Why Are There Denominations?

WHY ARE THERE DENOMINATIONS?

Somewhere in a new Christian's walk, or even in a somewhat seasoned Christian's walk, they are going to invariably ask themselves this question.  But where do they go to get an honest answer?  I think the bible's New Testament has some impetus for why this is.  The drive to interpret the bible has given new meaning to what may have been the real meaning of the term false teacher; "But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.  And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of." (2 Pet. 2:1 - 2).  Who among us who believe in Jesus wants to be labeled a false teacher?  Certainly not me!  Yet Jesus' followers schismed through the ages into the many churches who claim to follow Christ today, and to the other denominations, they see them as less than followers of Him because they don't agree on certain aspects of faith in Jesus.  In this passage, Peter points out that a false teacher will deny that Jesus bought them, and true enough, there are churches out there that profess this, and when their followers ring your doorbell, feel free to tell them what Peter said of them!

Let us look at one more aspect of false teachers versus those who simply have a different interpretation of what areas of Scripture mean; "Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.  Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.  Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world." (1 John 4:1 - 4).  There are religions that claim He was only a prophet, but not God's Son, and there are churches that deny Jesus was anything at all.  There are those who say He was a guru of sorts, and others claim He was a reincarnation of Moses, which is a subtle way of denying His Godhood by equating Him with one less than God.  These are false churches led by false teachers, whose congregations also go about bearing false witness of heresies not sustainable against Scriptural doctrine.  I found one of these type of people on one of my routes, and I literally flogged her with Scripture when she tried to feed me heresy, and so badly was she whipped with correction I gave her from biblical correctness, that she begged me to quit using the bible for my information!  I answered, "Why?  It is where I find all truth!"

For the first 1,000 years after Christ's death, only one church developed that was truly Christian; the Catholic, or "universal" church.  A number of branches developed, but were all labeled heretics.  They didn't become "Christianly correct" until around the 16th century, and these new churches were considered "UnChristian".  In 1054 occurred an event labeled the "Great Schism", causing an Orthodox church to break away based on irreconcilable differences of opinion on interpretation of Scripture.  The Catholic church was of the west, and the Orthodox, of the east.

Then came the Protestant Reformation.  Martin Luther starred in this major division of Christianity, and it began with his 95 theses in 1517 and grew to an official movement in 1529.  German princes protested matters concerning God's honor, salvation, and the eternal life of their souls.  It is this point at which denominations commenced to be created, emphasizing the desire of groups of people to form congregations of the like-minded, causing not merely a break between the Protestants and Catholics, but also many schisms among the Protestants.

The Roman Catholic hierarchy insisted the Protestants would cause confusion of doctrine and corruption of Christian beliefs, and that someone needed to be in control of regulating it, while the Protestants declared that was exactly why they were leaving the Catholic church; because it had already corrupted the true faith!  They demanded believers be allowed to read it in English and for themselves, as it was previously only available in Latin, and live it according to how their conscience led them.  From there other denominations splintered off the Catholic church.  John Knox founded Presbyterianism in Scotland, and Calvinism was founded by John Calvin in Switzerland.  Switzerland was also the land where the Anabaptists were born, which splintered into the Baptists, Quakers, Amish, and Mennonites.  When Henry the VIII chopped off the authoritative hand of the Catholic Pope in England in 1534, the Anglican church was born, and in America, it was renamed Episcopal.  Wesleyan and Methodist churches uprooted themselves out of Anglicanism.

So why are there so many denominations?  Would it seem logical to you that if the truth were agreed upon by all, Satan's control would be greatly diminished?  "Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, 'Doth Job fear God for nought?  Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side?  Thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land.  But put forth Thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse Thee to Thy face.'  And the LORD said unto Satan, 'Behold, all that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand.'  So Satan went forth from the presence of the LORD." (Job 1:9 - 12)  Just as God gave Satan permission to work on Job, so the prince of the air is working on man, sifting everyone in various denominations.  Jesus NEVER named a denomination as His church.  Everyone is being sifted to see if they will follow heretical churches or be His church following all His commandments, rules, and statutes.

So here we have an explanation why denominations of Christianity exist.  Everyone interprets Scripture differently.  True Christian churches will differ over the concept of baptism, communion, and so many other things contained in Scripture, but their core beliefs are that Jesus is the Son of God, that He came and died for all sins, that He will come again, and that all who believe in Him will be forgiven all their sins.  All these churches also believe He will judge to eternal life and to eternal damnation, for all things are given from the Father into Jesus' hand.  "The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand." (John 3:35).

