We Are One—“In Christ”!

God has built his Kingdom for centuries through a multi-splintered Church. In the year 2002 there were 33,830 “Christian” organizations. This prolific divisiveness is certainly not his final will for his people. After praying for himself, then for his Apostles present, Jesus made what is no doubt the most important request he asked of his Father for his disciples while still on earth.

I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

—John 17:20-21

This prayer contains the amazing request for all who believe in our Lord to be brought into a oneness like that in the Godhead; and what a blessing it is to realize that this request for our oneness among ourselves and with our Lord is already a spiritual reality! Paul affirmed this in Romans 12:5: “… so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.”

This prayer also speaks of a “message,” and of our Lord’s desire for this unity to  be so obvious that “the world may believe that you have sent me.” Yet Paul, concerned about division in the Church of his day, wrote:

I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought

 —1 Corinthians 1:10

Divisions have so significantly increased to this day that the term “message” (in the singular) hardly seems to apply; but Paul makes it clear that there is such a message, and that it is on its way.

It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

—Ephesians 4:11-13

In almost a lifetime of preaching ministry this writer never realized this. Even far more surprisingly, to this writer’s knowledge, not one of the many groups believing the Bible to be God’s written word teaches it fully! But more surprising still, is the writer’s belief that God has revealed that message to him!

Does this sound like an audacious claim? Yes, and the only way to prove or disprove it is to follow the example of the Bereans. Acts 17:11 says they “examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.” God has always revealed his truth to man gradually. He did this through the prophets and the apostles, then through messengers in his Church; and if he isn’t still doing this today, every teacher or preacher who claims to be proclaiming relevant insights into God’s Word is making a false claim! The written word of God is permanent; our understanding of it is a continuing process.

As a Nazarene Elder, I became the Secretary for the American and British Bible Societies for eight Bible-land countries. I was pleasantly surprised at the good fellowship I enjoyed with leaders of all the groups that the Societies served, in spite of our different, even conflicting, traditions; so I decided to search the Scriptures for an answer to this problem; but had to wait before doing so.

Upon retirement I started the search; knowing that the other groups were wrong; so what a shock it was to find that, as the insights into God’s Salvation Plan began to become clear, that we Nazarenes were also wrong! So I asked and received God’s forgiveness for my failure to see this, then continued my search.

Soon after this, through a sequence of events that seemed miraculous I was contacted by two men who had been in one of my pastorates in their teens almost 50 years before. When I sent them copies of my work, they immediately accepted the insights and asked what they could do to spread the good news. Both have spent countless hours on the computer and by phone, making it possible for what we call the “In Christ Fellowship” to minister over the Internet and by mail around the world, at no cost to this ministry!

Unlike these colleagues, the usual response upon hearing or reading about these insights is, “Oh, that’s just semantics; just a play on words!” But such responses are seriously wrong; for the acceptance or rejection of these insights can make an eternal difference in the salvation of souls for whom our Lord died! Thankfully, a few leaders and theologians have agreed that they are true.

Truth is known by using words. Jesus, who is the Truth, is also the Word of God. Many errors hide behind the wrong definition of words; so all of the  articles in our ministry deal with biblical truth, guided by these principles:

1.  Scriptural passages, properly understood, are not contradictory;

2.  All scriptural passages are interpreted in harmony with their contexts; and 

3.  Insights are explained in terms as free as possible  from giving offense.

All of our articles are for  you who are “in Christ,” or who want to be, regardless of your culture, race, or religious preference. We hope that you will not only accept and personally apply the insights in God’s Salvation Plan, but will then begin sharing them with others within your area of influence.

These three articles are available here on our website, www.InChristFellowship.org:

You Can Be "In Christ"!

Good News!—Final Edition!

God’s Salvation Plan

We suggest that you read these articles in the order listed, and hope that they, along with the others listed on the ICF Homepage, will be of temporal and eternal value to you and others with whom you share them.

Yours, "in Christ,"

Brother Jim

Founder, In Christ Fellowship

Website: www.InChristFellowship.org

Email: Support@InChristFellowship.org