Excerpt from The Mystery Of God, Christ All And In All by Manfred R. Haller
The foundation of the church includes all in that location who are born again. If I, therefore, assume as fundamental the need to have full fellowship with all the local believers, I cannot belong to a denomination myself. There are many other valid reasons against denominational membership, but this is the most important. If I want to get to the foundation of the church, I must give up everything that dividesthe church. At the core of our fellowship with believers must be the fact that they are born again as we are, and that Christ lives in them.
Together we are the dwelling place of God or the temple of the Holy Spirit. Nothing more is essential. Any other stipulation would set bounds onthe fellowship we have and exclude various other believers. Only on this basis can we practically be built as the church.
There are people who dream of a great coalition of denominations which would restore unity under one common church. But even if all denominations did join together as one church, which is absolutely utopian, it wouldstill not be the church of the New Testament. Besides the fleshy structure such a church would have, there would still be a large number of believers not belonging to it. It would in no way manifest the body of Christ. All of these dreams are useless, and all our efforts in that direction are a senseless waste of time. Of course it is nice when various Christian groups set aside their differences to persue worthwhile objectives, but none of this has anything to do with the unity and indivisibility of God's church. Gods church already exists. We must open our eyes to that fact and return to the foundation of her existence. There the glory of God is waiting to be revealed again.
The foundation of the church includes all in that location who are born again. If I, therefore, assume as fundamental the need to have full fellowship with all the local believers, I cannot belong to a denomination myself. There are many other valid reasons against denominational membership, but this is the most important. If I want to get to the foundation of the church, I must give up everything that dividesthe church. At the core of our fellowship with believers must be the fact that they are born again as we are, and that Christ lives in them.
Together we are the dwelling place of God or the temple of the Holy Spirit. Nothing more is essential. Any other stipulation would set bounds onthe fellowship we have and exclude various other believers. Only on this basis can we practically be built as the church.
There are people who dream of a great coalition of denominations which would restore unity under one common church. But even if all denominations did join together as one church, which is absolutely utopian, it wouldstill not be the church of the New Testament. Besides the fleshy structure such a church would have, there would still be a large number of believers not belonging to it. It would in no way manifest the body of Christ. All of these dreams are useless, and all our efforts in that direction are a senseless waste of time. Of course it is nice when various Christian groups set aside their differences to persue worthwhile objectives, but none of this has anything to do with the unity and indivisibility of God's church. Gods church already exists. We must open our eyes to that fact and return to the foundation of her existence. There the glory of God is waiting to be revealed again.
