This outline links to posts that contain my 2020 revision of the chapters I wrote in Ian Johnson & Lauston Stephens, Our Oneness in Christ (Baltimore: Publish America 2006) (only the Amazon Kindle edition is still available). Chapters 2, 7 through 10, 15 and 16 were written by Mr. Stephens, and were important to the overall meaning of the book. However, they are his work, and I will not be attempting to rewrite them on this blog. I would invite the reader to find them in the Kindle book—or in a now quite rare print copy.
This outline links to posts that contain my 2020 revision of the chapters I wrote in Ian Johnson & Lauston Stephens, Our Oneness in Christ (Baltimore: Publish America 2006) (the link is to the Amazon Kindle edition, which is still available). Chapters 2, 7 through 10, 15 and 16 were written by Mr. Stephens, and were important to the overall meaning of the book. However, they are his work, and I will not be attempting to rewrite them on this blog. I would invite the reader to find them in the Kindle book—or in a now quite rare print copy.
2021 Revised Introduction
Chapter 1. We Are Already One with Christ and in Christ
- The Underlying Truth: The Church is One Invisible Body—What is Missing is Visible Unity
- Our Individual Oneness with Christ
- Why Jesus’ Full Humanity is Important: Our Freedom, Truth, Victory, New Birth and Adoption in Christ
- What We Lose if Jesus is Not Human as Shown by Jesus’ Preparation for His Ministry
- Jesus Words about Dependence on God in the Sermon on the Mount
- The Trinity in which We Share
- Unity in Diversity as an Attribute of God
- The Human Being as a Picture of God’s Complex Unity
- Humans “Male and Female” and Marriage as Pictures of God’s Unity in Diversity
- Christ is the Head of His Body, the Church
Chapter 2. “The Prayer of Jesus” by Lauston Stephens (see 2006 Kindle Book version)
Chapter 3. We Are Called to Live Out the Truth of Our Oneness in Christ
Chapter 4. The Promise of Oneness
- Our Oneness in the Body of Christ and the Consequences of Ignoring It
- God’s Promises for the Church Together as One
- Our Oneness Makes Christ Visible to the World
- Hearing and Understanding God’s Voice is Dependent on Our Oneness
- “Greater Works than These” was a Promise to the Apostles Together and Victory is Promised to the Church Together
- Fruitfulness in Christ
- Unity and Answers to Prayer
- God Provides for Our Needs through Our Unity
- Peace, Joy and Boldness are Found in Our Oneness
- Are We Mistaken in Practice about the Real Purpose of the Church?
Chapter 5. The Consequences of Division
- The First Consequence of Division: A Sick Body
- Another Consequence of Division: Wrongs and Lawsuits Among Us
- Leaving Our First Love to Fight Each Other as Heretics
- About Racism
- Do We Want the Peace and Restoration of Unity and Mutual Forgiveness or the Torturers of Mental Illness?
- Repeated sins, repeated repentance and repeated forgiveness in Luke 17:3-4
- Unforgiveness, the Breaking of Unity, Can also Cause Physical Illness and Death
- Rejection of Unity Makes us Vulnerable to Divisive Leaders and their False Teachings
Chapter 6. Is God Waiting to See Our Oneness?
Chapter 7. “What is Essential to Oneness? “ By Lauston Stephens (see 2006 Kindle Book version).
Chapter 8. The Image of Oneness in the True Head of the Church, by Lauston Stephens (see 2006 Kindle Book version)
Chapter 9. “Understanding Oneness through the Musical Analogy of a Harmony of Different Instruments” by Lauston Stephens (see 2006 Kindle Book version)
Chapter 10. “Oneness, Denominations and Neighbors” by Lauston Stephens (see 2006 Kindle Book version)
Chapter 11. The Underlying Cause of Division
- The Underlying Cause of Division
- Paul’s Mourning over those who have Not Repented, 2 Corinthians 12:21
Chapter 12, Authority, Submission, Liberty and Oneness.
- Authority, Submission and Oneness
- Christ is the Head of the Church
- Mutual Submission is the Key
- Church Servants or Authority Figures Mentioned or Discussed in Acts and the Epistles, Other than Ephesians 4
- The Ephesians 4 “Offices” are God’s Gift to the Church, Not Fixed “Offices” of Authority
- Relation to the Several Lists of Gifts of the Holy Spirit
- The Scarecrow Fallacy
- Conclusion—Mutual Submission to Each Other Under Christ—Not a Chain of Command
- More posts presenting a series of Examples from My Own Life
Chapter 13. Heresy is Division in the Church.
