O
Heavenly King, the Comforter, the Spirit of truth, You are everywhere and fill
all things, Treasury of blessings, and Giver of life: come and abide in us, and
cleanse us from every impurity, and save our souls, O Good One.
Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal,
have mercy on us (three times).
Glory be to the
Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, as it is now, was in the
beginning, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
Σύμβολον τῆς Νίκαιας
Symbol of Nicaea
The
Father
Πιστεύομεν εἰς ἕνα Θεὸν: Πατέρα, Παντοκράτορα, Ποιητὴν; οὐρανοῦ καὶ γῆς; ὁρατῶν τε πάντων καὶ ἀοράτων.
We believe in one God: Pre-primordial Patriarch, Prime Mover,
Prime Maker; of heaven and earth; of all things both visible and invisible.[1]
The
Son
Πιστεύομεν καὶ εἰς ἕνα Κύριον: Ἰησοῦν Χριστόν, τὸν Υἱὸν τοῦ Θεοῦ, τὸν Μονογενῆ, τὸν ἐκ τοῦ Πατρὸς γεννηθέντα πρὸ πάντων τῶν αἰώνων, φῶς ἐκ φωτός, Θεὸν ἀληθινὸν ἐκ Θεοῦ ἀληθινοῦ, γεννηθέντα – οὐ ποιηθέντα – ὁμοούσιον τῷ Πατρί,
δι’ οὗ τὰ πάντα ἐγένετο, τὸν δι’ ἡμᾶς τοὺς ἀνθρώπους, καὶ διὰ τὴν ἡμετέραν σωτηρίαν, κατελθόντα ἐκ τῶν οὐρανῶν, καὶ σαρκωθέντα ἐκ Πνεύματος Ἁγίου καὶ Μαρίας, τῆς παρθένου, καὶ ἐνανθρωπήσαντα.
We believe also, in one Lord: Jesus Christ,
†
the Son of God,
†
the Only-begotten,
†
the One begotten of the Father
before all the ages, light of light, true God of true God, begotten – not made
– of the same essence as the Father, for whom all things were made,
†
the One Who for us men, and
for our salvation, came down from heaven, was made flesh of [the Holy Ghost]
and Mary, the Virgin, and was made man.[2]
His
Works
Σταυρωθέντα τε ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν ἐπὶ Ποντίου Πιλάτου, καὶ παθόντα, καὶ ταφέντα, καὶ ἀναστάντα τῇ τρίτῃ ἡμέρα, κατὰ τὰς γραφάς, καὶ ἀνελθόντα εἰς τοὺς οὐρανούς, καὶ καθεζόμενον ἐκ δεξιῶν τοῦ Πατρός, καὶ πάλιν ἐρχόμενον μετὰ δόξης κρῖναι ζῶντας καὶ νεκρούς; οὗ τῆς βασιλείας οὐκ ἔσται τέλος.
He was crucified on our behalf by Pontius Pilate:
†
He suffered,
†
He was buried,
†
He raised on the third day
according to the Scriptures,
†
He ascended into the
heavens,
†
He was seated at the right
hand of the Father,
†
He is also coming again
with Glory to judge [the] living and [the] dead; Whose kingdom shall not end.[3]
The
Spirit
Πιστεύομεν καὶ εἰς τὸ Πνεῦμα: τὸ Ἅγιον, τὸ Κύριον, τὸ Ζῳοποιόν,
τὸ ἐκ τοῦ Πατρὸς ἐκπορευόμενον, τὸ σὺν Πατρὶ καὶ Υἱῷ συμπροσκυνούμενον καὶ συνδοξαζόμενον,
τὸ λαλῆσαν διὰ τῶν προφητῶν.
