Because of our sinful nature, the earthly church cannot be united until Christ returns?

"Because of our sinful nature, the earthly church cannot be united until Christ returns." 

The above statement reflects a common assumption, but we challenge this as a misreading of New Testament theology and its implications for the present church.

The New Testament never uses future hope as reassurance regarding human failure, nor does eschatological expectation weaken present ethical calling or leave room for defeatism.[1] This is crucial: the call to unity and concord resounds in the Church’s present, and the earnestness of this call entirely excludes every eschatological “alibi.”[1] In other words, Christians cannot defer the work of unity to Christ’s return. Rather than consoling the church with what will one day be reality, Paul calls to mind what has already happened and been given, pointing reflection on unity not to the future but to the past.[1]

The theological framework here is “inaugurated eschatology”—the conviction that God’s decisive eschatological act has already taken place in Christ, though the consummation remains future, creating both an “already” of accomplished fulfillment and a “not yet” of outstanding promise.[2] This places unity within the tension of promise and fulfillment, where the Church participates in Christ’s fullness but still aspires to realize it more completely.[3]

Importantly, this progressive fulfillment should not be understood primarily in structural terms, but in personal, relational, and spiritual terms—as koinonia (communion)—deepened through participation in God’s life and love through grace.[3] While all ecclesial structures are provisional and imperfect, standing under eschatological judgment, no church structure can be identified with the eschaton’s perfection.[3]

The distinction matters: fallen nature prevents perfect structural unity now, but it doesn’t eliminate the present calling toward spiritual unity rooted in Christ’s accomplished work.

[1] G. C. Berkouwer, The Church, Studies in Dogmatics (Grand Rapids, MI: W. B. Eerdmans Pub. Co., 1976), 36.
[2] R. J. Bauckham, “Eschatology,” in New Bible Dictionary, ed. D. R. W. Wood et al. (Leicester, England; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1996), 334.
[3] Paul Avis, Reshaping Ecumenical Theology: The Church Made Whole? (London; New York: T&T Clark, 2010), 43–44.