- Heresy is Division in the Church
- The Meanings and Occurrences of the Underlying Words for Heresy
- A Disagreement Over Doctrine does Not Necessarily Lead to Heresy—Acts 15
- Toleration of Differences–Disagreements over Doctrine and Practice
- Romans 14
- Romans 15
- 1 Corinthians 8
- 1 Corinthians 10
- 1 Corinthians 11:1-16
- 1 Corinthians 11:17-34
- 1 Corinthians 10:31-33 and 11:18-19
- Are there “essential” doctrines and practices?
- Treatment of those who have separated themselves from us
- Factions–Following Human Leaders Leads to Heresy
- Division in James
- The Divisive People in Romans 16
- Divisions and Factions in 1 Corinthians 11
- Heresies as a Work of the Flesh in Galatians 5
- Godly sorrow and repentance which leads to salvation, 2 Corinthians 7:8-10
- The Divisive, Argumentative Teachers in Chapter 6 of First Timothy
- The “Heretick” in Titus 3
- Paul’s Mourning over those who have Not Repented, 2 Corinthians 12:21
- False Teachers and “Damnable Heresies” in 2 Peter 2
- The Traditional View of the First Timothy, Titus and Second Peter Passages
- On the other extreme—1 Timothy 4 and Colossians 2
- The Real Issue with False Teachers is their Hidden Motivations
- The Divisive, Argumentative Teachers in Chapter 6 of First Timothy
- False Believers and Divisive Persons in Jude
- The Bad Example of Cain
- The Bad Example of Korah
- Angels and the Angels that Sinned (separate outline)
- The Bad Example of the People of Noah’s Day
- The “Mixed Multitude” of the Exodus
- The Problem with Sodom
- IDOLS = Gods we can Manipulate (Do ut des.)
- The “People” Words in Genesis 19:4-5
- Judas Iscariot
- 3 John—The Bad Example of Diotrephes.
- Tradition May Support a Heresy
- Recognized Leaders May Lapse into Incorrect Positions and Divisiveness
- The “Winning” Faction May Be Heretical
- Our fight is not with people and is not waged with human power or weapons
- Several Ways in Which Heretics may Not be Reliably Identified—Labels, Victory and Power
- Heretics May be Found on All Sides of an Issue
- What About Church Discipline?
- Conclusion: False Brethren Seek to Bring Us into Bondage
- More posts on similar topics
- No Merit—The Golden Key to Freedom in Christ.
- Friends, Angels and Perspectives and Overcoming My Prejudices.
- An old dream about dirges, Sunday school classes, and the expectation to hide problems (a/k/a hypocrisy)
Chapter 14. Corruption by Politics and Greed, not Doctrine, is the Cause of Lasting Division in the Church
- The Political Corruption of Christianity
- Greed Behind the Political Corruption
- Lust for Power—Being Godlike—Behind the Political Corruption
- Is Christianity a Political Realm?
- Is Christianity a Culture?
- What is a “Culture?”
- Cultures, Rituals and Symbolisms
- Is a Believer who Does Not Observe our Rituals a Christian?
- Is a Believer who Uses Non-Traditional Symbols a Christian?
- Subversive Persuasion from Within Foreign Systems of Symbolism versus Syncretism
- What is syncretism?
- Burning Cultural Bridges: Paul Before the Athenian Areopagus
- Making Good Use of Non-Christian Cultural Metaphors and Symbols
- Being Seduced by Cultural Assumptions and Symbols
- Cultural appropriation and redefinition of Christian metaphors and symbols
- Culture and Repentance
- History of Divisions in the Church, Introduction
- For further discussion, see the series outline ““CONCURRENT HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN INSTITUTIONAL PURPOSE, CHRISTIAN DIVISION, THE RISE AND INFLUENCE OF ISLAM, AND THE PRESENT WEAKNESS OF CHRISTIANITY”
- Are We Now in a “Culture War?”
- Can We “Lose” our Culture? Did we possess it in the first place?
- Fear Tactics and False Unity: What do we Lose if we “Lose” our Culture?
- The Community of Love—A Better Approach than Waging “Culture War”
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