We believe also, in the Spirit:
†
the Holy,
†
the Lord,
†
the Life-giver,
†
the One Who proceeds from
the Father,
†
the One Who with Father and
Son is worshiped together, and Glorified together,
The Church
Πιστεύομεν καὶ εἰς
μίαν, ἁγίαν, καθολικὴν καὶ ἀποστολικὴν ἐκκλησίαν. ὁμολογοῦμεν ἓν βάπτισμα εἰς ἄφεσιν ἁμαρτιῶν. προσδοκοῦμεν ἀνάστασιν νεκρῶν, καὶ ζωὴν τοῦ
μέλλοντος αἰῶνος. Ἀμήν.
We believe also, in one, holy, catholic and Apostolic
Church. We confess one baptism for the
remission of sins. We look for the
resurrection of the dead, and [the] life of the coming age. Amen.
Our fourth article of faith outlines
The Church and her work. The only definition for The Church, to which definition
we must look is:
“You have come to mount Sion, to the city of the living God,
to the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general
assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, to God the
Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of
the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, which speaks greater things
than [the blood] of Abel.
“See that you do not refuse Him Who speaks: for if they did
not escape who refused [Moses] who spoke on earth, much more, we shall not
escape, if we turn away from Him Who speaks from heaven: Whose voice then shook
the earth; but now He has promised, saying, ‘Yet once more I will not only the
shake earth, but also heaven.’ This
word, ‘Yet once more’, signifies the utter transformation of those things being
shaken, as the mere institutions or inventions they are, so that those things
which cannot be shaken may remain (Which speaks of the final fulfillment of
Daniel 2).
“Wherefore, since we are receiving an unshakeable kingdom,
let us have grace, by which we may worship God acceptably with reverence and
godly fear: for our God is a consuming fire.” — Hebrews 12:22-29
We realize that several earthy
organizations have apparently legitimate claims as heirs of this, The Church,
yet none of these earthy organizations holds such a claim exclusively. God is the decider of all such things.
Her
Oneness
As far as the matter of oneness is
concerned, on this point we must disagree with a few statements made by Dr. Martyn
Lloyd Jones in his booklet, “Authority” (IVP, Chicago, 1958: 94 pages). Dr. Jones asserts that oneness is
unimportant. We disagree. Here is why.
“Now I am no longer in the world, yet these are in the world,
and I come to You. Holy Father, keep these whom You have given Me through Your
own name, so that they may be one, as we [are one].” — John 17:11
“That they all may be one; as You, Father, are in me, and I am
in You, so that they also may be one in Us: so that the world may believe that You
have sent Me. The glory, which You gave Me,
I have given to them: so that they may be one, even as We are one. — I in them,
and You in Me: so that they may be made perfect in one: so that the world may
know that You have sent Me, and have loved them, as You have loved Me.” — John
17:21-22
“These all continued with one accord in prayer and
supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers.”
— Acts 1:14
“And when the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all with one
accord in one place.” — Acts 2:1
“And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple,
and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and
singleness of heart,” — Acts 2:46
“And when they heard that, they lifted up their voice to God
with one accord, and said, ‘Lord, You
are God, Who have made heaven, earth, the sea, and all that is in them:’ ” —
Acts 4:24
“And the multitude of those who believed were of one heart
and of one soul: neither said any of them that anything they possessed was their
own; they had all things common.” — Acts 4:32
“And through the hands of the apostles many signs and wonders
were performed among the people; they were all with one accord in Solomon’s
porch.” — Acts 5:12
“And the people with one accord gave heed to these things
which Philip spoke, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did.” — Acts 8:6
“It seemed good to us, being assembled with one accord, to
send chosen men to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul,” — Acts 15:25
“For since we have many members in one body, all members do not
have the same office: so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one
members of one another.” — Romans 12:4-5
“Be of the same mind toward one
another. Do not mind high things, but condescend to men of low estate.
Be not wise in your own conceits.” — Romans
12:16
“Now may the God of patience and consolation grant that you will
be likeminded toward one another according to Christ Jesus: so that with one
mind and one mouth you may glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Wherefore receive one another,
as Christ also received us to the glory of God.” — Romans 15:5-7
“Now I beg you, brothers
and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, so
that there be no
divisions among you; but that you be perfectly
joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.”
