Ideas about the Kingdom of the Heavens around us and the unity of believers in Christ within it
Christ is not divided. But historically Christianity has been divided into groups following human leaders, past or present, ahead of Christ. The solution is an individual one, letting God perfect our unity with our brothers. It cannot be imposed by a human leader or organization.
Divisions in the church have been started not only by leaders who taught license to attract followers, but also by leaders who taught extreme asceticism– that God is only pleased by those who keep the strict rules they prescribe.
The traditional view of the heresy passages in 1 Timothy 6, Titus 3 and 2 Peter 2 actually fosters division by requiring us to shun anyone who disagrees with our denomination’s formal doctrinal statements.
The place and function of angels is not often mentioned in Scripture, because they exist as messengers and ministering spirits, serving us on God’s behalf, not themselves, bringing God’s message not their own. They are never the dominant subject of any scripture.
Doctrinal disputes, even over such heavy subjects as our relationship to the Law of Moses, can be settled peacefully within the Church, as shown by the Council of Jerusalem in Acts 15.
An extended glossary of terms that will be used in discussing spirit and spirits, angels and demons, in the coming series on angels and on what it means that some of them “sinned” and “abandoned their proper abode.” The conclusion of this series is briefly summarized in this way: angels are messengers, not the message, and some of them sinned when they left the status of a messenger to become the focus of their message.