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Christian Unity (the book) - The Maranatha Community

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eformers did not quite rise above <strong>the</strong> idea. In societies in which traitors couldbe executed for treason, where Church and State were closely linked, <strong>the</strong>y sawheresy too as a sort of treason.Miguel Servetus (1511-1553) was executed as a heretic in Geneva by <strong>the</strong> civilauthorities with Calvin’s approval (though he tried to persuade <strong>the</strong> town not toburn him but execute him more mercifully), and <strong>the</strong> Swiss Reformer Zwingli(1484-1531), in Zurich, saw <strong>the</strong> deaths of several Anabaptists for rejectinginfant baptism and a State-Church connection. As 16 th Century Protestantreformers saw heresy as inimical to <strong>the</strong> welfare of both Church and Society,<strong>the</strong>y sustained a medieval concept of <strong>the</strong> Church.Today <strong>the</strong>re is no ‘Christendom’ trying to impose <strong>the</strong> <strong>Christian</strong> faith onsocieties. One can argue from <strong>the</strong> teaching of <strong>the</strong> New Testament that such astate of affairs was never ‘meant to be’. Yet <strong>Christian</strong>s must have a basis ofunity that excludes as well as includes. Later in this <strong>book</strong> we shall try tooutline what this basis is which binds <strong>the</strong> majority of <strong>Christian</strong>s toge<strong>the</strong>r.Page 59

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