— 1 Corinthians 1:10
“The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion
of the blood of Christ? The bread which
we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? For we being many are one bread, and one body:
for we are all partakers of that one bread.” — 1 Corinthians 10:16-17
“For as the body is one, and has many members, and all the
members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ: for by
one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we are Jews or Gentiles,
whether we are bond or free; we have all been made to drink of one Spirit: for
the body is not one member, but many.” — 1 Corinthians 12:12-14
“And if they were all one member, where were the body? Yet now they are many members, yet only one
body. The eye cannot say to the hand, I
have no need of you: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you.” — 1
Corinthians 12:19-21
“There should be no schism in the body; so that the members
should have the same care for one another.
If one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is
honored, all the members rejoice with it.
Now you are the body of Christ, and members in particular.” — 1
Corinthians 12:25-27
“Finally, brothers and sisters, farewell. Be perfect, be of good comfort, be of one mind,
live in peace; and the God of love and peace shall be with you.” — 2 Corinthians
13:11
“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor
free, there is neither male nor female: for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” —
Galatians 3:28
“That in the dispensation of the fullness of times He might
gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and
which are on earth; even in Him:” — Ephesians 1:10
“For He is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken
down the middle wall of partition between us; having abolished in His flesh the
enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; to make in Himself
one new man from two, so making peace: so that He might reconcile both to God
in one body by the cross, having slain the hostility by it:” — Ephesians
2:14-16
“There is one body, and one Spirit, even as you are called in
one hope of your calling; One Lord, one faith, one baptism, One God and Father
of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. Yet to every one of us is given grace
according to the measure of the gift of Christ.” — Ephesians 4:4-7
“Wherefore, putting away lying, speak every man truth with
his neighbor: for we are members of one another.” — Ephesians 4:25
“Only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ: so that,
whether I come and see you, or whether I am absent, I may hear of your affairs,
that you stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the
faith of the gospel;” — Philippians 1:27
“Fulfil my joy, be likeminded, having the same love, being of
one accord, of one mind.” — Philippians 2:2
“Let the peace of God rule in your hearts, for which you are
also called in one body; and be thankful.
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and
admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with
grace in your hearts to the Lord. Whatever
you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to
God and the Father by him.” — Colossians 3:15-17
“For both He that sanctifies and those who are sanctified are
all one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters,”
— Hebrews 2:11
“Finally, be all of one mind, having compassion for one another,
love as brothers and sisters, show pity, be courteous:” — 1 Peter 3:8
“This is His commandment: that we should believe on the name
of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as He gave us commandment.” — 1
John 3:23
“I, John, saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from
God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” — Revelation
21:2
From these many verses, we see the
essential failure of earthly churches in the modern world. Trusting a pseudo-spiritual unity, ignoring true
unity, we fall short of real obedience.
Desperately needing each other in the spiritual battle we will have
limited success at best, until we face the reality that there is only one holy
city, only one bride.
Her
Accord in the Spirit
There is only “one, holy, catholic
and Apostolic Church,” which, as we saw in Hebrews 12:22-29, is headquartered
in heaven under the supreme command of the Son of God, Jesus, Who is also
called Christ. From Acts 1:8 we also
learn that the Holy Spirit is The Vicar of Christ on Earth.
“You shall receive power, when the Holy Spirit has come upon
you: and you shall be My witnesses, both in Jerusalem, in all Judaea, in
Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
The rest of Acts provides an ample
sample record of this powerful working of the Holy Spirit. This record speaks repeatedly about the
oneness of The Church, which was born on Pentecost, 33 AD. We have quoted many such verses about the
oneness of The Church; yet, these are only a few of the many more passages that
could be found. Among these verses,
several speak specifically about one accord, the perfect agreement that existed
in The Church in its first days.
