Many Trunks But Still One Tree

In many respects, Christianity is as a huge tree.  The gigantic trunk represents certain basic truths which most Christians believe in.  The pillars of the faith which once made up the trunk of Christianity used to produce a trunk far bigger than the tree above it.  It seems that now, the tree is being turned upside down.  The trunk is getting steadily smaller and the limbs and branches are multiplying above it.

There used to be commonly accepted tenets which formed the trunk of Christianity.  These fairly universally held beliefs consisted of things like; Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried.  Jesus came into the world to save sinners and was raised from the dead by God and ascended into heaven where he sits at the right hand of God the Father.  One day He returns as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.  We are members in particular of His church and of His body.  The Bible is the Word of God, the Holy Spirit is the Comforter and salvation is by grace.  As Christians we should strive to love one another and live righteously. 

There might have been differences of opinion regarding specific elements of these beliefs, but for the most part, Christians agreed on these basic things.  Some form of these things represented the trunk of the Christian faith.  To be quite honest, I really don’t know what is left of that trunk.  In other words, I am not quite sure I know of anything everyone who calls themselves a Christian universally believes to be true.

Over the past few centuries, Christianity has branched into one denomination after another.  Denominations arise, and then split into sub-denominations due to differences of opinion in various doctrinal and practical matters.  Sometimes denominations keep one thing in common (such as Baptists regarding baptism) but other than that have little in common.  A good case in point would be the American Baptists and the Southern Baptists. 

No split among Christianity is any deeper and more radical than that which separates the liberal and conservative sides of the faith.  In many respects, it is almost as if there are two trees.  Being perfectly honest, there is very little common ground between these two branches of the faith.  Although common terminology is used, definition of terms is entirely different in many cases.

It is very interesting that although I am a Protestant, I have far more in common with many of my Catholic friends than those on the liberal side of Protestantism.  That is because the Catholic faith is very conservative.  I certainly have doctrinal issues with these friends, but on ethical, charity and lifestyle issues; we basically agree.  It may appear outwardly that I would agree with some doctrinal issues promoted by liberal Protestantism, and should thus have that in common.  But, upon further review, those similarities usually fade when scrutinized closely.

For many centuries the chasm was between Protestant and Catholic.  Even to the point of war.  I question now that the greater chasm is between the liberal and conservative sides of Protestantism.  Unfortunately, on most issues, there is little chance of reconciliation between the “far left” and the “far right” sides of Protestantism.  In the middle, there is much common ground, but on the fringes there is little, if any. 

What do we do?  Christianity has been split since the days of Martin Luther.  Christianity has gone from either one is Catholic or one is Protestant to thousands of divisions on both sides of the original split.  What was once a magnificent tree with two massive trunks is now a bush with hundreds of trunks and thousands of limbs and branches.  Good bad or otherwise, one thing can be said for the thousand plus years of the Holy Roman Empire; the church was one. 

The days of there being any possible way for Christians to unite ended before the death of Paul, Peter and John in the First Century.  Internal bickering and factions splitting from the main body of believers started even in the book of Acts and went on until around the Fourth Century.  There was a “forced unity” of sorts until Martin Luther.  But, soon after Luther, different great men rose up with differing opinions on theological matters and developed followings.   In time, these followings took on the name of their founder and became major denominations. 

I have attended services at Lutheran churches and masses at Catholic churches.  The difference between them was miniscule.  I have attended services at Methodist churches and I have attended services at Presbyterian churches.  The difference between them was nonexistent.  I have attended services at Assembly of God churches and many non-denominational churches.  I could find no difference between them.   I have attended services at two different churches in the same denomination and found little or nothing in common.

Here is the truth, as I see it from having studied denominationalism and having attended numerous different kinds of services.  It mainly comes down to the local pastor or priest and what he believes and how he chooses to conduct a service.  In other words, I have been to Catholic mass and except for communion thought I was attending a small non-denominational church because the priest was very open minded and independent.  I have also attended some non-denominational churches where I honestly couldn’t figure out what they believed due to all the emphasis placed on the “worship experience”.

The differences between us as Christians are not so much in what the individual governing bodies claim is their statement of faith, but more the individual’s personal beliefs.  Some good friends of ours attend a Southern Baptist church because they lead the worship band.  They are no more Southern Baptists than the Pope.  Yet, they attend church, are blessed and have no serious problems.  Why?  Because they chose to set aside their differences and instead be blessed by what they have in common.

We had a funny looking “tree” outside our front door that we had to have removed because it was too close to the house.  This “tree” must have had 100 trunks.  It was almost as if there were 100 separate trees.  But, when it was dug up, there was only one root system.  I was told earlier by a tree specialist, that if I wanted to, I could tie a heavy cord around all those individual trunks and make the tree look more like a normal tree instead of a huge bush. 

Think about this.  Colossians 3:14 speaks of love being the “bond of perfection”.  This bond is like a cord which binds everything together completely in ideal harmony.  Perhaps during this season when, for a change, Christians agree on many things, we can go out of our way to love one other.  Perhaps we could allow the love of God to act as a giant cord to bind all our thousands of trunks together, so at least for the next ten days, we could look like the majestic tree we once were.  After all, we still do all share the same root system.