The Ecumenical Imperative: Celebrating the Church Catholic
“We cannot give way to tribalism in thought, speech, or behavior.”
The five largest organizations in the world are 1) the United Nations; 2) and 3) the governments of China and India; 4) the Roman Catholic Church, which claims 1.2 billion members but admits that only some 400 million are observant; and 5) the World Evangelical Alliance, the umbrella organization that is composed of all the national organizations of evangelicals throughout the world. The WEA claims a membership of 600 million people.
But that number perhaps should be significantly larger. It has among its membership some of the fastest growing churches in Africa and Asia. It is thought by some that a more realistic number would be 800 million. More than this, the WEA hardly represents all evangelical Christians in the world. Immense numbers of Pentecostals, for example, are not part of its membership. Tragically, neither is the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA). The PCA, long a member of the WEA, both through its membership in the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) and as a member denomination, withdrew from that body at its most recent General Assembly. A majority of commissioners were offended by statements sometimes made or positions sometimes taken by the NAE, or by some representatives of that body, and wanted to disassociate the PCA from them. So we are no longer part of the largest body of evangelical believers in the world.
Presbyterians have a definite theology and we typically know that theology well. Reformed theology has proved itself in many ways a great gift to the worldwide church. But while we are confident in our understanding of Holy Scripture, so are the untold millions of our brothers and sisters who do not embrace the distinctive tenets of the Westminster Confession of Faith. They believe in the Triune God; they believe in the incarnate Son of God; they believe in the Lord’s cross as atonement for our sins; they believe in the imperatives of faith and repentance; they believe that Christians should live a holy life; they rejoice in the prospect of heaven. But they are not Calvinists, nor are they Presbyterians. In fact, most Christians in the world today are not Presbyterians or Reformed. There are vastly more Pentecostals than Presbyterians. Indeed, Bible-believing Anglicans, Methodists, Baptists, and Lutherans all outnumber Presbyterians. We are a distinct minority within worldwide believing Christianity.
“Keep the walls of separation as low as possible, and shake hands over them as often as you can.” - J.C. Ryle
If we are to obey the Lord’s instruction to love one another—if we are to practice the Christian unity for which he prayed in the upper room the night of his betrayal; if we are to adorn our place within the one, holy, catholic Church—we cannot give way to tribalism in thought, speech, or behavior. Of course, other Christians will say things with which we disagree. Frankly, a great many Presbyterians have said things with which I disagree. Of course, we may sometimes regard the opinions of other believers as not simply wrong but spiritually dangerous. But what is that compared to the fact that God loves them as he loves us; that Christ died for them as he died for us; that the Holy Spirit inhabits them as he inhabits us? What is that compared to the fact that there is enough in our own thought and life of which we should be ashamed? Of course, we always acknowledge that there are great multitudes of Christians who do not dot our i’s or cross our t’s. But who can deny that we too often think, speak, and act as the Donatists of Augustine’s day? He said of them, “These frogs croak from their swamp, ‘There are no Christians but us.’”
In the western world we are heading into times in which we are going to need one another, perhaps desperately. It seems obvious that a united voice will be far more powerful. What is more, the practice of love surmounting disagreement would be a significant witness to the reality of the Christian faith in a world as fractured as ours. And if that is so, should it not be we Presbyterians who lead the way in fostering and exemplifying the unity of the body of Christ, our common faith and calling, and the love our Savior has taught us to have for one another? Those who think they see the teaching of God’s Word clearly should be the ones who practice that teaching most convincingly. Hostility from the culture should make, will make, Christians of all stripes long for catholicity and its unifying effects. J.C. Ryle, a devout Anglican but a hero to conservative Presbyterians, urged us to “Keep the walls of separation as low as possible, and shake hands over them as often as you can.”
What is more, however outspoken Ryle was as both a Calvinist and an Anglican, he regularly identified himself as simply an evangelical. And his definition of evangelical Christianity would have been then and would be today acceptable to virtually all serious, biblically-minded Christians. It consisted of these five elements: 1) Holy Scripture as the only rule of faith and life; 2) the sinfulness of human beings and their need for a radical cure; 3) the person and work of Christ and the necessity of faith in him; 4) the inward work of the Holy Spirit; and 5) the calling to a holy life. What biblically minded Pentecostal, Arminian, Methodist, or Lutheran would not agree that such is his or her faith? And if so, is there not much, much more we have in common than divides us?
After all, someone who confesses the saving love of the Triune God, the Incarnation, the Cross of Christ, the work of the Holy Spirit, a holy life, and the promise of heaven, certainly confesses the gospel. The sovereign election of God is a precious truth, but if someone from the heart confesses Jesus Christ crucified as his or her savior from sin and death, we can console ourselves that such a person was chosen before the foundation of the world. We don’t have to insist on his or her knowing what we know!
So, whatever our General Assembly may have done, let us all resist the sectarian spirit with might and main and love and join hands with every follower of Jesus Christ in the confidence that this will please and honor our Lord and Savior. Let us find ways to join other believers in the work of the gospel. Let no one ever think that we look down on other Christians or can’t make common cause with them. If God loves them and Christ saved them, if we have been washed in the same blood as they, who are we not to treasure their fellowship and count on their contribution to our common life and work!
