Christian Unity (the book) - The Maranatha Community

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James made a personal recommendation to the Council that Gentile convertsto Christ should not have things made difficult for them (v 19). He said theyshould not be forced to be circumcised as some church teachers had beendemanding (v 1) and thus be bound to keep the whole law of Moses, but thatthey should be asked to abstain from food picked up in the market place whichhad been polluted by being offered to idols. They should also be asked to keepfrom sexual immorality and from eating meat which had not had the blooddrained from it and, generally, ‘from blood’ (v 20).A letter to be sent to Gentile Christians to declare this resolution was thendrafted, and this was endorsed by the whole of the ‘Council’ as the evidentworking of the Holy Spirit (v 28). The letter was well received by the Church inAntioch.What is the significance of all this for Christian Unity today?• We learn from Acts 15 that the Christian faith is rooted firmly in God’sgrace.Faith in Christ, not keeping of the law (that is, not law-keeping that woulddestroy grace), is how anyone becomes accepted by God. To have to rely oncircumcision would have destroyed grace. So Gentile Christians were asked to‘avoid’ (v 29) the four things listed in the letter. This in no way compromisedtheir acceptance by God by grace. They had to stand aloof from paganpractices just as aliens living in Israel had been required to do under theLevitical code. So God’s grace is the ground of Christian Unity today, notdoctrinal distinctives which do not undermine grace.• Though one man made the judgment at first (v 19), his ruling wasendorsed by the whole Council.The Holy Spirit brings unanimity in decision-making in the Church, and weought to aim at this in our ecumenical contacts today.• The ruling was open to being adapted to local circumstances.Later, Paul, who agreed with the decision of the Council, adapted the ruling sothat it would not become a hard and fast rule. He accepted that providingone’s fellow-Christians were not offended, food offered to idols could bePage 229
eaten, as idols did not exist anyway (1 Corinthians 8). We can learn from thisthat rulings made by Christian bodies can be adapted to changingcircumstances, but not, of course, if they were to undermine a basis of faithrooted in grace.Page 230
Page 11 and 12:
Can Christian Unity be expressed ac
Page 13 and 14:
‘In the Trinity the three are one
Page 15 and 16:
Protestants, equally, have to be ab
Page 17 and 18:
When John Wesley said that Christia
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(Geneva) Agreed Statement was issue
Page 21 and 22:
While organised Christian endeavour
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Christian Unity consist?’ We shal
Page 25 and 26:
CHAPTER 1CHRISTIAN UNITY IN THE EAR
Page 27 and 28:
Almost all the heresies in the Earl
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interpreted as being against the la
Page 31 and 32:
was raised by the Novatian schism.
Page 33 and 34:
ArianismArianism was the most impor
Page 35 and 36:
the Person of Christ. This was the
Page 37 and 38:
Nicaea (325 AD), which asserted, ag
Page 39 and 40:
He wrote:‘The ancient doctrines o
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agreement into the terms and ethics
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authority of the local bishop; Cypr
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Protestants. He was born in Tagaste
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guide the affairs of men: the Papac
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The distinction between laity and c
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ule. Christians were allowed to be
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fallen corruption and mortality but
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During the 1917 Communist Revolutio
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his repentance and restoration. The
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just before death, they might recei
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In both the East and the West heres
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The Waldensians were so named after
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CHAPTER 4THE SECOND GREAT SPLIT: WE
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Far more serious criticisms of the
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and the sacraments. He was tried by
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and his discovering that the Script
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denominational allegiances: confess
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aptism and substituting for it bapt
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Vincent de Lérins’ threefold bas
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Charles de Guise, Cardinal of Lorra
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CHAPTER 5QUOTATIONS ON THE THEME OF
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Dr Charles Malik - 20 th Century:
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Nicholas Zernov - 20 th Century:‘
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The restoration of the universal Ch
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Timothy Ware - 20 th Century:‘It
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Basilea Schlink - 20 th Century:‘
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Cardinal Basil Hume - 20 th Century
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Keith A Fournier - 20 th Century:
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concept of a contract between a rul
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harmoniously ordered society of pea
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interesting to note that the disput
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• In the Eucharist, Komensky main
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The Conference opened with much pom
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a growing unity among Christians at
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We cannot leave the 17 th Century w
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CHAPTER 7CHRISTIAN UNITY AND THE EV
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In Dr Woodward’s account of the r
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for Whitefield’s work in America,
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the West, the North and the South.