“These all continued with one accord in prayer and
supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers.”
— Acts 1:14
“And when the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all with one
accord in one place.” — Acts 2:1
“And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple,
and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and
singleness of heart,” — Acts 2:46
“And when they heard that, they lifted up their voice to God
with one accord, and said, ‘Lord, You
are God, Who have made heaven, earth, the sea, and all that is in them:’ ” —
Acts 4:24
“And through the hands of the apostles many signs and wonders
were performed among the people; they were all with one accord in Solomon’s
porch.” — Acts 5:12
“And the people with one accord gave heed to these things
which Philip spoke, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did.” — Acts 8:6
“It seemed good to us, being assembled with one accord, to
send chosen men to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul,” — Acts 15:25
“Now may the God of patience and consolation grant that you will
be likeminded toward one another according to Christ Jesus: so that with one
mind and one mouth you may glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Wherefore receive one another,
as Christ also received us to the glory of God.” — Romans 15:5-7
“Fulfil my joy, be likeminded, having the same love, being of
one accord, of one mind.” — Philippians 2:2
Her
Enemies
The enemies of The Church also
gather with one accord.
“Then they cried out with a loud voice, and shut their ears,
and ran upon him with one accord,” — Acts 7:57
“Herod was highly displeased with the people from Tyre and
Sidon: but they came with one accord to him, and, having made Blastus, the king’s
chamberlain, their friend, desired peace; because their country was supplied by
the king’s country.” — Acts 12:20
“When Gallio was the deputy of Achaia, the Jews made
insurrection with one accord against Paul, and brought him to the judgment
seat,” — Acts 18:12
“The whole city was filled with confusion: and having arrested
Gaius and Aristarchus, men of Macedonia, Paul’s traveling companions, they
rushed into the theatre with one accord.” — Acts 19:29
Her
Battle Lines
We see then that The Church is set
in array at prayer against the enemies of God, who are equally arrayed, and
frequently more unified. We do well to
ask, where the dividing line might be drawn between these great armies: for the
tares are sown throughout the wheat field (Matthew 13:25, 26, 27, 29, 30, 36,
38, 40). We read:
“He who is not with Me is against Me; and he who does not gather
with me scatters.” — Matthew 12:30
“Whoever shall be ashamed of Me and of My words in this
adulterous and sinful generation; the Son of Man shall also be ashamed of him,
when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.” — Mark 8:38
“For he that is not against us is for us.” — Mark 9:40
“He has showed strength with His arm; He has scattered the
proud in the imagination of their hearts.” — Luke 1:51
“Jesus said to [John], ‘Do not forbid him: for he who is not against
us is for us.’ ” — Luke 9:50
“He who is not with Me is against Me: and he that does not gather
with Me scatters.” — Luke 11:23
“He who is an hireling, not the shepherd, the sheep are not his
own, sees the wolf coming, leaves the sheep, and flees: so the wolf catches
them, and scatters the sheep.” — John 10:12
“Truly, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles,
and the people of Israel, were gathered together, against Your holy child
Jesus, Whom You have anointed.” — Acts 4:27
“[When] Saul was consenting to [Stephen’s] death. At that time there was a great persecution
against the church at Jerusalem; they were all scattered abroad throughout
Judaea and Samaria, except for the apostles.” — Acts 8:1
“The flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the
flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the
things that ye would.” — Galatians 5:17
“We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities,
against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual
wickedness in high places.” — Ephesians 6:12
“Consider Him Who endured such contradiction of sinners against
Himself, lest you be weary and faint in your minds.” — Hebrews 12:3
“Your gold and silver have been corroded away; and their corrosion
shall be a witness against you, which will eat your flesh as if it were fire. You have heaped wealth together for the end
of days.” — James 5:3
“The eyes of the Lord watch over the righteous, and his ears hear
their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.” — 1
Peter 3:12
“When I come, I will remember his deeds which he does,
prating against us with malicious words: and not even content with these, he
himself does not receive the brothers and sisters, yet he forbids those who
would receive them, and casts them out of the church.” — 3 John 10
“I have a few things against you, because you have those who
hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to set a trap for the children of
Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit fornication.” —
Revelation 2:14
“I have a few things against you, because you tolerate that
woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my
servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed to idols.” —
Revelation 2:20
We see then, that this battle line
of spiritual warfare extends to the utmost extremities of the Universe; to the
heights of leadership among both angels and men; to the castles and mansions of
the wealthiest; it penetrates and pervades everything, even the hallowed halls
of churches, and the inner sanctums of the human heart. In such a spiritual warfare we do best to err
on the side of mercy; as well as to cling to the Holy Spirit.
