By News Watch Priest
The formation of a brand new Body of Christ is a most welcome idea for all well-meaning Christians. For too long the old Body of Christ had been either indifferent to what is going on in the country or seemingly partisan. Samuel Stone’s popular hymn reads in its first verse: The Church’s one foundation in Jesus Christ our Lord. She is his new creation. By water and the word. From heaven he came and sought her. To be his holy bride. With his own blood he bought her. And for her life he died.
Time was when church and state were intertwined in Christian countries and the laws in states were mainly ecclesiastical. These days Church and state are distinct with each going its own way save that the church observes what Jesus said “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God‘s,” – Mathew 22:21.
It is rather intriguing that the Catholic mission which is the original Christian church can be part of this noble coalition of churches. It will be recalled that since the schism of Martin Luther there has been innumerable splintering of churches. The churches have been mainly spilt between mainstream or Traditional churches on the one hand and Pentecostals on the other hand. While the form of worship of the Traditional Churches is prosaic those of the Pentecostal churches are charismatic.
The dichotomy between the mainstream and Pentecostal churches is that while the mainstream go on with their drab and uninteresting services the Pentecostals perform wonders according to what Jesus Christ said, “And these signs will accompany those who believe; in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up serpents and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.” – Mark 16:17. Unable to perform according to these assurances by Christ they brand the Pentecostals as sheep stealers and underworld, etc.
That said the old Body of Christ was seen to be indifferent to what governments have been doing by way of not abiding by the Rule of Law and human rights violations. In other words the old Body of Christ had been guilty of the sins of omission. They have been very active in Christian Social action especially the Catholic Church but they have been aloof perhaps because they wouldn’t want to be seen to interfere in politics. But this is scarcely a tenable argument. The issue of permitting abortion on which the Old Body of Christ kept mum comes to mind. There were many human rights violations and breaches of the law over which there was loud silence by the old Body of Christ.
The good thing about the new Body of Christ is that all well-meaning Christians have come together for unity of action that could carry more weight with the government. But unless they can strike out in a new direction they would be regarded as new wine in old skins with the obvious possibility of bursting of being of no consequence save the cosmetic change of name.