I’ve recently begun wrestling with issues of communion between Christians and churches. And for some years, I’ve been studying and wrestling with the practical outworkings of eschatology in history and for us. This post will venture to wrestle with both in a small but not trivial way. Hold on.
My opinion is that the faithful church militant (i. e. the church on Earth) will become very small by the time Christ returns. Scripture might not explicitly teach this but it nonetheless points to this trying future in three main ways.
First, there is a pattern of God waiting until the faithful are few before he judges. We see this with the Flood and with Sodom. I think this pattern will repeat before Christ returns to judge the quick and the dead.
Second, Jesus did ask, “When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8) Although he let his question hang in the air and in Scripture, it should give us pause.
I wrote more about these first two indicators at the end of Advent last year.
Third, Scripture teaches there will be a great apostasy, a great falling away from the faith. (2 Thess. 2:3; 1 Timothy 4:1) We might already be in the Great Apostasy, but I do not presume to know that and think we should all be careful to avoid presumption in eschatology. But there is no question there’s a lot of apostasy going on and has been for at least a century and more. In many cities and regions that were once bastions of The Faith, the faithful are already few. The same could be said of too many denominations.
So again, it is my opinion that the faithful church on Earth will become very small before Christ returns. Many I respect disagree. If you think I am missing something that either confirms or contradicts my opinion, feel free to comment.
If faithful Christians do become few and far between, that presents a quandary and a temptation for the faithful who remain. If faithful churches are hard to come by, the temptation will be to give up and give in and be in communion with unfaithful, even apostate churches.
This is already a quandary for many Christians and has been at times for me. So as a start to looking at what I call the Problem of Communion, I presented several models of dealing with this problem.
I think we can rule out two models. “Unity for the sake of unity” in disregard of adherence to even the basics of the Faith is ruled out by Scripture and the Fathers. At the other extreme, requiring “agreement on everything” does not give the scriptural mandate for unity enough weight. And many of us are already in situations where requiring agreement on just about everything means you get to be the Pope of your apartment cathedral. Requiring faithfulness or at least agreement on the basics is one thing. Requiring agreement on everything cuts one off from too many faithful. That is never a good way to go and will become even less tenable if the faithful become fewer.
But rightly rejecting those two extremes still leaves difficult choices and the temptation to compromise too much on faithfulness. How much is too much? The authority of Scripture and the Creeds are non-negotiables but how much else is?
I consider the first Seven Ecumenical Councils to be authoritative (as my icon collection reveals), but if I were to require such conviction for full communion, I would have to become Roman or Greek to find a church in my city. Seeing issues with both that are weightier than icons, I doubt I could do either. Many hold strongly to the importance of a male-only presbyterate, and I’ve slowly come to that view. But require that and you have pretty much ruled out the largest orthodox Anglican denomination in America, the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA). If “wokeness” is a communion breaker (as it pretty much is for me), then good luck finding a sizable denomination where that has not been a problem.
So I am loath to insist on boundaries of communion beyond the basics. But communion among the faithful surely should require more than a desire for unity and lip service to Scripture and the Creeds. How often clergy recite the Creeds with their lips then deny them with the same lips and minds and willful deeds! Yes, I should not get started on that.
At the same time, insist on much more than the very basics of The Faith and soon you may find yourself in communion with yourself and a likeminded brother you know online who lives a hundred miles away and not many others. You think I’m exaggerating? It is already difficult for many to find a suitable church within driving distance.
All this is to present that when the faithful become few and far between and finding a good church is difficult, the temptation grows to be in communion with unfaithfulness and even apostasy. That no matter where one draws the boundaries of what is required faithfulness. The temptation is great for many Christian individuals and churches already.
I have no easy answers as to how to deal with this temptation. But if we are so tempted, we shall not be the first. Noah and Lot and Rahab were surrounded by unfaithfulness but instead of entering a devilish communion with evil, they remained faithful even though it was just them and their willing households. And God delivered them from the just judgement of the evil around them. I’m convinced the times before The End will be similar with God’s voice calling out, “Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.” (Rev. 18:4 KJ)
If God calls us to be faithful and seemingly alone like Noah, Lot and Rahab, so be it. More likely for most at this time, God may call us to bypass larger more convenient churches to join smaller more faithful churches. If so, so be it. May the Lord help us to be faithful no matter what, no matter if we or our spiritual descendants are the last faithful on Earth.
