PAPER NO. 60
THE SPIRITUAL WAR – PART II
Church Councils and Settling Current Divisions in the Church
Common Ground (CG) is the set of conditions necessary for thought and discourse.
CG consists of understanding reason as the laws of thought, a commitment to reason (integrity), the use of reason as the test for meaning starting with basic beliefs—rational presuppositionalism (RP), and the principle of clarity (PC): some things are clear; the basic things are clear; the basic things about God and man and good and evil are clear to reason.
Where there is no Common Ground (CG), conversation with those in any dispute will end.
Conversation can continue in so far as there is CG, with pastors willing to seek unity of the faith.
Pastors themselves, to begin with, will have different positions on basic things.
The first major Church dispute (Acts 15) was settled in council, after much discussion.
Today, all must learn to apply the whole Word of God, including CG, to settle disputes.
There are preliminary considerations in the appeal to Acts 15.
- The Jerusalem Council of Acts 15 was decisive in the dispute. It was not a reconciliation. The response was then sent to all the churches for instruction for the unity of the faith.
- This first Church council (ca. 50 AD) was against sacramentalism, which was based on literalism. The sign of regeneration (circumcision) is not the reality of regeneration.
- Literalism is grounded in empiricism (appeal to experience) and subjective persuasion in contrast to objective proof. Persuasion is not proof nor are they necessarily connected.
- Literalism splits into antinomies in church history: many believe regeneration itself is by baptism; many others believe regeneration is by the believer’s decision, and/or appeal to discontinuity between the old and new testaments—where new means another, not a new administration of the one covenant of grace.
- Literalism neglects, avoids, resists, and denies the logical distinction of less and more basic. Empiricism opposes the use of reason to understand meaning by good and necessary consequences, by appeal to context, by rational presuppositionalism (RP).
- Without RP the meaning of every word is disputed, endlessly. Without CG, a person does not have ears to hear.
- We are to avoid foolish disputes, which lack CG. They gender strife from those who sit in the seat of the scornful (Psalm 1:1; 2 Timothy 2:23; Jude 9, 11).
- Correction from literalism is called for according to membership vows that are based on the historic Christian faith, beginning with Acts 15.
- In any church that holds to the historic Christian faith, no man can be released from his vow to God to heed correction in doctrine and life by duly appointed church oversight.
