God's Truth In Love

Peace and Unity

In Advice, Agape Love, Apostasy, Bible, Biblical Principles, Chrisitan Lifestyle, Christian, Christian Living, Christianity, End Times, Exhortation, God, God's Voice, Godliness, Godly Counsel, Holy Spirit, Jesus, Love, Persecution, Prophecy, Prophet, Prophetess, Remnant, Rhema Words, Spiritual Activists, Spiritual Remnant, Truth, Uncategorized on April 23, 2014 at 5:10 pm

Question Summary:

The quest for peace and unity or oneness in all circumstances, is that always good? Like in the case of world peace, community peace, family peace or unity, religious unity, and so on.

Reply:

As stated in the past, without specifics about a person’s circumstances it is hard to address a situation in an absolute way that will honor God and be a wise godly answer. However, I can provide some various insights about the topic.

This I can state with absolute authority that honors God and is in keeping with His Will and His Word. If keeping the peace or having unity or bringing about oneness requires an individual or group to compromise God’s Word, God’s Will, or God’s Purpose then it is an ungodly form of peace, unity, or oneness. Satan often brings a form of peace that is ungodly in order to bring about some form of evil. Again, if it causes you to dishonor God, then it is wrong.

Religious unity is not of God and is not supported anywhere in Scripture. Scripture teaches the opposite on numerous occasions. An example can be found with Muslims, the Koran states that Christians are considered infidels and if they refuse to renounce Christ when asked to do so, they are to be killed. As peace loving as some Muslims may appear, the text they consider holy gives this mandate. Some Muslims will even deny the Koran states this mandate. This is why these two groups Christians and Muslims, and their members, cannot be reconciled as friends. Now unity of Jesus’ Church, The Body of Christ, is supported throughout the New Testament.

Unity among Believers and unbelievers is not supported by Scripture for we are not to be yoked with unbelievers in any form of attached relationships, (2 Corn. 6:11-17) however, we can live at peace with unbelievers provided doing so does not cause us to dishonor God.

2 Corinthians 6:11–17 (NKJV)

Be Holy

11 O Corinthians! We have spoken openly to you, our heart is wide open. 12 You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted by your own affections. 13 Now in return for the same (I speak as to children), you also be open.

14 Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? 15 And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? 16 And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said:

“I will dwell in them

And walk among them.

I will be their God,

And they shall be My people.”

17 Therefore

“Come out from among them

And be separate, says the Lord.

Do not touch what is unclean,

And I will receive you.

Keeping the unity of a family or keeping peace within a family, again, is subject to whether or not the Believer in Christ can honor God and remain in unity or keep peace with other family members. This is not always possible as beliefs will differ and bring about division and even the simply desire to honor and follow God will bring division.

Luke 12:49–53 (NKJV) Jesus speaking

Christ Warns of the Costs of Discipleship

49 “I came to send fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! 50 But I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how distressed I am till it is accomplished! 51 Do you suppose that I came to give peace on earth? I tell you, not at all, but rather division. 52 For from now on five in one house will be divided: three against two, and two against three. 53 Father will be divided against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.”

The idea that following Christ brings about some type of utopian love-fest with all people is simply not true and has not bases in Scripture. If Jesus states that following Him would bring division within families, in the most intimate relationships, will it not bring division among, friends, colleagues, associated, and people in the world? Of course, it is going to do so. If you believe you are doing all God has instructed you to do in following Him and find yourself at peace with all people and everyone likes you, something is very wrong with your walk with God.

Additionally, many times in Scripture we find that had people not left family and homeland to go where and do what God had called or asked them to do they would have never been able to fulfill His Purposes for their life. Abraham, the Father of our Faith had to leave his family and homeland (Gen. 12 & 13) to fulfill God’s Plan for His life and our ultimate enfolding into the gospel message.

Community and/or global peace are much larger issues. Global peace and unity sounds wonderful and seems like such a noble idea but it is clearly the work of an Anti-Christ Spirit. (See the books of Revelation and Daniel.) It may seem great for a season to unbelievers and immature or carnal Christians but it is a concept whose end will be horrible for True Christians, the CURRENT Spiritual Remnant of God and mankind in general.

The idea of a utopian society has been around since just after the fall of man and early creation. It is a notion driven by and based in sin. It is about the desire to be independent from God or to reach God and/or heaven on one’s own terms or to ascend to god-ship one one’s own terms. Man wants to be their own god and man wants to reach God on their own terms. That is a concept, idea, and practice God has been disturbing from the beginning and will continue to frustrate and disrupt until the end of time. Only God will bring about the true world peace and Divine unity in the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21). Therefore, we do not compromise God’s Word or dishonor God even for community or world peace.

The earliest reported account of an example of man’s attempt at this ascension is found in the Book of Genesis. God’s response then, and ever since, has been to bring about circumstances that disrupted man’s ability to succeed at such behavior.

Genesis 11:1–9 (NKJV)

The Tower of Babel

11 Now the whole earth had one language and one speech. 2 And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there. 3 Then they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They had brick for stone, and they had asphalt for mortar. 4 And they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.”

5 But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. 6 And the LORD said, “Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them. 7 Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.” 8 So the LORD scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they ceased building the city. 9 Therefore its name is called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of all the earth; and from there the LORD scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.

It amazing me when I see individual people, a community, or a society that thinks they are going to be in charge of life, they are going to create and make their own destiny, or they are going to live independent of God on their own terms. No they are not, only if God allows them to live as such! At any moment, God could require their life of them, yet they think themselves so in charge.

Ezekiel 3:16–21 (NKJV)

Ezekiel is a Watchman

16 Now it came to pass at the end of seven days that the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 17 “Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; therefore hear a word from My mouth, and give them warning from Me: 18 When I say to the wicked, ‘You shall surely die,’ and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life, that same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at your hand. 19 Yet, if you warn the wicked, and he does not turn from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered your soul.

20 “Again, when a righteous man turns from his righteousness and commits iniquity, and I lay a stumbling block before him, he shall die; because you did not give him warning, he shall die in his sin, and his righteousness which he has done shall not be remembered; but his blood I will require at your hand. 21 Nevertheless if you warn the righteous man that the righteous should not sin, and he does not sin, he shall surely live because he took warning; also you will have delivered your soul.”

Well here is your warning…

As I stated at the beginning of this reply; this I can state with absolute authority that it honors God and is in keeping with His Will and His Word. If keeping the peace or having unity or bringing about oneness requires an individual or group to compromise God’s Word, God’s Will, or God’s Purpose then it is an ungodly form of peace, unity, or oneness.

 

Regarding worldviews:

Secular sources – self-help, advice, mass media – some of these resources can be useful in obtaining knowledge about what is going on in our world but they are not credible sources for a Believer when it comes to establishing beliefs, opinions, and directives for life. The gap between the two foundational platforms (biblical vs. secular) is too vast at this point in our present day society to bring reconciliation between the two. A Believer should seek out Christian lifestyle training, godly counsel, and Christian forms of mass media using those to shape their approach to life.

Spiritual/Political Disclaimer:

This blog will not be for the faint of heart or the easily offended. It will not be in any way politically correct. It will make every effort to share the truth in love, [Ephesians 4:11-16], to a decaying and dying society and church. I share what I share not to hurt, harm, or offend any person[s] or group; I do it because Christ’s Standard and Truth is not being represented by enough of His Followers and I do it out of love. I love enough to tell His Truth.

Ephesians 4:11-16 NKJV

11And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, 12for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, 13till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; 14that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, 15but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— 16from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.

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