“For first of all, when you come together in the assembly, I hear that divisions exist among you, and I partly believe it. For there also must be factions among you, that those who are approved may be revealed among you” (1 Corinthians 11:18-19; WEB).
“for first, indeed, ye coming together in an assembly, I hear of divisions being among you, and partly I believe [it], for it behoveth sects also to be among you, that those approved may become manifest among you” (1 Corinthians 11:18-19; YLT).
“For first of all, when ye come together in the church, I hear that there be divisions among you; and I partly believe it. For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you” (1 Corinthians 11:18-19; KJV).
1 Corinthians 11:18-19 teaches that certain doctrinal divisions that result in factions are manifestations of approval by God. True believers demonstrate that they love Christ in sincerity and incorruptibility (Ephesians 6:24). They pray that Jesus Christ would be graciously powerful in them through their weakness and that they would never be ashamed or embarrassed of their “sectarian” scars (cf. 2 Corinthians 12:9).
“For this cause, we also, since the day we heard this, don’t cease praying and making requests for you, that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, that you may walk worthily of the Lord, to please him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all power, according to the might of his glory, for all endurance and perseverance with joy; giving thanks to the Father, who made us fit to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light; who delivered us out of the power of darkness, and translated us into the Kingdom of the Son of his love; in whom we have our redemption, the forgiveness of our sins” (Colossians 1:9-14; underlining mine).
“For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner: but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God” (2 Timothy 1:7-8; underlining mine).
“Unity is sometimes a veneer for apostasy and fragmentation the scar of faithfulness” (Douglas Jones, Angels in the Architecture; from the chapter titled “Mother Kirk,” p. 96).
[Angels in the Architecture (published in 1998) was written by Douglas Jones and Douglas Wilson. This is not an endorsement of Jones or Wilson as true Christians.]
True believers are often maligned and marginalized by God-haters as “sectarian” or “cultic” because they refuse to fornicate with the Great Whore — or any of her Reformed daughters –under the risible guise of “unity” (cf. Revelation 18). Unlike fashionable tolerant Calvinist Sons of Hagar whose charity is ample, true believers do not dally with but rather do defenestrate and trample.
They are not benighted by any “seemingly orthodox” beauty. To come out of her is their delight and their duty (Revelation 18:4).
When the unregenerate elect are regenerated by the Spirit of God, they out of Babylon take swift flight.
Knowledge of His redemptive glory and grace is immediately and inevitably seen in Christ’s face; it gives them spiritual sight (2 Corinthians 4:3-6).
Unlike the tolerant Calvinist Sons of Hagar we do not dally with this Whore, or try to Reform her (Galatians 4:22-30).
While we are rejoicing at our Lord’s trampling of this Strumpet, these Calvinists will mourn her.
Like Jeremiah we speak against their wicked Queen (cf. Jeremiah 26).
They stand aghast at our Heterodoxy Hall of Shame, cast up mire, and us do they blame;
For being too mean, surly, and unduly harsh. O, why?
They are the timorous tinder trying to hinder, says I.
Some tolerant ones are trying with pseudo-pious crying.
To force our return to the furnace of iron (Jeremiah 11:4).
Others threaten us with a different tack:
‘Against the Whore’s Daughters’ Church you are turning your back. Against the Ministers of Satan you are talking defiant and belligerent smack.’
Others laugh like a horse till they are hoarse.
And with frivolity, jollity, hilarity, and mirth, sing:
‘So the Church has been false since the time of her birth?’
Ensconced in the Devil’s lie, they do this presumptuous and vainglorious drive-by.
These filthy flatterers jettison true gospel medicine.
And imagine that this will not be the end of them.
‘The very heart of the gospel is an adiaphoran bore;’
Say these uxorious dolts benighted by the Whore.
For more on the typical (and fashionable) Calvinist rejection of the very gospel core, see:
http://www.outsidethecamp.org/gospatone.htm
Related
https://agrammatos.files.wordpress.com/2018/01/gospelseries.pdf
Agrammatos 