Our
Obedience
“He shall have judgment without mercy, who shows no mercy:
mercy trumps judgment.” — James 2:13
“The wisdom, which is from above, is first pure, then
peaceable, gentle, easily approachable, full of mercy with good fruit, without partiality,
and without hypocrisy.” — James 3:17
“All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven men: but
the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit shall not be forgiven men.” — Matthew
12:31
“Then Peter said to them, ‘Repent, and be baptized every one
of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall
receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.’ ” — Acts 2:38
“Have you received the Holy Spirit since you believed? And they said to him, ‘We have not so much as
heard whether there is any Holy Spirit.’ ” — Acts 19:2
“Don’t you know that so many of us as were baptized into
Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?” — Romans 6:3
“Is Christ divided? Was
Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized
in the name of Paul?” — 1 Corinthians 1:13
“For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have
put on Christ.” — Galatians 3:27
[1] We could use your help here. We tried to capture the punch (pardon the
pun) of these three Greek names for God, all of which begin with the letter P:
Patera = Father, Pantokratora = Almighty or All ruling, Poiêthên = Creator or
Maker. We think you can come up with a
better way to capture this idea of three words beginning with the same letter. Please help make the punch of the P’s pop.
The main
concept is that the three P’s hang together in Greek. In English we try to make the sentence read “Creator
of heaven and earth.” Still, God is just as much the Father of heaven and
earth; just as much the Ruler of heaven and earth, as He is Creator of all
these things.
So there
is a kind of triple three dimensionality to the prayer. We see the three names of God which we do not
understand. We see the heaven and earth
which are also beyond our grasp. Finally,
we compare the sensate world with one that cannot be measured by the five
senses or by science, and now we have lost all hope of understanding. The glory, immensity, and wonder of God, are
reflected in the overwhelming vastness of the universe, and the infinitesimal
nature of mater is exemplified by the Higgs particles. Finally, such glory insists that beyond the
majesty of nature, over and above everything around us, that another order of
creation, a spirit world exists, which cannot even be felt by ordinary human
means.
To what
does this prayer declaration of the immensity of God call us? In 325 it called 318 pastors together to try
to unify The Church against several growing heresies: they fell short of
perfection, but to their credit many disputes were resolved, they did a better
job than anyone since. Today, more than
ever, The Christian Church needs to stand together. What prevents us from standing together with
these 318 pastors to pray this prayer with them? If we could do that, we might see God change
our world.
[2] This is
all about who Jesus is as a person.
Maybe we
get all hung up over the words, same essence, or sometimes the translation,
same substance. The problem with same
substance is that it seems to imply that God has material substance, which is
untrue.
The real
problem here is that in 325, no Greek words could be found to adequately name
the unknowable internal nature of God, His being. At least two words were found, synonyms, these
were pressed into service in spite of the difficulties, and given new technical
meaning.
The
trouble with this solution was that different parties preferred different words. The above solution satisfied about 2/3 of all
parties concerned, which was better than none.
Still, we are left with ongoing divisions today. Does Jesus have one nature or two (one Divine
and one human)? Does Jesus have one will
or two (one Divine and one human)?
