Christians should seek commonalities of faith

Today’s America is deeply divided, and as long as one side is largely non-Judeo-Christian, total unity will never occur.

There is one important step of unity, however, that should have occurred long ago, and should still occur as in important example for America. This step would be achieving essential unity between Catholic and Protestant Christians.

Cardinal John Henry Newman (1801-1890) — who switched from being a leading Anglican Bishop to Catholicism, doing so for many reasons — tried very hard to persuade both sides of their common ground in an effort to promote unity, but to no avail. (See Newman’s “Tract Ninety” commenting on the 30 articles of the Anglican church together with the common practices and traditions of the Roman Catholic Church.)

Step one for unity is for all to acknowledge that dis-unity of spirit within the body of Christ violates God’s Word — a truth that alone should compel unity. Be clear that we do not propose organizational unity either side adopting any or all traditions of the other, but rather for both traditions to simply recognize the spiritual commonality underlying the authentic Christian faith, and for all those who adhere to that faith to be seen as “one holy catholic and apostolic church.”

Ephesians 4: “I beseech you to walk worth of the calling … with all lowliness and gentleness, with long-suffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is only one body, and one Spirit…one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all…above all and through all, and in you all so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith …” 

Step two for such unity is for both traditions to agree on the essential elements of an individual’s conversion to authentic Christian faith as taught in scripture and summarized following:

• Faith through hearing and reason in the Triune God, with Jesus Christ as Son of God and the Holy Spirit.
• Recognizing repentance and forgiveness of sins though the substitutionary death of Jesus Christ on the cross.
• Undergoing transformation of the mind and sanctification centered on love of God and neighbor through regeneration of the human heart by the indwelling Holy Spirit.
• And receiving righteousness and justification before God through the covering cloak of Jesus Christ.

Joe Otto

Rockwood