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The Value of Christian Unity: A Tale of Two Schismatics

The Value of Christian Unity: A Tale of Two Schismatics

Last updated on: February 1, 2025 at 12:35 pm by Dennis Knapp

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The Value of Christian Unity: A Tale of Two Schismatics 2025-02-01T12:35:48-06:00 Dennis Knapp

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Recently, two questions entered my mind regarding the role of unity within the Christian Church.

What value does St. Paul and other biblical authors (the Bible) place on unity in the Church, if any?
If the Bible teaches the importance of unity, what means did God give the Christian Church to maintain unity, if any?

Now, I make a few assumptions in the above questions.

A historical person (Jesus Christ) established a Church in history.
An authoritative collection of books exists (the Bible) for Christians.
Whatever the Bible teaches on unity has ramifications on the historical Church.

Now, how one defines church and how many books constitutes the Bible are beyond the scope of this article. However, the definition of church and what books Christians accept may come up in future articles addressing this topic.

Finally, considering the biblical case for unity, I examine two schismatics: the Alexandrian priest Arius (d. 336 AD) and the 16th century monk, priest, and theological doctor, Martin Luther (d. 1546 AD). Why Fr. Arius and Dr. Luther? These men, clergy both, held views which severely threaten Christian unity. Interestingly, both men summarized their dissent by an appeal to a single word. For Arius, the “extra biblical” word homoousion (of one substance) led him to threaten Christian unity in the 4th century. For Luther, the word sola (alone) did likewise nearly twelve-hundred years later.

Is Christ Divided?

Of all the letters written by St. Paul, the first letter to the Corinthians stands out in any discussion of unity in the Church. St. Paul wrote this letter, commonly known as 1 Corinthians, primarily to address Christian disunity in the city of Corinth.

At the outset of the letter, St. Paul gets straight to the point:

I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment. For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers. What I mean is that each one of you says, “I follow Paul,” or “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Cephas,” or “I follow Christ.” Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? (1 Corinthians 1: 10-13)

In the above passage, St. Paul exhorts Christians in Corinth, in the name of Jesus Christ, to:

All agree.
Possess no division among them.
Unite in the same mind and same judgement.

He concludes this exhortation by comparing their disunity to a “divided Christ.”

One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism

Furthermore, St. Paul poetically reaffirms this thought in his letter to the Ephesians.

…eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. (Ephesians 4: 1-6)

Christians, he maintains, belong to one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all… Any disunity of the Spirt means a breaking of the bonds of peace and a divided body and Spirit, not one body and one Spirit.

Moreover, St. Paul’s admonishment towards Christian unity falls perfectly in line with Jesus’ prayer in John 17:21:

…that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

Clearly, the Bible places the utmost importance in Christian unity. Conversely, disunity not only divides the body of Christ but also causes doubt that the Father sent the Son into world to save it.

The Means to Maintain Unity

In the New Testament, the first admonition regarding the means to maintaining unity comes from the Lord Jesus Himself. In Matthew 18:15-17, Jesus commands:

If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.

Moreover, we see this played out in the book of Acts, chapter 15. Here, we read that “some men (known as Judaizers) came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, ‘Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.’” As Jesus commanded, St. Paul and St. Barnabas sought to “debate with them.” Unable to reach agreement, they went for clarification from the Church in Jerusalem. After presenting this issue to the Church, the leaders of the Church (here St. Peter and St. James) convened the Council of Jerusalem. This council proclaimed that God no longer required circumcision for salvation. Church leaders then sent a letter concerning their decision to the universal Church. This letter states:

For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay on you no greater burden than these requirements: that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from what has been strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell.

What of those who did not follow the directive of the Church regarding circumcision and threatened Church unity? We read again from St. Paul, in alignment with the Lord Jesus, the consequences of disunity are, namely, separation (excommunication) and anathema. St. Paul warns:

But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed. (Galatians 1:8-9)

Therefore, given the consistent teaching from the Bible demonstrated above, Christian unity is essential. Furthermore, any attempt to sow division within the Church, apostolic authorities must, for the sake of unity, separate those who seek to divide.

Fr. Arius and Dr. Martin Luther: United in Disunity

Finally, we turn now to two of the greatest examples of instigators of disunity after the Judaizers in the 1st century: Fr. Arius of Alexandria, Egypt and Dr. Martin Luther of Wittenburg, Germany. As clergymen, both Arius and Luther fell directly under the authority of their bishop and thereby the direct authority of the Church. Also, as clergy, both men possessed a theological education which granted them unique influence over a mostly illiterate lay Chrisitan population.* In short, their theological and biblical understanding granted them the ability and opportunity to cause great harm to Christian unity.

What happened?

Fr. Arius

It all started when the priest Arius overheard his bishop Alexander give a homily stating that the Father shared the same substance (homoousion) as the Son. In response, Arius taught that the Son, as begotten, cannot share the same substance as the Father because the Son came into existence from nothing. This belief led to a popular phrase among Arians: “there was a time when the Son was not.” Furthermore, Arius contended that the use of the word homoousion, a word foreign to the Bible, represented a deviation from the clear reading of Scripture. Eventually, the Church called another council to address the disunity caused by Arius—the Council of Nicaea. Here, the council fathers affirmed the language of homoousion and anathematized Arius and any of his followers with these words:

But as for those who say, there was when He was not, and, before being born He was not, and that He came into existence out of nothing, or who assert that the Son of God is from a different hypostasis or substance, or is created, or is subject to alteration or change – these the Catholic Church anathemizes.

As with the Council of Jerusalem before it, Nicaea addressed the disunity caused by Arius through an exercise of authority to maintain unity. Eventually, Arius’ views died out and unity was restored, for a time. Arius again found sympathetic ears in the 16th century, thanks in no small part to the disunity caused by Martin Luther.

Dr. Martin Luther

Of all the schematics throughout Church history, Martin Luther reigns supreme. His ideas, and those of the other schematics he influenced, continue to fracture Christianity to this day. Sadly, what started out as a valid criticism of indulgence abuses morphed into one man’s conviction that his private interpretation of the Bible trumped both the Pope and Church councils. Furthermore, as with the Judaizers and Arius before, the Church followed the direction laid out by Jesus to correct Luther. In response, Luther doubled down his own authority to interpret the Bible alone (sola).

Unless I am convicted by Scripture and plain reason. I do not accept the authority of popes and councils, for they have contradicted each other – my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. Here I stand, I cannot do otherwise. God help me. Amen.

In response to Luther’s continued unwillingness to submit to the Church, the Church, again, for the sake of unity, exercised her authority and excommunicated Luther. Pope Leo X issued the papal bull Decet Romanum Pontificem in 1521. This papal bull condemns Luther for cleaving “asunder the seamless robe of our Redeemer and the unity of the orthodox faith.”

Final Thoughts…

In answer to the questions presented at the beginning of this article, I offer the following:

What value does St. Paul and other biblical authors (the Bible) place on unity in the Church, if any?

Answer: St. Paul and other biblical authors placed the utmost value on unity within the Church. “Is Christ divided?” No.

If the Bible teaches the importance of unity, what means did God give the Christian Church to maintain unity, if any?

Answer: God provided the Church with legitimate and continuous apostolic authorities (bishops and the Pope) to maintain unity through the use, if need, of excommunications and anathemas. The use of such authority remains an essential part of maintaining Christian unity to this day.

*The West did not achieve anything approaching universal literacy until the mid-19th century.