Preface To The Second Printing
1. Must God Plead With God?
   
2. How The Spirit Leads
   
3. Physical Reinforcements of Faith
   
4. Jesus' Physical and Spiritual Death
   
5. Is There Merit in Pain?
   
6. The Six Days of Creation
   
7. Adding Guilt to Anxiety
   
8. Wine and The Disciple
   
9. Revolution or Evolution
   
10. I Am That Disciple
    
11. When People Disagree
    
12. Is Unity Based Upon Seven Doctrines?
    
13. Our Seven Sacraments
    
14. Instrumental Music
    
15. The Mood of Worship
    
16. Justified Then Sanctified
    
17. Is Christian Our Name?
    
18. The Lord's Table
    
19. Righteousness That Exceeds
    
20. Neither Destroyed Nor Nailed To The Cross
    
21. The Right of Self-Protection
    
22. A Tree of Error
    
23. God is Limited
    
24. You Are Here
    
25. God is In Charge
    
26. Hook's Points
    
27. Lamentations of A Mediocre Preacher
    

IS UNITY BASED ON SEVEN DOCTRINES?

According to numerous lessons that I have heard and read, our platform for Christian unity has seven doctrinal planks; namely, one body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God (Eph. 4:4). Unity, it is proposed, is based on our agreement on these seven doctrines. I question that interpretation and assert that such an approach not only reveals a part of our problem but also that it hinders the creation of the unity which we are called upon to maintain.

If our unity is dependent upon these seven items of faith, then conformity of belief immediately becomes the issue. All must believe these "seven ones" alike before we can be one. It makes doctrinal interpretations, rather than Christ, the focus of unity. It is the trap of unity by conformity in which our people have become ensnared. Having stumbled into the pitfall, we have struggled and fought against one another in the shadows of the pit instead of climbing toward the Light where the unity is centered.

Let me illustrate what I mean by using just one of the "seven ones" as an example. "There is one Lord." That is a fact, a teaching that we can and must accept in simplicity. But since it is made to be a basis of our unity, we must be sure that we understand all the details. So we begin to interpret what "one Lord" means. Numerous questions begin to be raised. What was the nature of the one Lord? Was Jesus always God? The first six Ecumenical Councils, meeting from 325 A.D. to 680 A.D., debated this question. Finally, they declared that He was "born of the Father before all ages," an interpretation that I question. Arius, who contended that He became the Son of God in time, was denounced and excommunicated. To have doctrinal unity, there can be no toleration of non­conformity of belief!

Must a person such as I was-a teenager from the cotton patch -have the correct answers to the questions about the one Lord, which the scholars and councils wrestled with for centuries? After forty years in the pulpit, I still don't know all the answers about the one Lord. Fortunately, my salvation in Christ and His one body is not dependent upon knowing all the answers. The same can be said about the other six planks in the doctrinal platform of unity.

Are doctrines/teachings of any importance? Certainly. If we were not taught certain teachings, we could not know Christ and receive salvation. The question being raised is about the teachings that we are to be taught. A doctrine/teaching has no saving power. There are no efficacious tenets of faith to credalize. Jesus is our creed. He is the Gospel, the Good News. Generally, we think of the gospel being a message and, in a sense, it is a message, but its details of doctrine are good news only as they direct us to Christ. There is no saving power in the teachings of Jesus' divinity, atonement, resurrection, ascension, and return. The saving power is in Jesus, and these teachings are valuable only as they lead us to Him. A full understanding of all facets of these teachings is not necessary for salvation and unity in the one body. To deny any one of those teachings/facts, however, is to disclaim the saving power of Jesus. For example, belief in His resurrection cannot save us, but denial of it invalidates the entire basis of His claim to be our savior.

In apostolic times, the person who admitted belief in Jesus as the Christ, repented of his sins, and was baptized was initiated into Christ and His one body. Here is the point of unity, the unity of the Spirit: "For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body" (1 Cor. 12:13).

According to inspired history, to qualify to be united with all the saved in Christ and His one body, no person was questioned before his baptism to determine if he knew the answers to all questions about the sonship, death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and return of Jesus, or of the seven ones. Salvation and unity were not based on these doctrinal details but on a simple belief in, and acceptance of, Jesus as the Savior. Neither were candidates for baptism and the one body questioned about their understanding concerning women teachers, demon possession, healing, church organization, acts of worship, eating in the church building, or any other doctrinal or practical matter. These were not the basis of acceptance.

It is my understanding that Paul, in Ephesians 4:4, is urging that disciples maintain the unity which the Spirit created in Christ. They had no reason to be segmented as though they were led by different spirits, through different baptisms, to be in different bodies, with different hopes built on different systems of faith, directed by different lords and gods. There was no reason to justify their being divided.

They had different gifts for practical function, but that diversity only strengthened the united working of the body and helped them "to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every joint with which it is supplied, when each part is working properly, makes bodily growth and upbuilds itself in love" (4: H16). The unity was in their relationship in Christ; the diversity was in gifts and functions.

I knew a disciple who thought it was sinful to eat pork. Another person believed his departed wife returned in the form of a bird. One Christian told me that he had died and then returned to his body. Another says God spoke to him audibly telling him the day, month, and year when Jesus is to return. These four people are all in the one body. How shall we react to these unorthodox claims and beliefs? Must we expose them and take steps, as were taken against Arius, to denounce and excommunicate/disfellowship them? If unity is based on conformity of teaching/belief, then we must become the judges to denounce them. But that becomes sectarian in spirit and forces divisions over trivial matters. Paul calls for the spirit that will maintain unity-"lowliness and meekness, with patience, forbearing one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace" (4:1­3). A loving spirit enables us to bear with those in Christ who differ in doctrinal and practical matters.

Really, we are not so intolerant of different beliefs as we are of diverse practices. In every fellowship there are individuals who hold some strange beliefs. U7sually, we disregard them. But if someone practices something unorthodox, that becomes a big deal. A person won't Bet much attention for admitting belief in demon possession, but he stirs all kinds of excitement and opposition if he tries to exorcise demons. He gets little notice for belief in gifts of the Spirit but is disfellowshipped for tongue speaking. We all say "amen" when one prays in the assembly for God to raise up the sick, but we denounce the person who claims he raised up a sick person through God's power by prayer.

The New Testament writings lead us into accepting faith in Jesus. Then they direct the disciple into spiritual growth and endurance. They call for our responsible relationship with God and all men. Imperfect understanding of all the teachings may hinder the progress of the disciple, but God's grace is not withheld due to lack of full understanding. Neither must we have all the doctrinal answers to be in the one body and to maintain the unity of the Spirit. Divisive sectarianism is a spirit, an attitude, rather than a lacking of uniformity of doctrinal scruples.

The concept of unity by doctrinal conformity is a part of legalism which demands that we be legally correct in all points in order to attain salvation and unity. The "seven ones" and all other Scriptural teachings nurture unity, but the unity is based on being in Christ rather than agreeing on all doctrinal interpretations.