http://apologeticspress.org/APContent.aspx?category=11&article=1199
Is Denominationalism Scriptural?
What is a “denomination”? Does God approve of denominations? These are
extremely significant and critical questions. They deserve answers from
the Word of God.
When we go to the New Testament and examine God’s Word with a view
toward ascertaining what His will is with regard to religion, we find
that there is a clearly defined system of religion—
God’s
religion—in the New Testament. It is the religion of Christ that has
come to be called Christianity. We also find that Satan does everything
he can to blur the distinctions that God wants observed. We should not
be surprised at that. Think about the great hoaxes that have been
perpetrated upon mankind. For instance, the doctrine of evolution is
almost universally believed by the scientific elite of many societies.
So it is with many political, philosophical, and religious systems of
thought like Communism, Buddhism, and Hinduism. Those who have examined
the evidence—objective truth—on these matters know that those systems of
thought simply are not true. Yet large numbers of people adhere to
them. Large numbers of people believe the tenets of those systems.
In 2 Corinthians 2:11, Paul spoke about the fact that Satan endeavors
to take advantage of people. He said that we should not let Satan take
advantage of us, “for we are not ignorant of his devices.” The word
“devices” could easily have been translated “schemes.” We must be aware
of the fact that Satan uses deceitful, deceptive ploys in an effort to
trick people to get them to believe and practice various things that
simply are not true. In a similar statement, Paul used the phrase “wiles
of the devil” (Ephesians 6:11). Most people are oblivious to this fact.
Many people do not even believe that Satan exists—anymore than they
believe that God exists. Yet if the New Testament is true, it is clear
there is a Satan, and he will do all he can to fool, trick, and deceive
people. He wants to blur distinctions that God wants
observed—distinctions that are scriptural and biblical.
It is clear that this is the case with
denominationalism. Consider the following dictionary definitions (
American,
2000, p. 485). The term “denominate” means “to give a name to;
designate.” “Denomination” is “[a] large group of religious
congregations united under a common faith and name and organized under a
single administrative and legal hierarchy; a name or designation,
especially for a class or group.” “Denominator” refers to “[t]he
expression written below the line in a common fraction that indicates
the number of parts into which one whole is divided.”
“Denominationalism” is “[t]he tendency to separate into religious
denominations; sectarianism.” Think about these meanings for just a
moment. The very word “denomination” means a named or designated
division. Denominationalism occurs when religious people and groups
divide and segregate themselves on the basis of different designations
or church affiliations and different doctrines.
Have you gone to the New Testament and read Jesus’ prayer for unity in John chapter 17? There He prayed
against
religious division, and prayed to God that believers in Christ would be
unified! Paul made the same point to the church of Christ in Corinth:
“I beseech you brothers by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that you
all speak the same thing and that there be no divisions among you” (1
Corinthians 1:10). Here is a passage that says denominations are not
even to exist! “Let there be no divisions among you.” If a denomination
is a “designated division,” then denominationalism is clearly
unscriptural! It is against the will of Christ. The passage continues,
“but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the
same judgment.”
I assure you, I have nothing against any particular religious group. I
have no biases or prejudices against any one church or denomination. But
we must go to Scripture and be objective in our appraisal of New
Testament truth. It is clear when we go to the Bible that
denominationalism, though viewed innocently by millions of people
worldwide, is an approach to religion that is out of harmony with New
Testament teaching.
God does not want denominations to exist. He
wants all of us to understand His will in the New Testament, and then to
bring our lives into conformity and our spirits into submission to that
will.
DENOMINATIONALISM VERSUS
NEW TESTAMENT CHRISTIANITY
Denominationalism conflicts with New Testament teaching on a variety of
subjects. Consider New Testament teaching on the subject of the one
church. Passages like Isaiah 2:1-5 and Daniel 2:44 predicted that one
day God would set up a kingdom, a church, a house—what Isaiah called the
“Lord’s house.” In Matthew 3:2, John the baptizer preached that people
should repent and get ready because the kingdom of heaven was at hand.
In Matthew 16:18, Jesus said, “Upon this rock I will build my church.”
In Mark 9:1, He said, “[T]here are some standing here who will not taste
of death till they see the kingdom of God come with power.” These
passages speak of the same institution. In Acts 2, we find the actual
establishment of Christ’s church on Earth. Jesus Christ Himself built
His church in the city of Jerusalem in approximately A.D. 30 on the day
of Pentecost. Its inception is described in Acts 2.
In Colossians 1:13, Paul spoke of Christians as those who had been
removed by God from darkness and translated into the kingdom of His dear
Son. In Ephesians 1:22-23, the body of Christ is referred to as the
church, and later we are told that there is only one (4:4). Those two
passages alone should cause us to recognize that the existence of
denominations is out of harmony with God’s will. Ephesians 4:4 says
there is one body. That body is the church of our Lord. He established
it; He built it; He purchased it with His own blood (Acts 20: 28). If
there is only one church, God is not pleased with the division, the
named designations, of competing churches with various names, doctrines,
and practices. In 1 Timothy 3:15, Paul wrote to Timothy that he might
know how to conduct himself in the house of God, which is the church of
the living God. Most people just do not realize that New Testament truth
is that simple, that plain, and that uncomplicated. The
denominationalism that has gripped western civilization is so entrenched
and so entangled in the minds of people that they seem to be unable to
detach themselves from it, and to go back to the New Testament to get a
clear conception of the New Testament church. They seem unable or
unwilling to embrace pure New Testament teaching and to repudiate all
denominationalism.
