The noted Methodist missionary, Dr. E. Stanley Jones, who served many years in India, is traveling over the United States, urging church unity among Protestants. This is no new thing. From the time that Luther and Zwingli met at Marburg in 1529 to settle their differences—an effort which proved futile—there have been recurring attempts to bring this or that Protestant body or bodies into unity with others.
Currently, the efforts at unity are operating at the present time in three areas : (I) The community plan busies itself with uniting congregations of various denominations in a single town, into one community church. (2) Another method concerns itself with uniting subdivisions of denominations into one large organization. An illustration of success with this method is found in the recent union of the entire Methodist Church into one organization. (3) Some success is being achieved in uniting denominations. For instance, the Christian and the Congregational churches have united in one body, although with a rather loose organization. There is strong advocacy on the part of both Episcopalians and Presbyterians to bring these two large bodies into closer unity of organization.
Aside from these organizational plans, however, there has been in existence in this country for over forty years a functional union of churches, called the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America. This is a voluntary union of those Protestant churches which desire to unite in operations with other churches on such matters as world peace, labor problems, living standards and conditions of employment, the handling of the liquor traffic, and services of like nature which appear to belong in the category of the "social gospel."
Some of the interests of the Federal Council take it into areas which many have thought of as belonging exclusively to civil government, but the executive committee of the council insists that these are proper functions for a live twentieth-century Christianity. The council has committed itself on the side of religious liberty, and advocates the maintenance of the separation of church and state. Membership in the council is open to all who wish to join, with a willingness to co-operate in the program the council has outlined for itself. Very small denominations, the influence of which is less than national, have not been accepted for membership in the council.
The council assumes no jurisdiction over, and takes no interest in, doctrinal differences. but concerns itself only with bringing together the activities of its member churches for the sake of avoiding overlapping and duplication, and of gaining the weight of united strength. There is a similar organization in the United Kingdom, and in some other countries. There is also a World Council of Churches, seeking to operate along similar lines.
The Seventh-day Adventist Church has never been a member of the Federal Council of Churches. It has not been refused membership; it has never asked for it. Seventh-day Adventists have always felt that there lies in union of churches both a spiritual danger and a threat to full religious liberty. This can be readily accounted for by our interpretation of the thirteenth chapter of the book of Revelation, particularly those passages referring to the formation of an "image to the beast." We unhesitatingly identify the beast of this chapter with the Roman Catholic hierarchy. For an image "of this beast to be formed" seems to us to require a uniting of churches.
"Many of the Protestant churches are following Rome's example of iniquitous connection with 'the kings of the earth'—the state churches, by their relation to secular governments ; and other denominations, by seeking the favor of the world. And the term 'Babylon'—confusion—may be appropriately applied to these bodies, all professing to derive their doctrines from the Bible, yet divided into almost innumerable sects, with widely conflicting creeds and theories."—The Great Controversy, p. 383.
Therefore, any beginning of unity, even though only functional, seems to us to offer a potential menace. Well-known statements from Mrs. White's writings bear out our fears. For instance, there is the statement :
"Through the two great errors, the immortality of the soul and Sunday sacredness, Satan will bring the people under his deceptions. While the former lays the foundation of Spiritualism, the latter creates a bond of sympathy with Rome. The Protestants of the United States will be foremost in stretching their hands across the gulf to grasp the hand of Spiritualism; they will reach over the abyss to clasp hands with the Roman power; and under the influence of this threefold union, this country will follow in the steps of Rome in trampling on the rights of conscience."Ibid., p. 588.
It seems to us that already we have seen tendencies growing out of the work of the Federal Council which justify our feelings concerning church union. The Federal Council has encouraged the formation of local church councils, and there seems to be good evidence that these councils have at times interfered with freedom of religious radio broadcasts, and even with freedom in the building of churches here and there by certain sects.
We are definitely taking alarm at the kind of church union being advocated by Dr. Jones. His is a plan for "federal union." What he wishes to do and his method are clearly set forth in an article in The Christian Century, of January 14, 1948. We quote: "Denominations, as separate sovereign entities, cease to exist under federal union. They become subordinate branches under a single sovereign union." He closes his article with the words : "We can have church union in five years; at the most, ten."
Dr. Jones compares his plan of federal union of churches with the union existing among the States of the United States of America. The States continue to function in their peculiar way, but there is a definite over-all union, and the national government is an organism of itself, with a certain amount of control over the States, and with a vast amount of common action and understanding, law, and custom among the States and the citizens of the United States, and this is manifested through the Federal Union. This plan would indeed do away with all denominations.
Seventh-day Adventists are not advocates of disunity. They have no desire to see perpetuated the differences in belief and practice existing between Presbyterians, Baptists, Adventists, Roman Catholics, and/or any other churches. There will be only one church—the united body of Christ—in the earth made new. We are very sympathetic with the efforts made by the Disciples of Christ, under the leadership of Alexander Campbell, a century and a quarter ago, to rally all Christendom into a great Christian union. But the efforts of Mr. Campbell and his followers resulted simply in the formation of another denomination, because it failed to rally to it the members of the other denominations. Like the Disciples of Christ at the inception of their movement, Seventh-day Adventists have certain convictions concerning methods of work, beliefs, and hopes for eternity, and they will work with any individual or bodies which share with them these convictions. We believe that our convictions are based upon, and are found expressed in, the Bible as the Word of God, and we must test the program of any others with whom we are to unite by this basic standard.
It seems to us that to join Dr. Jones' federal union of churches would involve yielding important convictions before joining, or compromising them and probably diluting them in the joining. We recognize that if this union is formed, any denomination left out would make it appear unique, if not odd, and we are conscious of what it would mean for a small minority to be omitted from such a large movement. We would welcome every opportunity to sit down with representatives of any of the agencies looking toward union, to find with them in the Bible a common basis for union, in preparation for the kingdom of which Christ is king. But until union can be found on Bible terms, we must take the risks involved in declining to unite.
