Recently many world evangelical leaders to include even the Pope have decried the division of the church as the darkest black sin that the church has ever perpetuated. The Bible plainly states in John 17:21: I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one – as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me.
So why did the church split into so many factions? The early believers did not even have church buildings to meet in. They met mostly in homes. The first church buildings did not start to appear until the early 200s and they did not initially have denominations as we think of them today. That is not to say that they had no serious disagreements within the ranks. They did, but they weren’t surprised or perplexed by it. They correctly felt they were dealing with matters of ultimate truth and error – matters to be taken with the utmost seriousness even when it meant dissension.
I’ve read the Bible including every translation so many times that I don’t even remember how many, and have studied it nearly every day for over four decades now, but I do not consider myself to be an expert on it and every day it seems I read something in a passage that I’ve read countless times before, but God opens up an entirely new meaning for it to me. That is because the Bible is “living” and God opens more of it to us each time we search it for meaning and as we mature and surrender more of our lives to Him.
So we could say that diversity is Divine when it comes to developing varying interpretations of Scripture. While diversity is Divine I believe (as Anglican Bishop Tony Palmer did) that division is diabolical. Satan wants to divide; God wants us to be united. There is a big difference. We don’t need uniformity, but we desperately need unity.
So by now I’m sure that those of you that are still with me want an example? Okay let’s take baptism as an example. It is practiced different ways by different denominations. A common joke is that those sprinkling Methodists could baptize the entire county with a glass of water while the Baptists need a reservoir to dunk their converts in. Some sprinkle and some dunk. Catholics sprinkle infants.
So what does God want us to do? The passage describing the first recorded baptism is clear. The Bible states that Jesus was not an infant when He was baptized and He was not sprinkled. He waded out into the Jordan River and John the Baptist baptized Him. The passage states that after He was baptized Jesus “emerged” from the water which indicates to me that in order to emerge one must first go underwater. So why do some denominations baptize with sprinkling? And why would they baptize infants? Why not just follow the example Jesus set for us?
I dunno . . .
The Christian writer Hippolytus wrote in 200 A.D. that baptism at Rome meant that candidates took off their clothing, were baptized three times after renouncing Satan and affirming the basic teachings of the faith, and then they put on new clothes. Next they joined the rest of the church in the Lord’s Supper. Baptism was not entered into lightly. First one went through an extensive period of preparation as a “catechumen.” This lasted as long as three years, involving close scrutiny of the catechumen’s behavior. The church would only admit those who proved to be sincere in seeking a totally new life within the Christian community.
Okay, so where did that ritual come from? It’s not in my Bible. By whose authority was that process ordained? Was it at God’s direction? While it may sound like a pretty good idea to some including me, as far as I can tell it was manmade. I don’t want to follow man; I want to follow God.
So the moral of this story seems to me that when choosing one of the 63,000 denominations, (if that’s the route you desire), just make sure that what they espouse is biblical.
And yes that means that EVERYONE needs to read the Bible themselves. God will open it to anyone’s understanding. I would start in the New Testament, perhaps with the Gospel of John or maybe Romans. When finished I would read the entire New Testament and then the Old. It will begin a lifelong passion for reading God’s word. You will seek God’s word just like that deer panting for water, the one in fact that I’m going to pursue shortly when I go hunting. (I just can’t seem to get enough of either of them.)
So for those of you interested in how I stand on this subject: I consider myself to be non-denominational. I believe Jesus to be the only Son of God and that justification only comes through faith and grace (what Jesus did on the cross with the shedding of His precious blood and His broken body) and not by works, (though we are all called to do good works). I also believe the Bible to be the inerrant Holy inspired word of God and that every statement in it is true and it is the source of all truth and the foundation upon which we should build our lives.
My Bible tells me that since I surrendered my life to Jesus Christ I am automatically enrolled as a member in good standing in God’s church. The church is described in the Bible as the “Bride of Christ” with Jesus at its head. It is described as one unified body comprised of many parts with different gifts designed by God to achieve His purpose.
That is entirely sufficient for me as to what I need in the way of church/denomination membership. I gather together with others at our Honey Lake Church building every Sunday to worship God and fellowship and learn with other believers; however I do not feel the need to join a denomination or affiliate with one, and at Honey Lake we don’t even have formal memberships per se. My Bible study reveals to me that Jesus didn’t recommend a denomination or belong to one and my goal is to follow him and try to emulate him as best I know how.
That is not to say that I think belonging to a particular denomination is wrong. Since becoming a Christian I have attended many different churches which were affiliated with many different denominations. I should warn that I have found vast inconsistencies within the same denomination. I’ve attended Southern Baptist Churches that were absolutely glorious that preached the Gospel exactly as the Bible declares, and I’ve attended Southern Baptist churches that were apostate due to their particular pastor’s perverted twisting of God’s word. The same is true with Methodists, Anglicans, and others. The best test is to know what the Bible says yourself and test that knowledge against what is being preached, (to include this column).
1 Thess. 5:21
. . . but test everything that is said. Hold on to what is good.
November 6, 2014 – Click here to listen