Gospel Union - A blog about Christian faith and unity - Any kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and a house divided against itself will fall.

Orthodoxy and the slippery slope of truth-seeking

Monday, 08 August 2016 by Editor

Can Bible writers be trusted? I have always believed so, and continue to believe so, even while my conclusions drawn from their writings have evolved with age, knowledge, and (I hope), maturity. When we define Biblical truth by the popular understanding of it–whether so-called “historical Christianity” is our guidepost, or some other expression of orthodoxy–we

Published in Orthodoxy

No Comments

The truth about gender

Monday, 24 February 2014 by Editor

It’s stunning to see how quickly and completely our society has caved to the radical propaganda and outright lies of the sexual identity activists. Christians barraged with relativistic philosophies have been made to feel unloving and mean-spirited for speaking truth, and are now “tossed back and forth by every wind of doctrine” on this subject.

Gender language LGBT Sexual Identity Truth

Published in Commentary, Philosophy, Science

No Comments

Are musical instruments in worship wrong?

Thursday, 20 February 2014 by Editor

I have touched on this subject on this blog, but not yet delved into it fully until now. Is it okay for Christians to worship God with the accompaniment of musical instruments? This seems like such a silly question to believers outside of the nominal Church of Christ. “Why would it matter?,” they ask. For

hermeneutics instrumental worship musical instruments worship

Published in Commentary, Musical Instruments

4 Comments

Walking in the light of…love?

Monday, 29 July 2013 by Editor

Many of us have been taught something very wrong about 1 John 4:8 – “Walk in the light as he is in the light and you’ll have fellowship one with another.” We’ve been told that if our brother is not walking in the light (as we obviously ARE…LOL), then we can’t have fellowship with him,

Commands Light love

Published in Bible, Love

No Comments

Worshiping According To The Pattern

Tuesday, 10 July 2012 by Editor

The following introductory chapter to Ketcherside’s book According To The Pattern is perhaps one of the most hard-hitting commentaries on the inherent logical problems with so-called “pattern theology,” i.e. the idea that we have to conform our “worship services” to the “pattern” that the first century church set for us. The problem is that the

Ketcherside Pattern Theology unity

Published in Reviews, W. Carl Ketcherside

No Comments

Solving For Love In The Equation of Life

Tuesday, 22 March 2011 by Editor

The other day I read an article by a woman who had some painful experiences as an adoptive mother and wife from a failed marriage. She explained that she and her husband had been unable to have children, and had consequently set out to adopt a child to fill the void in their family. That

Adoption Fallen World love Parenting Sacrificial Love sin

Published in Adoption, Love

No Comments

Live free or die

Wednesday, 13 January 2010 by Editor

I read an article in the Idaho Statesman noting that Cuba may be angling to get rid of its ration books–the little booklets passed out by the government allocating equal shares of rice, beans, and other staples to all of its citizens. What was more shocking was reading that there are Cuban citizens upset by

communism legalism liberty

Published in Commentary

No Comments

200th Anniversary of Thomas Campbell’s Declaration and Address

Monday, 05 October 2009 by Editor

While I’ve often said that I don’t believe unity can be manufactured by unity meetings, organizations, and resolutions (because unity is a point of view, i.e., something that exists in the hearts of believers), there is something to be said for the ability of unity meetings to assist in changing hearts and minds. Diane and

Alexander Campbell Thomas Campbell unity

Published in Reviews, Thomas Campbell

No Comments

What does “inspired” mean?

Sunday, 23 August 2009 by Editor

The Bible is inspired and authoritative, but many Christians misunderstand what that means. Does it mean that every statement found in Sacred Scripture is true? Absolutely not. I can hear the gasps right now as that statement sinks in, but it’s true. Not every statement in the Bible is accurate, much less authoritative. In fact,

context hermeneutics inspiration sarcasm

Published in Commentary

No Comments

This truth about unity is self-evident

Tuesday, 18 August 2009 by Editor

When I first heard this truth about unity, it was immediately self-evident. It was corroborated by everything I had ever read in Scripture, and resonated vividly with my understanding of the teachings of Jesus and the New Testament writers. Yet this truth is sadly not often taught in the church, and for obvious reasons –

unity

Published in Commentary

1 Comment

Barton Stone - "I blush for my fellows who hold up the Bible as the bond of union, yet make their opinions of it a test of fellowship; who plead for union of all Christians, yet refuse to fellowship with such as dissent from their notions. Vain men! Their zeal is not according to knowledge, nor is their spirit that of Christ. Such antisectarian-sectarians are doing more mischief to the cause and advancement of truth, the unity of Christians, and the salvation of the world, than all the skeptics in the world. In fact, they create skeptics."

Alexander Campbell - "We will not hearken to those questions which gender strife, nor discuss them at all. If a person says such is his private opinion, let him have it as his private opinion; but lay no stress upon it; and if it be a wrong private opinion, it will die a natural death much sooner than if you attempt to kill it."

Alexander Campbell - "But men cannot give up their opinions, and therefore, they can never unite, says one. We do not ask them to give up their opinions--we ask them only not to impose them upon others. Let them hold their opinions, but let them hold them as private property. The faith is public property; opinions are, and always have been private property. Men have foolishly attempted to make the deductions of some great minds the common measure of all Christians. Hence the deductions of a Luther, and a Calvin, and a Wesley, have been the rule and measure of all who coalesce under the names of these leaders. It is cruel to excommunicate a man because of the imbecility of his intellect."

Alexander Campbell - "Dear sir, this plan of making our own nest, and fluttering over our own brood; of building our own tent, and of confining all goodness and grace to our noble selves and the "elect few" who are like us, is the quintessence of sublimated pharisaism. The old Pharisees were but babes in comparison to the modern: and the longer I live, and the more I reflect upon God and man--heaven and earth--the Bible and the world--the Redeemer and his church--the more I am assured that all sectarianism is the offspring of hell; and that all differences about words, and names, and opinions, hatched in Egypt, or Rome, or Edinburgh, are like the frolics of drunken men; and that where there is a new creature, or a society of them, with all their imperfections and frailties, and errors in sentiment, in views, and opinions, they ought to receive one another, and the strong to support the weak, and not to please themselves. To lock ourselves up in the bandbox of our own little circle; to associate with a few units, tens, or hundreds, as the pure church, as the elect, is real Protestant monkery, it is evangelical pharisaism."

Alexander Campbell - "I have tried the pharisaic plan, and the monastic. I was once so straight, that, like the Indian's tree, I leaned a little the other way. And however much I may be slandered now as seeking "popularity" or a popular course, I have to rejoice that to my own satisfaction, as well as to others, I proved that truth, and not popularity, was my object; for I was once so strict a Separatist that I would neither pray nor sing praises with any one who was not as perfect as I supposed myself. In this most unpopular course I persisted until I discovered the mistake, and saw that on the principle embraced in my conduct, there never could be a congregation or church upon the earth."

Alexander Campbell - "I have no idea of adding to the catalogue of new sects. I labor to see sectarianism abolished and all Christians of every name united upon the one foundation upon which the apostolic church was founded."