8/8/2019 ONE BODY in CHRIST 1 - The True Center of Christianity

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O N E B O D Y I N C H R I S T

The True Centre of Christianity

By Kokochi Kurosaki

The Roman Catholic Church, by putting the Institution , with the Pope as its head, in thecentre of Christianity, had ceased to be an expression of the real Ekklesia. This gave riseto Protestantism, which in turn put the Bible in the centre, though still largely retainingthe institutionalism of the Roman Church. This new centre also proved off -centre and hasresulted in splitting Christians into many warring, incomplete sects. Thus Protestants, too,have not realized in practice the true Ekklesia.Recently some have recognized the impotency and wrongness of the existing state of thechurches and are endeavouring to remedy the situation by reuniting divideddenominations. They seek to form an alliance of all churches into one ecumenicalChurch.However, this movement, too, is obviously doomed to failure and the very effort to unitethe churches seems likely to end only in the formation of yet another great sect or denomination. I say this because the churches involved are not re-establishing the truecentre of Christianity but rather are still caught in the sectarian spirit inherited fromCatholicism.The Ekklesia (translated Church in the English edition of the Bible) is the Body of Christ. Composed of many members each connected directly to the Head in spirituallife-union and possessing different gifts and functions this Body is a spiritual organism .Being a single, corporate, spiritual reality one Body the Ekklesia was never intendedto be divided and simply cannot live and function properly in a divided condition. Yetthis is the obvious condition prevailing today.

What is at the heart of all this what is wrong? Where is the true unity of the one Bodyof Christ? The answer is simple, yet profound. The confusion and disaster of

sectarianism is the result of mistaken and false ideas as to the centre, or essential natureof the Ekklesia.The corporate (Body) disintegration has come from mistaking the true centre of Christianity and substituting either theology, or dogma, or creeds, or the Bible, or institutions, or rituals and ceremonies.Moreover, the divisions thus created have been strengthened by the idea, inherited fromthe Roman church, that ones own group alone has the orthodox faith and all other groupsmust be persecuted, or at least held in disrepute, as being in error.To clear up this confusion and to show how Christians may live and function and one inChrist, it is necessary to rediscover the real centre of Christianity. We have pointed outwhat has been taken as the centre in the past history in the early Apostolic age, theCatholic period and the present Protestant era let us now consider directly just what thetrue centre of the Ekklesia really is.

8/8/2019 ONE BODY in CHRIST 1 - The True Center of Christianity

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