where God breaks down the walls to let the BEAST people in to eat up all of your food and drink. Why? Why, because, as in Amos, they turned to musical rituals so that the people starved to death for lack of the word of God.

<Max Lucado and Crowd> Amen.

God in Jesus Christ has answered that prayer as fully as He is probably going to answer it. He defined the path to unity of believers (never of churches) as going through His Words -- which are Spirit and Life (John 6:63) -- to Him.

Well, we all know that the collapse of the walls was to destroy the sectarians who were not on God's side. Did you know why the temple was always being cleansed? Well, it was because the "majority" or the masses (to whom Jesus spoke in parables to fool the fools) were on the wrong side of the sectarian wall.

Did you know that in the final cleansing of the temple with fire, the tiny sect or way of the Christians escaped while a million non-sectarians inside the walls perished? We should just wait for Jesus to separate the "trout" from the "suckers" and the corn flakes from the wheat bran.

The Demand for Sectarianism

While God has not made us judges between good sectarians and evil sectarians, we can say with certainty that Christ demands that the majority are always wrong and the tiny "drop of juice out of the whole vineyard" is willing to be saved by denouncing self. He demands that we be heretical:

They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us. 1 John 2:19

Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time. 1 John 2:18

We must have some spirit of discernment or some ability to decide that someone is not of the right sect. And we are absolutely commanded to refuse to participate in a religious sense with them. But how can we tell? We all make choices even if it is the choice to be yoked with those with whom we disagree just to be popular and fill the pews.

Can't a work horse tell when it is yoked with a show horse? Well if you cannot tell then you will have some strange yokefellows because Paul demanded:

Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? 2Co 6:14

And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? 2Co 6:15

And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 2Co 6:16

Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate (exclude, divide, sever) , saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, 2 Corinthians 6:17

And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. 2 Corinthians 6:18

God help us use a sharp knife in making the decisions because your servant, Paul, has just said that we cannot be your children and be on the side of the wall with the masses.

Paul Was a Sectarian

Paul knew what anyone knows: he was never a "located evangelist." This is an oxymoron like a "located, traveling salesman." His commission was to go and not be a Diotrophes deciding who shall and shall not participate as he builds himself a nest. For Paul to remain yoked to the Jerusalem Ministerial Association would violate the direct command of Jesus Christ the Spirit.

Paul knew that the way of heresy taking the lonely road away from the masses would never convene great religious festivals for competing big guns. Rather the way he received from the Holy Spirit Who was Jesus Christ speaking to Him was to hit the road. He had no reason to preach in the synagogues or temples of the world but he was to go out to the highways and byways and bid people to come to Jesus. When he tried to join the Jews God chased him out of the synagogues:

For we have found this man a pestilent fellow, and a mover of sedition among all the Jews throughout the world, and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes: Acts 24:5

And they neither found me in the temple disputing (preaching) with any man, neither raising (a conspiracy) up the people, neither in the synagogues, nor in the city: Ac 24:12

Neither can they prove the things whereof they now accuse me. Ac 24:13

But this I confess unto thee, that after the way (road) which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the law and in the prophets: Ac 24:14

There was a sect of the Sadducees, a sect of the Pharisees, a sect of the Nazarines and several others. Paul left the sect of the Pharisees to join the sect of the Nazarines. He made a choice and I have the same right without being judged worthy of hell by the non-judgmental sect.

Remember: "Watch out for Pacifists, they will kill you."

Heretics in a bad sense are those who seek to further divide the church by making it into a sectarian wing and an anti-sectarian sect wing. Which is the true sect and which is the false? I don't know but I have made my choice and it depends not at all on self-appointed guides. Click Here to see whether you want to publicly endorse the sect which has Mary as its mediatrix and as mother of its God.

And click Here and Here to see that this "mother of God" is intimately bound up with Sophia and ZOE who breathed life into man and furnished him with musical worship teams. However, Paul said:

For there is one God (invisible), and one mediator (masculine) between God and men, the man (visible God) Christ Jesus; 1 Timothy 2:5

Paul said that "God was manifest in the flesh" (1 Timothy 3:16) but God was never a child. The man Jesus was "the body prepared for me" but the body, according to Jesus, counts for nothing (Jn 6:62-63). Elizabeth blessed the "Lord" or the human rule of the Spirit God.

