In the seventeenth chapter of the Gospel of John the Lord Jesus prayed that the members of the Church would be one. We may think of this oneness as singleness of purpose or agreement on doctrinal issues. Such is not the case.

The unity of the Church will be like the Unity of the Godhead and in fact will be part of that majestic Oneness.

Christ is in us. God is in Christ. This means God is in us through Christ.

Also, we are in Christ. Christ is in God. This means we are in God through Christ.

God is in Christ who is in us who are in Christ who is in God.

This is the total unity of the Church in God through Jesus Christ.

This is a unity that can never be achieved by flesh and blood people. Only that which is born of Jesus Christ, His own body and blood, can be brought into such oneness in the Godhead.

Every member of the Divine Union has an intensely personal relationship with God and is totally free from idols. It is one fiery, eternal, incorruptible, indissoluble whole. The whole comprises Christ, Head and Body, the servant of the Lord, the one "like the Son of Man" who, in Daniel, was brought before the Ancient of Days.

You can see now why God acted at Babel the way He did. God is not interested in people getting together according to their human notions because they ultimately will rebel against Him. God has His own plan for achieving unity.

One instructive picture we can look at and think about is the building of Solomon's Temple. The great stones were carefully cut at the quarry. Then when they were brought to the building site at Jerusalem no forcing or cutting was needed.

In building the temple, only blocks dressed at the quarry were used, and no hammer, chisel or any other iron tool was heard at the temple site while it was being built. (I Kings 6:7—NIV)

Every stone used in building the Temple of Solomon was cut to size at the quarry. It was then marked and brought to the building site.

So it is that efforts to bring all denominations into one huge denomination are premature attempts to achieve the oneness prayed for by the Lord Jesus. God is not pressing us to become a huge denomination so we will have a name and not be scattered abroad. Rather the Lord is cutting the stones at the quarry. Have you been cut lately? Probably so.

The leaders of denominations could no more fit us into our place in the Body of Christ than they could assemble the very dry bones seen in vision by Ezekiel. Can you imagine what would come forth if someone tried to put the bones together into people and then cover them with skin? So it is true that Christian "togetherness" efforts will always produce a monster.

To be continued.