Other verses for our consideration:
Ezekiel 22:26,
God was upset with His priesthood for not doing this. It is the same God over both Covenants. God still cares about separation between what He considers holy/clean and what He considered profane/unclean.
Here's proof:
Ezekiel 44:23,
This is future tense, prophetic language, which is supposed to come to fruition during the era of Ezekiel's vision, i.e. the era of New Jerusalem, or the New Covenant church.
There is no way we can, as New Covenant priests unto God, fulfill our duties to Him if we do not, in some way, make moral distinctions between saved and lost, holy and unholy, Godly and ungodly.
There is only one way to do this: lists.
We may argue and mangle the lists sometimes, and I don't for a second think that any one human has got it all figured out perfectly. But nor do I for one second think that the Lord would have any umbrage with His people trying to their best to do exactly what He commands us to do, even though we at times fail.
Galatians 1:6-9,
However we take these verses, the fact remains that some have become accursed. God has anathematized them for preaching another Gospel.
The Gospel, by its very definition, must include an application, or else it cannot be obeyed. So any preaching of a so-called Gospel, that either mis-represents what the Gospel proper is, or does not give the Biblical application, by default, is "another Gospel". Those who preach such, even if they are an angel from heaven, or even if they do so ignorantly, are accursed.
Notice I said nothing about
Acts 2:38. I didn't even mention
1 Corinthians 15:1-4 until just now. But the principle, whatever personal feelings and beliefs we have on the matter, is still true.
This means that another separation must be made, a "list" of who is and who is not preaching the accepted Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Romans 16:17-18,
This verse has no application whatsoever if it is not obeyed literally to the letter. A "list" must be generated by the Church of the Living God of who is and who is not marked. These schismatics must be pointed out to the rest of Body.
This is a division that God Himself causes. Paul, by the Lord Jesus, commanded that the fornicator in Corinth be ex-communicated (
1 Corinthians 5). This means the fornicator had to be publicly acknowledged as fallen and recognized for his sin in front of the whole assembly, humiliated, and cast out.
It is our sovereign duty to obey the Word of God in such matters. This isn't a matter of "religions", this is a matter of eternal salvation.
Finally,
Matthew 25:31-33,
In the rest of the parable, the Lord gives us the criteria for determining who is a sheep and who is a goat. Why would the Lord do this unless He wants us to be able to tell the difference, i.e. judge and so separate, the one from the other?
We are warned of "false prophets", "false brethren", and even "false apostles". We have to be able to tell the difference between the real and the fake. The only way we can do this is by doing the very thing Aquila said the Lord said divides us.
Is it wrong that the "one faith" of Jesus Christ has become so fractured and damaged? Yes! It is wrong. Is it our fault that this is the case? Well, it's not His fault, is it?
But we can't just simply embrace everyone and everything that says it's of Christ, simply for the saying. We have to reject much that comes across our path. Remember the words of our Savior:
If any man say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or lo, there is Christ, believe him not!
We are commanded to reject out of hand many, many people, ideologies, doctrines, values, and beliefs. Ecumenicism is not from God.
So even though we often make a mess of things, and don't always do right, the fact that some are sincerely and genuinely trying their very best to be led by the Spirit to obey these cardinal teachings, even if it means division, is laudable to say the least.
There is a reason, after all, why Christ gave us gifts after He ascended to heaven. They are for the perfecting of the saints for the work of the ministry until we all come into the unity of the faith. The Lord knew (and knows) without these gifts, there is no true unity, which is to say, dis-unity is the starting point.
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