Why Denominations?
Nice flammable topic here, but it really bothers me to see all the “flavors” of Christianity we have, and people who are dead certain that those on the opposite side are all wrong, but they have it right. If you research doctrines much (particularly on the internet), you’ll find that a lot of the time we have “liberal” Christians pointing fingers at the “conservative” Christians, and vice versa. You refuse to acknowledge tongues so you must be wrong. You abuse the “gifts of the Spirit” so you must be wrong. The problem is that everybody is wrong, so we should be pointing fingers at everybody.
Seriously though, why do we have such a wide spectrum of beliefs in which others would have to be considered heretics, when we’re supposed to be one body? If we look at the Biblical history a little bit, we see that everything started with the Christians all in one accord; they had a oneness that we don’t see very much of today.
“And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.” Acts 2:1 KJV
“31: And when they had prayed,
the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all
filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness.
32: And the multitude of them that believed were
of one heart and of one soul: neither said any of them that ought of the things
which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common.
33: And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection
of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them all.” Acts 4:31-33 KJV
How much unity do we have today? While I haven’t been to that many churches in my life, I see a lot more disunity than I like. Now it is true that people are people, we have our faults and it’s pretty hard to have oneness all the time. On the other hand, it seems pretty easy to have fighting all the time.
So where do the denominations come from? My opinion, for I have not researched it heavily, is that someone sees something they don’t like (we’ll say gift abuse), and they go winging off in the opposite direction. They find people who have been hurt by the abuse and together they have the antidote: We just won’t have it at all. No one can get hurt and we’ll know that we aren’t being unbiblical about the use of the gifts.
Yet we still have serious division from this, just with sides that won’t admit that the others have some of it right and they themselves have some of it wrong. If they’d stay together and work together to get things done properly, we wouldn’t have the division at all.
We see early signs of this kind of division in the Corinthian church, and Paul is pretty hard on them for it. I’ve seen it right in the first few chapters of the first letter, and later on in chapter 11.
“10: Now I beseech you,
brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye
be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.
11: For it hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them which
are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you.
12: Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ.
13: Is Christ divided? was Paul crucified for
you? or were ye baptized in the name of Paul?” First
Corinthians 1:10-13 KJV
Who’s your favorite preacher? They were arguing about this very topic, and really when you think about it, it’s quite pointless. Paul, Apollos, and Peter were all working for Christ, they had the same Master. Granted we can’t say that all follow Christ today, for surely there are fakes, and as Jude so scarily tells us, ungodly men had crept into the church even back then.
“17: Now in this that I declare
unto you I praise you not, that ye come together not for the better, but for
the worse.
18: For first of all, when ye come together in the church, I hear that
there be divisions among you; and I partly believe it.
19: For there must be also heresies among you, that
they which are approved may be made manifest among you.
20: When ye come together therefore into one place, this is not to eat
the Lord's supper.
21: For in eating every one taketh before other his own supper: and one
is hungry, and another is drunken.
22: What? have ye not houses to eat and to
drink in? or despise ye the
He seems to be specifically targeting communion division here, and that would seem like a rather small thing compared to the “big” issues over doctrine and who’s really saved and on and on. Paul is going after “little” stuff and telling them to be unified, let alone the “big” things.
How big a deal is division? I’m still a bit on the uneasy side since I saw it listed as a work of the flesh in Galatians 5 a couple weeks ago:
“19: Now the works of the flesh
are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness,
lasciviousness,
20: Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife,
seditions, heresies,
21: Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the
which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which
do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.” Galatians 5:19-21 KJV
The key word is “seditions” here, which is Strong’s #1370 in the Greek. The definition includes words like “disunion”, “dissention”, and “division”, and it’s a fairly short definition.
I don’t like reading things like that, do you? Whatever happened to the one body? Yeah, sometimes we say things like “We’re all one”, but we don’t walk it out by resolving the differences and bringing the doctrine in line with the wholeness of the Bible.
You Can Get What You
Want
And that is the problem with Itching Ear Syndrome. If you want to hear a particular thing, it’s not too hard to find it. You can find someone who will cater to a favorite doctrine without needing to travel a long way, at least usually.
You want to hear security? Cake. You want to hear pre-trib? No problem. You don’t want the blood of Jesus? We can do that. You want a works salvation? Readily available. You want Satan to be ignored? Who was that you were talking about? You want to blame demons for everything you do wrong rather than have responsibility? Maybe a bit harder to find, but someone will do it. You want rampant tongues and prophesy? Come on in! You want to pray to dead people? You might not get an answer, but you can try. You want prosperity? Make a pledge to support me financially and it will come back a hundred-fold. Well, I’ll be prospering anyway. Hmm, that one’s tempting; I can see why people do it.
Some of them are extreme examples, yet all of them are out there and plenty more, just usually a little more subtle. Pretty much whatever your heart desires you can find under the heading of “Christian”.
Choosing a denomination is often nothing more than choosing which part of the Bible you wish to ignore and finding someone who will help you to do it.
Yes, that is your cue to say “Shut up, Ken.”
The End Time System
I’ll admit I’m an end times junkie, because we’re living in them. But if we have such a wide spectrum of destructive doctrine, it’s pretty hard for us to justify God rapturing us away from this whole situation. Instead the systems will get more and more corrupt as true Christianity becomes harder to maintain. There’s a scary passage in John, which while technically aimed at the disciples is something I think we should keep in mind:
“These things have I spoken unto you, that ye should not be offended. They shall put you out of the synagogues:
yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will
think that he doeth God service. And these things will they do unto you,
because they have not known the Father, nor me. But these things have I told
you, that when the time shall come, ye may remember that I told you of them.
And these things I said not unto you at the beginning, because I was with you.” John 16:1-4 KJV
The
walls are slowly closing in on us. I
received an e-mail today about a bill that has been introduced to
Congress. If passed it will be a hate
crime to (particularly from the pulpit) call certain things what they are: sin. Sexual orientation is of course the big deal
in this. Well my Bibles, all of them,
tell me that homosexuality will keep you out of Heaven, just like adultery and
fornication and some other things. You
have the right to practice them, I can’t stop you. But you have the right to go to Hell for them. That, my friends, is real freedom, when God
gives you the right to go to Hell.
Are
you willing to go to jail for your faith, or even die? The day could come quicker than you think,
and you should consider it an honor.
Denominations will continue to cave in to the pressure of the people and
government, but saints will continue to stand for truth and righteousness. Seek truth and you will find it. The answers are in the Bible, not a man-made belief
system.