‘Faith, hope, love, and the greatest of these is…’

‘Baptism!’ –

both adult (some ‘restorationist’ groups), and paedobaptism – in post-Augustinian medieval Catholicism

‘Tongues!’ –

some extreme Pentecostal groups

‘Doctrine!’ –

eg. some hyper-Calvinists’ insistence on ‘double predestination’

‘Sabbath!’ –

some conservative sabbatarians in the SDA’s and other groups…

(You can add some more…)

…..

An interesting thing happened recently when I posted a ‘Let’s behave Christianly…’ exhortation on several Christian newsgroups.

My point was that you can spot a sectarian mindset when it emphasizes a particular interpretation of doctrine or behaviour over love/grace – and our essential unity with all who also love the Lord. I got a lot of encouraging/affirming email. But the posted responses proved my point. The sectarian mindset resorts to personal vilification (shoot the messenger) and unteachableness (‘I’ve got nothing to learn from other dead churches…’). IOW, when a sectarian’s doctrine/theory is questioned they respond with non-irenic retorts. And with no re-affirmation of Jesus’/Paul’s/ John’s emphatic assertion that ‘the greatest of these is love…’

IOW again, the idea that ‘what unites those in Christ is a million times more important than what divides us’ is anathema to a sectarian. I’ve listed four above: when you read church history or study religious groups worldwide, you’ll find them multiplied ad infinitem. A sect makes part of the truth the whole truth; a minor doctrine into a major doctrine. (‘Of the 25,000 Christian denominations in the world today, only ours is right’).

A particularly obnoxious form of sectarian arrogance is when someone says ‘I am spirit-filled’ – a phrase nowhere used like this in the NT. There, being filled with the Spirit is a function of either power or holiness or both. To describe a spiritual _experience_ in this way is to distort the whole NT understanding of the filling of the Holy Spirit… (PS. for those who don’t know me I’m a ‘charismatic’). Now, let’s wait for reactions to this para. from some who won’t see the major point of my post 🙂

And, BTW, sectarianism is a potential function of all religious/ political thinking: this kind of fundamentalism is on the fringes of all ideologies. A young Jew called Yigal Amir, who killed Yitzhak Rabin, is an example. Another is the killing of a doctor in the U.S. by an anti-abortionist. Then there’s the persecution of Christians and Moslems by militant Hindus; or Islamic and some forms of Buddhist fundamentalism…

And even the most inclusive/liberal groups are tainted somewhere or other. Two examples: * I’m affiliated (by ‘ordination’) with the Baptist Union of Australia. Some of our churches (you may find this hard to believe) won’t accept into full membership a highly committed Christian who has been baptized by sprinkling or even effusion _as an adult_! (But fornicating teenagers are often full members, so long as they have been properly immersed).

* Then, the more inclusive Uniting Church in Australia is guilty (in my view) of pastorally insensitive rigorism when a person is refused baptism as an adult if they regard their infant baptism as invalid. It’s complicated – but when the practical application of a doctrine gets in the way of grace, there’s something terribly wrong somewhere…

This morning in my devotions I read Paul’s words to the Ephesian elders (in Acts 20): ‘I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may accomplish my course and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to _the gospel of the grace of God_.’

I rest my case. Wasn’t it Franz Kafka who said ‘Words of hate leave footprints in the mind’?

Shalom!

Rowland Croucher (servus servorum dei. AMDG)