I’m not certain how many denominations there are in the church. Some would say there are over 38,000 of them. Isn’t that unreal? It’s amazing to me!
Not God’s Will:
It certainly isn’t God’s will that there be division in the church. Philippians 2:5 and 1 Corinthians 1:12-13 make that very clear. Here’s the text for those verses:
Philippians 2:5 “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus”.
1 Corinthians 1:12-13 “12Now 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. 13Is Christ divided? was Paul crucified for you? or were ye baptized in the name of Paul?”
Why We Are Divided
Reason 1: Pastors – I am not discounting the value of a good pastor, but since when did pastors become Know-It-Alls regarding all subjects in scripture? Is it just me, or doesn’t it seem odd to you that pastors have the answer for any question you could possibly conjure up? And yet, the church is split into thousands of denominations. How can that be? If they all have the correct answers, then how is it that the answers are all different from each other? Obviously, they don’t have as many answers as they think they do. Furthermore, they lack the humility that’s needed for setting aside personal bias and approaching their beliefs with an open heart toward God.
Reason 2: The Church Elders – What’s a pastor to do? Let’s say there was a huge division in the church of the Starbelly Sneetches. (Yes, we are talking Dr. Seuss now.) The Starbelly Sneetches that had Stars on their bellys wouldn’t associate with the Sneetches that had none upon thars. So that created the first division in their church. (Of course, the Starbelly Sneetches with stars upon thars had a beautiful cathedral which they named “FIRST Starbelly Church”)
Then came that fateful day when the Star-On machine rolled into town. As you know, most of the Starbelly Sneetches with no stars on their bellys ran to the machine to get big stars. However, some went to the church to ask if it were moral to change themselves in this way. This created yet another split. The ”Second But Just As Good As First Starbelly Church” suffered a split over stars which created “Third Starbelly Church” which said it was immoral to get new stars and all of the members had none upon thars.
With time, the pastor of ”Second But Just As Good As First Starbelly Church” saw the vanity and the utter chaos within his church and he studied the scriptures with an open heart. He learned that it was best for Starbellys with no stars on their bellys to be content with how God had made them. He courageously preached the truth with great conviction to his congregation which had brand new stars on their bellys. “It was wrong for us to go thru the Star-On machine! And this is what God says in scripture…”
Now, what do you think the elders of “Second But Just As Good As First Starbelly Church” did to that pastor? Well, they nearly lynched him for betraying his congregation. He was removed from the pulpit and was told to go find a congregation in the “Third Starbelly Church” if he wanted to preach such “heresy”.
Pastors may preach the heresies of their denominations, but elders make certain that it stays that way.
Reason 3: US! – Yes, WE share the blame for the divisions in the church. You might be thinking “I had nothing to do with it! This all happened LONG before my time!” That’s true too, but we share the blame for the church REMAINING divided. Afterall, don’t most Christians find churches that agree with their own personal bias? Doesn’t it feel good to them to sit in a pew and nod in approval to their pastor’s message? There is no iron sharpening iron. (well, not nearly as much as there should be.)
We must study scripture. Pray and then study. We must read as much as we can and study, study, study. Pray, pray, pray! Why? We must because the unity of the body of Christ depends on it! Think about it. There is only one set of beliefs which are absolutely, positively, unequivocally true. What I’m speaking of is the mind of Christ. If we all share His mind, then we cannot be divided. We share His mind when we read His Word. There it is.
Does That Mean I Must Be A Know-It-All???
No. You don’t need to be a know-it-all. Neither do the pastors, for that matter. Some Christians would like to impress you with their knowledge of ancient Greek or Hebrew. Some of the very most educated would REALLY like to impress you with a bit of knowledge regarding the Aramaic language! However, you don’t need to know everything if you want to have the same mind which is in Christ Jesus.
We can divide all spiritual knowledge into 2 categories. First, there are the things God wants us to know about. He wants us to know everything there is to know about our Salvation and how He wants us to live. Second, there are things that really don’t matter. If you are a child of God, you will spend eternity with Him regardless of your knowledge of escatology, angelology, thanatology, and countless other -ology’s!
You can know everything God wants you to understand. If you still don’t know how, then please come back and visit as we will be picking up that study in the next posts. If the church would focus on these things, there would be unity in the body of Christ.
Unfortunately, the church is divided over many -ology’s.
My family needs my attention. Lord willing, we’ll pick this up again in the very near future. I’m once again online and active on this blog. I look forward to conversing with you. Let’s have a great study together as brothers and sisters in Christ!
God bless you as you walk in His path.