One plus One does not equal Two: Rather, the visible God is approached through the visualized image and teachings of Jesus Christ Who was God in the flesh:

And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory. 1Tim 3:16

I am a sectarian and a heretic: I choose the Bible over fallible man any time. Others can do as they like but all of us have to make our own choices and be sectarian. I am called upon to do my thing in my place and have no God-like urge to pronounce everyone righteous and then brand "the hand that fed you and sent your kids to college" as sectarian. Honesty demands that those who have the urge to establish a new sect just leave the old buliding and start from scratch.

If you divide the church and force those who purchased the building and built the flock out into the cold then you are a thief and thieves are bound for hell -- and that doesn't take any judgmental power. It happens too often.

If you use "navigation" tools to manipulate (facilitate) the church into something which has no clear Biblical mandate then you are a thief and a robber who refuses to "come in through" the door. You crawl under or over the Biblical and common decency norms to master rather than minister to the flock.

If you have any evidence that the church is doing something unbiblical then you need to say so like a man rather than manipulate with "soft" speech and practices.

However, within the body of united believers there should be no schisms:

Schisma (g4978) skhis'-mah; from 4977; a split or gap ("schism"), lit. or fig.: - division, rent, schism.

Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. 1Co.1:10

The person who attempts to introduce any practice which has no clear Biblical mandate is the Minister of Schisma. And if he introduces something by saying: "There is no law which says that we cannot do it," then he is the Minister of Legalism - Ceremonial Legalism. In both cases they need to be rooted away from the trough and find an honest job before Jesus comes.

It is not possible that Catholics and Protestants be perfectly joined together and speak the same things and have the same judgment. All protestants are "heretics" and that will never be changed at the root level. The only cure is to become a Catholic. Believe me when I say that most ecumenical movements are a conference of Sheep Stealers.

However, even schismatics are necessary for truth to be revealed:

Hath not the scripture said, That Christ cometh of the seed of David, and out of the town of Bethlehem, where David was? Jn 7:42

So there was a division among the people because of him. Jn.7:43

It is elementary that those who want to break down your walls and have an ecumenical movement with you probably have an eye on your flock. While churches of Christ are deemed sectarian by those who may see the church as "occupation" rather than ministry, no other group is willing to break down their walls and allow you to come in, teach and help run their movement unless you speak the same things (even for the day) that they speak. If you "join" their movement you will conform or again become a sectarian. God understood professional anti-sectarians:

They offer sacrifices given to me and they eat the meat, but the LORD is not pleased with them. Now he will remember their wickedness and punish their sins: They will return to Egypt. Hosea 8:13

You might have a cup of something with them. However, your fellowship stops when they want to serve you out of a new wineskin and get you "drunk with ignorance" in their charismatic ritual. Oh yes, they will call you sectarian as a simple-minded power play but this places you in the sect of Jesus and Paul.

A Gnostic source (Oops, another web seems to have vanished) discussing how Christianity ignored Scripture and adopted paganism shows how it is tempting for a "king" to pretend to adopt new movements just to control them. Speaking of the teachings of Christ and others:

"These teachings became a grass-roots phenomenon, spreading by word of mouth, friend sharing with friend. They spread, not because they were comfortable illusions, but because they empowered the people who understood them.

Illusions often grew out of them, or rather,
out of observing the phenomenon, without understanding it.

Kings, princes and the priests of the orthodoxy don't like to see their subjects empowered.

It threatens to weaken their power, so they take steps to suppress, then persecute the new religion. Persecution, however, has a way of telling people that there just might be something of value here.

"Eventually, a king gets wise to what is happening and puts a stop to the persecution. He creates the appearance of adopting the new religion, as did Constantine, but changes it in sometimes subtle ways.

He removes teachings that make the religion dangerous to his control, while keeping the outward forms, the rituals, the formal doctrines, and the sacraments.

He pretends that his modifications are the TRUE teachings, and anyone who disagrees with him is declared a heretic. In fact, it is HE who is the heretic, but he deceives the bulk of the believers into thinking otherwise. Persecution is avoided until the deception is fully entrenched, but within a few lifetimes it starts all over again."

Nothing is clearer in history than the adoption by successful rebels of the methods they were accustomed to condemn in the forces they deposed.

-Will and Ariel Durant

Max Lucado - Church of Christ - Sectarianism