God said, "Let them be one." Man said, "Let us divide." By the very term, "denomination," we admit that we are dividing, or fracturing, the church that He meant to be unified. Let's look at a few verses that give us instruction about this subject.
When Jesus was preparing to leave this earth and leave His disciples to carry on without Him, He prayed in John 17 saying, "I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one...", (vs 20). In Ephesians 4, it says, "...endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all who is above all, and through all, and in you all."
I Corinthians chapter 1 is interesting on this subject. Paul says in verse 10, "Now I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. For it has been declared to me.....that there are contentions among you. Now I say this, that each of you says, 'I am of Paul,' or 'I am of Cephas,' or 'I am of Christ." 'Is Christ divided?" It is obvious that the teaching of the Bible is that we are to be unified, just "Christians," and that this whole concept of denominations is not what God wanted for His people. We are not to be Paul Christians, or Peter Christians, but we are to be simply Christians.
I will grant you that it is difficult to solve this problem now that we have formed all of these different churches. But our goal needs to be for unity. We need to be part of a group that is not a "denomination" but rather simply "Christians." This is just basic New Testament teaching.
Thank you for sticking with me here. Have an excellent and blessed week!
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I need some help with this week's lesson -- as what you are trying to convey to us. I've always thought that what unity (as discussed in the New Testament with battles in the early Church) was primarily addressing theology issues like with the Gnostics.
ReplyDeleteObviously disagreement in the Church can be a good thing -- as shown by Reformers like Martin Luther about 400 years ago.
I'm not aware of any "major" theology difference in Protestant denominations. Is this what you are talking to us about (say with Catholics and Mormans)?
Disagreements have always existed and always will exist as to individual opinions of Christians in how we act -- say on things like politics.
For example, I was raised in the Pentecostal Church (which I really disliked). There were just so many one-sided and non-objective views preached. I remember how Paul's teaching that "Wives should obey their husbands" was manipulated. The very next verse by Paul says that "husbands should love their wife as Christ loves his Church" -- which was never brought up.
I always thought that as to responsibilty -- Wow! being a wife was a whole lot easier than being a husband based on these two passages.
Steve