{"id":1152,"date":"2025-11-14T09:50:00","date_gmt":"2025-11-14T09:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/2025\/11\/14\/2025-11-14-yes-church-unity-reflects-divine-unity\/"},"modified":"2026-10-06T23:11:22","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T23:11:22","slug":"2025-11-14-yes-church-unity-reflects-divine-unity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/2025\/11\/14\/2025-11-14-yes-church-unity-reflects-divine-unity\/","title":{"rendered":"Yes: Church unity reflects divine\u00a0unity"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Michael Churma<\/a> · Contributing Writer<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is immoral to split from the Church that Christ established. In John 17, Jesus concludes The Last Supper with the High Priestly Prayer, praying that the Church \u201cmay be one even as we are one, I in them and thou in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them even as thou hast loved me\u201d (John 17: 22b-23, RSVCE).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jesus is stating here that the unity of the Church does two things. First, it reflects the perfect divine unity between the Father and the Son. Second, it witnesses to the revelation of Christ as the Son of God and Savior of mankind. From a Biblical perspective, a divided church fails to show forth Christ as the Messiah and King of the universe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even if the Church is corrupt, it is still of Christ. In the Gospels, it is clear that Jesus did not hand over his Church to perfect, righteous men. Rather, he bestowed it to 12 extremely flawed disciples. One denied Jesus three times, whom Jesus himself even called Satan. Another refused to believe in his resurrection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, Jesus entrusts his Church to these sinful men. The Old Testament also witnesses to God bestowing corrupt men with authority over his chosen people. For instance, the many corrupt judges of Israel that brought great moral tribulation to God\u2019s people were still appointed by God. The kings Saul, David, Solomon and beyond were all corrupt and sinful, yet God still appointed them to rule over his people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, the schism between Israel and Judea in the Old Testament demonstrates the importance of maintaining unity, even amid corruption. The 10 tribes of the north, having split, were no longer considered the chosen people of God. Despite corruption in the southern kingdom, these people were still living under the correct laws and customs that God had instructed. For instance, the southern tribes rightly worshipped in Jerusalem rather than by Jacob\u2019s well in Samaria (John 4).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In other words, the northern tribes went into schism, departing from beliefs and customs of worship that unified the Israelites as the chosen people of God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unity in the Church allows for unity in doctrine and practice. Without a definitive set of doctrines and practices, relativism abounds. How does one know what the essential doctrines of Christianity are? How does one know what the correct form of worship is? Each Protestant denomination provides a different answer to these questions. Furthermore, any answer that a denomination might provide has no sense of binding, definitive authority to ensure that the answer is true.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Logically, this level of confusion in doctrine and practice would not be condoned by Christ, who is truth himself (John 14:6). If Christ taught the truth \u2014 the fullness of divinely-revealed truth \u2014 then we ought to teach his truth. Therefore, it is illogical to be a Christian with only parts of his truth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the main goals of the Reformation was to rid the Church of buying and selling indulgences. However, a desire for reform does not require or condone a schism from the institution that Christ established. In fact, the Catholic Church has a better authoritative structure for the censure and removal of corrupt practices and teachings than do Protestant churches. The pope can authoritatively ban or condemn specific doctrines and practices with definitive conclusion. The magisterium, through Church councils, can do the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nothing of the same authoritative magnitude can be found in Protestantism. In short, the Catholic Church can make (and has made) reforms from the inside out that do not necessitate an external schism. In contrast, in Protestantism, when corruption occurs in a specific church, schism is encouraged, as men leave to form their own branch of Christianity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

St. Francis of Assisi provides the model for how to reform the Church. When God told him in a dream to \u201crebuild my church,\u201d St. Francis did not break away despite widespread corruption. Rather, he rebuilt the Church from the inside, always remaining faithful to the institution that Christ established, \u201cthe church of the living God, the pillar and bulwark of the truth\u201d (1 Timothy 3:15, RSVCE). Reform was not wrong; the Reformation was wrong.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is immoral to split from the Church that Christ established. In John 17, Jesus concludes The Last Supper with the High Priestly Prayer, praying that the Church \u201cmay be one even<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[215],"tags":[16,134,39],"class_list":["post-1152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinions","tag-editorial-perspectives","tag-michael-churma","tag-issue-2025-11-14"],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Ian Schartner","author_link":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/author\/schartnerij23\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"It is immoral to split from the Church that Christ established. In John 17, Jesus concludes The Last Supper with the High Priestly Prayer, praying that the Church \u201cmay be one even","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1152"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1152\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1865,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1152\/revisions\/1865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}