Out of a slumbering, divided church, the bride is awakening and emerging. And make no mistake. While the bride is in the church, all of the church is not in the bride. There is more involved than just going to heaven. The bride is relentless in her pursuit of intimacy and makes choices many won’t even consider. The bride is a composite, and does not belong exclusively to any group or denomination.

Nothing has been so elusive or absent in the church as has unity. Pastor and writer Tommy Tenney once remarked, “With only three words, Lazarus come forth, Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. Five times in John 17, Jesus prays for unity in the church, and we haven’t seen it yet. It appears that it is easier for God to deal with a dead carcass than with live egos.” Recently people were randomly asked how many denominations we have. Estimates ranged from 100 to 10,000. I don’t know exactly either, but 300 would probably be conservative, and it may well be twice that. And the amazing thing is the things we fuss, argue, and divide over are not the things the secular world uses to attack us. Things like The Da Vinci Code are not challenging tongues, tithing, spiritual gifts, prosperity, or end time theology. The secular world is seeking to discredit the pillars of faith like the deity of Christ, the virgin birth, the resurrection, and Christ’s claim to be the only way to the Father. Why? Because to discredit any of those things make all of our arguing and disputes irrelevant. That should tell us something.

The spirit of division will die screaming, but die it must. It will demand a much bigger vision for all of us. This nation is dangerously divided over the war in Iraq, and many other things. The church is dangerously divided, usually over nonessentials. The crushing indictment from Jesus in Mark 7:6-7 should shake all of us. “Rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far away from me. And in vain do they worship me. We have all been taught to apply this to someone else, or some other group, and exempt ourselves. This will change, because it must. What brings unity and makes us one is well summed up in Colossians 1:27, “Christ in us, the hope of glory.” The apostle Paul said it like this, “I don’t need to know anything about you but Jesus crucified.”

Gary Brownlow, PhD.
Fire and Rain Ministries
Burleson, Texas