Why We Need a Lot More Division in the Church
Doctrine divides! Yes, it does. Thank God that it does. If we had more right doctrine in our churches, there would be even more division. What the church of Jesus Christ needs today, more than ever, is this kind of division. There is a wrong kind of division and a right kind of division. Let us consider the right kind of division.
When men of God pick up the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, there is a cutting, separating, and dividing that occurs (Heb 4:12). One opens the Gospel of John (Jn 7:43; 9:16; 10:19) or the Acts of the Apostles to find division resulting from the faithful ministries of Jesus and His apostles. In Acts, a pattern emerges: 1. God’s Spirit emboldens the man of God; 2. The man of God preaches boldly in the synagogue or marketplace; 3. Division occurs; 4. Some are saved, and some are very unhappy; 5. A riot occurs; 6. The men of God either flee or are arrested; 7, See #1 and repeat in the next location.
Division is good for the church. Just as Jesus came to bring division (Lk 12:51–53), so the Word of God divides people, today. Why are we not seeing more division in the church? How can we create more of the right division? There is only one way: preach the Word in season and out of season (2 Tim 4:2).
Dilutionists are those men (and of course, women) preachers who quest after a false unity. They never imagine that church growth is actually produced by division. Division purifies the church. It separates God’s people from those in the church who do not belong to Christ (Jn 10:26; 1 Cor 3:23). A faithful pulpit and the goats will leave; an unfaithful pulpit and the sheep will leave.
Division in the church is a type of foreshadowing of the day of judgment. On that day all who have ever lived will be resurrected bodily (Jn 5:28–29). There will be a division: sheep to one side of Jesus and goats to the other (Mt 25:32–33). Jesus taught about wheat and tares being separated (Mt 13:24–30). John taught the difference between children of God and children of the devil (1 Jn 3:10). Division must occur, and it is the Christ, the Word, who divides.
Division produces unity because the sanctification by the Spirit is occurring, where the Word of God is preached (Jn 17:17; Rom 15:16; 1 Thess 5:23; 2 Thess 2:13; 1 Pet 1:2). Sanctification is the divine process of dividing God’s people from the people of the world. To separate a people unto God is to divide, separate, and find unity after the division.
Unity can only be produced by division and separation. This is why in Jesus’ high priestly prayer (Jn 17), He is requesting sanctification for His people (setting apart), and asking for unity in the same intercession (Jn 17:17, 22).
The carnal church wants to be friends with the world. This is why the liberals permit the invasion of the world into the church. They accomplish this by neglecting the Word of God, which would by itself, when preached, keep the world out. Listen to the allure of distortion, “God loves everyone! God loves you! Jesus loves you!” If this were true, the world would be the church, but this is not the case, according to Jesus, speaking of His own people, “They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world (Jn 17:16).”
The exposure of sexual predators and sexual abuse in the church should press our need for further division. The spirit of Jezebel is in our churches, and she is calling for unity (Rev 2:20). The toleration, even promotion of sin, by some, who claim to be Christ’s beloved is bizarre, but that is because no one is crying in the wilderness, “Make ready the way of the Lord, make His paths straight (Lk 3:4).” The narrow gate has been made wide, and the wide way that leads to destruction is filled with those deluded by the dilution of doctrine.
Come out of her (whore of Babylon = fake church) is the call for division (Rev 18:4). It is God’s call for His people to be holy, as He is holy (1 Pet 1:16). Churches affirming and accepting sin, for the sake of inclusion and unity, are blind to the Gospel (2 Cor 4:4), having created a different one, leading to a different Christ than the Christ of the Bible (2 Cor 11:3–4).
It is time for men of God to call for division in the church. We need a Reformation in our churches. We need to deny ourselves communion with idolaters, who promote unity using the doctrine of demons.
Now is the acceptable time for us to end the spiritual famine in Christ’s church (Amos 8:11). We must do battle with the entertainers, the comedians, the philosophers, the politicians, the psychologists, who are telling people that all people are God’s people.
May God send bold preachers to cast out demons from our churches, felling them with His Word of truth, and with the multiplication of division, may we find the desired sum and substance: unity of Spirit and truth (Eph 4:3, 13), and may God forbid there would ever be any division from that perfect bond (Mt 12:25–26; 1 Cor 1:10; 11:18; 12:25; Jude 19)…as it is in heaven.
David Norczyk
Spokane Valley, Washington
September 17, 2021
