Separation and secession are inseparable, and Scripture shows God as the One who either orders or permits them. Sin began the pattern: Adam and Eve seceded from God's government by disobeying, Cain separated himself from Abel through violence, and at Babel God confused the languages and scattered a defiant humanity so that people would not destroy themselves. Man's boundaries and nations eventually fail, while God sets the permanent ones. He separated Abraham's descendants to be His covenant people, divided Israel into twelve tribes that will remain distinct in the Millennium, and allowed the kingdom to split after Solomon's sin. Judah prospered when it stayed apart from idolatrous Israel and suffered when it became entangled with it. Scripture does not forbid states from seceding for the right reasons, but that is a worldly decision, and members of God's church must not take part in worldly secession movements or politics. Their separation is spiritual: they have come out of the world, as Noah did and as Israel did under Nehemiah, and their citizenship is in heaven. Revelation 18:4 calls them to come out of Babylon so they neither share her sins nor her plagues. Human authority is limited, so when government commands what God forbids, they must obey God rather than men, even to imprisonment or death, rather than resist through violent secession. Sin also separates people from God, as Isaiah 59 teaches. They must prepare by watching and praying to be counted worthy to escape coming judgment. In the Millennium, God will separate the nations one last time, and lasting peace and unity will remove any need for secession.

Separation, division, and contention are Satan's foundational method. He wedges himself between people and between humanity and God, as he did first between Adam and Eve and then between them and God, after which Adam blamed Eve and ultimately God. The world keeps dividing, being segregated and partitioned until no stone is left on another (Matthew 24:2), and this trend will continue to the end amid the conflicts Jesus foretells in Matthew 24:4-12. There is also a godly separation: sanctification means being separated out and made different from the world, and God is creating something new in His people. Yet this calling cannot be carried out alone. Isolated believers grow dull, weary, and sloppy, sink back into old habits, and blend in with the world. They blame others, hold grudges, and listen to the voice that whispers, "Just walk away." Anyone who feels on the outside looking in must ask whether he is isolating himself and whether he, rather than his brethren, is the problem. Fellowship must be real, like iron sharpening iron (Proverbs 27:17), with some friction and discomfort, not mere pleasantries. Valuing personal comfort over fellowship fails the Second Great Commandment. If Satan can drive a wedge and limit fellowship, he prevents believers from sharpening one another. Standing alone leaves a person vulnerable, while banding together in loving fellowship, in imitation of the Father and the Son, brings strength: "Two are better than one... a threefold cord is not quickly broken" (Ecclesiastes 4:9-12).

Sin is what separates. Adam and Eve's sin in submitting to Satan divided humanity from the one God Family, and because all have sinned, everyone is separated from God and from one another. The "middle wall of partition" between Jew and Gentile is not the law but sin, which put people at war with God. Jesus Christ bridges that gap by His blood, reconciling both in one body and giving access to the Father through the Holy Spirit, so that those once far off are made near. God's purpose is to gather all things in one, with the church as the beginning of a project that will unite every person who makes it into His Kingdom. Separation also occurs within the church. Changed doctrines altered beliefs, and people of like belief flocked together, splitting the Worldwide Church of God. Laodiceanism and worldliness weakened the family unity as people left their first love. Yet the Body of Christ is not divided, because the Spirit of the undivided Father and Son is one. Scattered corporately, believers remain united in the Spirit, as weak and strong cells in the same Body. God uses the scattering for good, to turn attention from men and organizations to Himself. The remedy is for each person to return to the first works, the doctrines and a life worthy of the calling, and to stay close to God.