The
Greek words selected were ousia and hypostasis.
Arbitrarily, the word ousia was chosen to represent God as the
Trinitarian Whole. Thus Jesus is of the
same identical ousia as the Father and the Spirit. The word hypostasis was chosen to represent
the three distinct, yet inseparable, persons.
So there is only One ousia in three hypostases. Jesus’ hypostasis is different in that He
adds to Himself a perfect human nature: He is God-man, Theanthropos, or
Theandros.
It is
not as though the words ousia and hypostasis have some real human meaning: they
were chosen to name that which was not, and still is not understood: they have
technical meaning. Any reality that they
express is their heavenly reality, which is still beyond our grasp.
One
might hope that after what is now approaching two thousand years, we might have
got this word mix-up sorted out. Alas,
such is not the case. What is wrong with
us that after 1,691 years, we still haven’t got this sorted out? This is just a root of bitterness. We have no good excuse for not coming
together as the 318 pastors tried to come together in 325. For them there were communication barriers:
it took years to get letters around the empire.
Today, such communication takes place in seconds. What is wrong with us that we cannot stand
together with the 318 pastors over the issue of who Jesus is?
[3] This is
all about what Jesus, the God-man did.
The
term, “by Pontius Pilate,” does not harp on Pilate’s personal sins, which were
no more terrible than Paul’s. “By”
indicates the governing authority under which the crucifixion was authorized:
it was under Pilate, an authorized Roman representative (fifth prefect of the
Roman province of Judaea). The
crucifixion of Jesus was a legal act under Roman law. The term, “by Pontius Pilate,” also fixes the
date of the crucifixion to the prefecture of Pilate (26-36).
The
phrase, “He descended into hell,” from the Apostles Creed, is not found here. This is not a big issue. This phrase might easily have been added, it
was certainly believed, and a page or two of supporting Scripture is not
difficult to find.
What is
contained in these phrases that does not come directly from Scripture? What is found in these phrases about which we
may still disagree? What is wrong with
us that we cannot stand together with the 318 pastors over the issue of what
Jesus did?
[4] By 381 AD most or all of the original 318 pastors had
fallen asleep. The Nicaean statement of
faith had made its way throughout most or all of Christendom, had been ratified
by the churches, and returned with suggested amendments. Constantinople had changed too, and was now
the dedicated capital city of the Roman Empire.
So 150 pastors met in Constantinople at 381 AD, a few miles away from
Nicaea.
The main amendment was this
addition describing the person and work of the Spirit. In a secondary amendment, the word, “we
believe”, was not repeated in each paragraph: in Greek, the word, “and”, is
sufficient to carry the force and meaning of the opening word, “we believe”; since
this is not true in English we added the original word, “we believe”, back in
again, in order to make the meaning very clear.
This is a statement of faith, a prayer, from beginning to end: it has
four main paragraphs concerning Christian faith, each beginning with, “we
believe”. The details of these and other
amendments are found in this link.
After the late 6th century,
the Filioque controversy arose over this one Latin word, “filioque”. While there are many theories about the
source of this word, we believe it is best understood as a scribal copying
error: a fatigued scribe simply inserted the words, “and Son” into the previous
phrase by mistake. Some insist that such
an error can only happen in the forward direction. However, we have over five years (over 5,000
hours, over 10,000 – 8-1/2 x 11 pages, all hand lettered) experience in scribal
work, and assure you that this sort of error was committed many times, both
backward and forward. Those who wish to
assign blame, or insert profound theologies concerning these two Greek words
are not serving the peace of The Church.
Because these two words have no historic basis in early manuscripts,
serve no biblical necessity, and are offensive to many: we simply left them out
in the interests of peace.
What remains with which we
cannot all agree? Why do we continue to
grieve and quench the Spirit by our divisiveness?
[5]
If you have been blessed or helped by any of these
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