GOD Vs. MAN'S SCIENCE

GOD VS. MAN'S SCIENCE

Science is so far behind the bible, and who knows if it will catch up before Jesus comes again?  Science at this point has catalogued every creature and type of rock that it could find, but it has more creatures to discover that God has already made, and so many more bodies in the heavens to discover that it will never keep up with. Take the "Big Bang" theory.  Gen. 1:1 - 31 says God made everything in 6 days up to and including the earth, man, all the animals, and everything herbivorous in nature.  Only within the past 10 years have scientists finally agreed with the bible that "new evidence" has forced them to conclude that everything happened quite quickly, and even possibly fast enough to have happened in 6 days.

Continuing with the "Big Bang" theory, the bible states that the celestial bodies are innumerable, and science is still trying to test that.  "As the host of heaven cannot be numbered, neither the sand of the sea measured: so will I multiply the seed of David my servant, and the Levites that minister unto me." (Jer. 33:22)  Science hasn't even touched which came first, the earth or the sun, but God already stated it in His word; "And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: He made the stars also." (Gen. 1:16).  Since in Gen. 1:1 the earth was already made, the sun and moon came AFTER the earth!

From Genesis throughout all the lifespans of the patriarchs to now, it equates to about 10,000 years.  Loving science as much as I did as a child, I had a hard time believing that the earth wasn't 5.4 billion years old, but I finally came to the conclusion that as faulty as man and his science are, the carbon dating system is obviously flawed in order for the bible to be correct.  Since we believe that the bible and God are flawless, then man's system has to be wrong.  Additionally, the flood during Noah's age easily could account for the extinction of all land dinosaurs, but science has still not agreed with this.  "And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every man: All in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died." (Gen. 7:21 - 22)

Before the first magnifying glass or microscope were ever created, Paul stated in his letter to the Hebrews that; "Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear." (Heb. 11:3)  Think about it: he was talking about atoms!  We are all made of things unseen, yet we do appear to one another, do we not?  He accurately described something science did not prove until long after Paul's death!

Job was written before 1500 B.C., and yet, he knew the earth floated in space, unassisted, long before science conceived or proved it.  Job 26:7 has it, "He stretcheth out the north over the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing."  If Job already spoke this from wisdom given of God, how hard would it be for him to realize ALL celestial bodies hang upon nothing?  Job was not done with science, yet; he stated that not only the water, but the air, the wind, it too had weight.  Science once asserted that air was weightless, but what did Job assert, only to be proved by science much later?  "To make the weight for the winds; and he weigheth the waters by measure." (Job 28:25)

The bible affirmed the earth is round before 680 B.C., and science said it was flat for quite some time after Jesus' death.  Isa. 40:22 has it, "It is He that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in:".  How could it be that no scientist would agree with the bible until such time as it was finally proven by scientific methods so late after the bible said it was so?  Doubt!

David said it simply, but what he said was very profound!  "I will praise Thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are Thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well." (Psa. 139:14)  Did you know we are held together by microscopic crosses called laminin?  Look it up in your wikipedia.  Now that you've seen the picture of what laminin looks like, check out this Scripture; " Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: For by Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by Him, and for Him: And He is before all things, and by Him all things consist." (Col. 1:15 - 17)  While this is a little reaching with the crosses of laminin, David nevertheless hit the nail on the head!  We have a circulatory system that doctors aren't yet finished studying.  They've only recently found that blocked arteries are eventually replaced by new blood vessels when people survive strokes, and a century ago doctors could only dream of replacing unusable blood vessels with blood vessels from elsewhere.  Look what we're doing with eyes and ears, and we're now using robotics to replace body parts in ways superior to what we were submitted to centuries before.  God indeed said it in Scripture before science admitted it!

Were there scientists of God?  Look no further than Daniel the prophet!  "Children in whom was no blemish, but well favoured, and skilful in all wisdom, and cunning in knowledge, and understanding science, and such as had ability in them to stand in the king's palace, and whom they might teach the learning and the tongue of the Chaldeans." (Dan. 1:4)  Now understand, these were not men of the science of man, but of the science according to God!  And know too, that God is not pleased with man's version of science, for He has said so in Paul's letter to Timothy; "O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called: Which some professing have erred concerning the faith." (1 Tim. 6:20 - 21)

So what do we gather from all this?  God is obviously the author of science, not as man knows it, but as He wrote it!  The scientific order of all things is as He made them, not as man says it, and thank God for that!  We are wonderfully made, this planet we are on is conformed of perfect wisdom from God that we should be able to exist on it as well as we do, and our science can only prove God's science as correct, but God's science is beyond man's science.  Isaiah wrote; "Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure:" (Isa. 46:10). Let us give praise and glory to He who authored existence!