Why The Fighting?

Brothers and sisters, we should be very careful not to have wedges driven between us. Often, Christians will distance themselves from their brothers and sisters in Christ, or even sow discord, when we should not. It's much more important to be a unified body. I've seen this happen in a lot of things. One that I've been noticing, and have been noticing for a little bit, is frequently dealing with reactions on different beliefs about the rapture. Dealing with whether there is or isn't one, regarding the timeline. If you believe post trib and another believes pre trib, vice versa, or any variation on this... Are they not still your brethren?

Take youtube for instance. People will comment out of anger. One person might be subscribed to someone, and have found value in the messages this person has been putting out. But then, once a video on this topic is posted, and it's a different view point than what the person in question has, then 'click'. Unsubscribe. I've seen people trying to launch attacks on someone, and attempt to ostracize a sibling or siblings in Christ.

Why is there so much anger? I mean, I can understand the concern coming from both sides, and I'm not suggesting that conversations on this should not be broached, as I've actually enjoyed discussions on this myself. But friends, don't tear each other down. Don't create rifts. Don't condemn each other. I fully encourage a healthy debate. I feel that constructive discussion is actually beneficial to both parties in a number of ways, but don't berate each other, and exchange hurtful words. A unified body in Christ is so important.

Can you imagine Jesus endorsing this kind of behavior? I mean, He's the example that we are to follow, correct? Well, what did He tell us?

In Mark 3:24-25 we read:

²⁴And if a kingdom be divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. ²⁵And if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand.


I've discussed this before in a previous message, but I felt compelled to talk about it again. It's a problem that the Church really has been dealing with for a long time, and desperately needs to heal from. During the days of the early Church, the believers worked toward a common goal. That was to let the world know that the Messiah had come, and that He was Jesus of Nazareth, and that He offered salvation from our sins through His sacrifice. They worked to get this message out, and, well, the Church grew and spread, flourishing. And as time went along, conflict arose and the Church began to fracture bit by bit. They were fighting amongst and against each other. Now, if we look out into the world, and at the Church, we can see the weakness that has resulted from this. Unbelievers will even use this in their arguments against us. They'll say, How can the Bible possibly be right, when even the Christians can't agree on what it says. Look at them over there bickering with each other.

Despite differences in doctrinal matters, so long as Jesus is exalted above all, are they any less your brethren? I truly wonder, would the world be as it is today if the Church, if every believer, would have worked with each other and continued to work with each other instead of against. Can you imagine? It's too late to go back and do things over, but it's not too late to start new, to start now, and to try to heal this problem that has caused such a weakness to form in the Church for so long. Don't fight with each other. Don't create walls. Don't stand divided. We need to stand together. We need the believers of the world to be a unified body with the primary goal of spreading the gospel out into the world, as much as we can. This was the last commandment that Jesus gave before He left this world, to go out into the world and spread the gospel. Why would we want to spend our time bickering?


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