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‘John Wesley, displeased at not b
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formally, though it may have helped
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In view of all this, Charles Wesley
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Some of the refugees were persuaded
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Isaac Watts (1647-1748), the pionee
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CHAPTER 8VISIONS OF CHRISTIAN UNITY
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hymns and Eastern orthodox spiritua
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eplied with a series of Eirenicons
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positively wrote on grace and love
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hand that pours out sorrow’ and t
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He died in England in 1853 an ‘ec
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assembly, without much hesitation r
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‘Loving all whom Christ loves bec
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says, the Broad Church was ‘a moo
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far greater part for the laity in t
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ehind some of the criticism of the
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came together with the clear purpos
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In subsequent missionary conference
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university formed by a federation o
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credo-baptists to accept the provis
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Horton Davies 137 points out in his
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However, since New Delhi, the WCC s
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(b) The Church of Christ in China (
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the Scriptures as the supreme autho
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In 1970 a similar scheme to that of
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indulgences, were all confirmed str
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however, at a lower level, manifest
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In her study of the Evolution of th
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Even within the Reformed Protestant
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the publisher’s foreword to Gee
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and so I have some golden opportuni
Page 181 and 182:
CHAPTER 10 THESE BRIDGES CAN’T BE
Page 183 and 184: ‘Only he - only Christ - was able
Page 185 and 186: c) Justification by Faith and Works
Page 187 and 188: However, in the Credo of the People
Page 189 and 190: f) Purgatory‘Purgatory’ is a na
Page 191 and 192: The Catechism of the Catholic Churc
Page 193 and 194: who love and trust the Lord Jesus C
Page 195 and 196: However, there is a growing awarene
Page 197 and 198: encouraged to receive a blessing al
Page 199 and 200: c) Traduction Œcumenique de la Bib
Page 201 and 202: witness. There is one such Sisterho
Page 203 and 204: Practically all para-church groups
Page 205 and 206: s) Missions and CampaignsMissions a
Page 207 and 208: My Protestant friends say to me tha
Page 209 and 210: Most Christians, in all three tradi
Page 211 and 212: of God may be complete, equipped fo
Page 213 and 214: CHAPTER 12NOW WHAT?This book began
Page 215 and 216: c) For some Protestants ecumenism m
Page 217 and 218: The church at Corinth was full of C
Page 219 and 220: ) It has become clear that, realist
Page 221 and 222: Christians who believe a Catholic d
Page 223 and 224: There are three confessions that ha
Page 225 and 226: ‘The solution to the ecumenical i
Page 227 and 228: k) Christ has left us an example -
Page 229 and 230: day’, the Niceno-Constantinopolit
Page 231 and 232: APPENDIX 2FOUR BIBLICAL TEXTS ON TH
Page 233: of the common good, and when one’
Page 237 and 238: 14. That to continue in any known s
Page 239 and 240: What all three traditions have in c
Page 241 and 242: Calvin held that the Gospel of Jesu
Page 243 and 244: Relations between Protestantism, Ca
Page 245 and 246: Brandreth, Henry, R T, The Oecumeni
Page 247 and 248: Hopko, Thomas, All the Fullness of
Page 249 and 250: Rupp, E G and Drewery, Benjamin, Ma
Page 251 and 252: INDEXAAct of Uniformity, 114aggiorn
Page 253 and 254: Frame, John M, 91, 187Francis of As
Page 255 and 256: Richardson, Paul, 239Roman Catholic
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Christian Unity (the book) - The Maranatha Community

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