Another concept that we find clearly depicted on the pages of the New
Testament is the idea of scriptural names, that is, names for both the
church itself and names for individual members of that church. In Romans
16:16 we find the expression “churches of Christ.” In 1 Corinthians
1:2, we have a reference to “the church of God.” In 1 Corinthians 3:16,
we find “the temple of God.” And in Ephesians 4:12, we have the phrase
“the body of Christ.”
These expressions are not intended to be technical nor formal names for
the church. They are descriptions. They are labels that describe
Christ’s church. Additional ones may be found as well. Most of the time
in the New Testament, Christ’s church is just referred to as “the
church.” But here is the point: Most of the names that people are giving
to their churches today are not in the New Testament. They therefore
are formulating names and founding churches that cannot be found in the
New Testament. That’s denominationalism!
The same thing is true with regard to the names that God wants
individual Christians to wear. In Isaiah 62:2, the prophet foretold that
God with His own mouth would give a name to His people. We find the
fulfillment of that prophecy in Acts 11:26.
The name that God
wants individual members of His church to wear is the name “Christian.”
In Romans 1:7, we find the term “saints,” and in Acts 5:14, we find the
term “believer.” In other passages we find the word “disciple” and
family names like “brother” and the “family of God.” The names that
denominations and their members wear are conspicuously absent from the
New Testament.
New Testament truth on the matter of names is simple. How contrary to
that New Testament pattern are the churches and the individuals who have
taken the names of men and applied them to themselves and their
churches. Some churches designate themselves by a particular practice or
doctrine. I urge you to study your New Testament and realize that God
is not pleased with manmade names. He will not sanction or extend His
grace to groups and individuals who have chosen to stray from His will
and His pattern for religion. Those who formulate for themselves their
own religions, their own churches, and their own names, will be rejected
by God. The Bible records that down through the annals of human
history, God has never tolerated human invention in religion.
The same is true with regard to worship. The New Testament contains
specific instruction concerning how God wants to be worshipped. Yet in
the denominational world, all sorts of worship practice may be found.
For instance, in the New Testament, Christians met for worship on the
first day of the week—Sunday. Acts of worship took place on other
days—for example, New Testament Christians could and did pray anytime,
anywhere. But Sunday is pinpointed in New Testament Christianity as the
special day on which Christians gather together to worship God (Acts
20:7). Christians are required by God to attend worship assemblies. Yet
many people in our day never attend worship services, and apparently
think, “Hey, I can be a Christian at home and worship God in my own way;
nothing says that I have to go to church to worship with other
Christians.” Most people have not read their New Testaments. The Bible
teaches the necessity of assembling in Hebrews 10:25. Jesus said, “Seek
first the kingdom of God” (Matthew 6:33). He was referring to the
church. So if I am going to put the church first and seek it first in my
life, obviously I am going to assemble with the church—fellow
Christians—for worship on Sunday.
A further contrast between denominationalism and the New Testament
church pertains to what Jesus would have us to do in the realm of music
in the church. In Ephesians 5:19, Paul wrote: “[S]peaking to one another
in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.” New Testament instructions
for musical worship are that simple and unencumbered. There is no
authority in the New Testament for playing musical instruments in
worship to God. There is no authority in the New Testament for
performance groups like choirs and praise teams. The music in the New
Testament is very clearly
congregational,
vocal singing. It’s that simple.
We also find that communion, the Lord’s Supper, was served in the New
Testament to Christians on the first day of the week. Acts 2:46 and
20:7, and 1 Corinthians 11:20-34 and 16:1-3 inform us that the Lord’s
Supper in the New Testament church was observed
every first day of the week.
All Christians partook of both the fruit of the vine and the bread. In
addition, every first day of the week Christians are to contribute a
percentage of their income to a general treasury so that the church may
carry on its work. Acts 2:42 speaks of the importance of continuing in
prayer. Praying is a part of Christian worship. The same verse speaks of
continuing in the apostles’ doctrine, i.e., the teaching, preaching,
and examining doctrinal truth. These five acts of worship are part and
parcel of public worship assemblies—no more and no less.
Yet churches all over the land are not patterned after the one church
of the Bible. They have unscriptural names for their church and for
their individual members. Their worship services engage in many
practices that are not taught in the New Testament. Their activities are
mere inventions and doctrines of men (Matthew 15:9). Do we want to be
exactly what Jesus wants us to be according to the New Testament?
The same is true with God’s plan of salvation. What does the New
Testament teach with reference to how one becomes a Christian? So much
diversity and widespread misconception exists. Most religious groups
teach salvation is solely by faith, without any further acts of
obedience. They say that all you have to do is “accept Jesus as your
savior,” which means orally saying, “I believe in Jesus Christ, I accept
him into my heart as my personal savior.” Denominationalism teaches
that
at that moment the person is forgiven of sin and he becomes a Christian. The New Testament does teach that a non-Christian must
believe (Mark 16:16)—but that is not all. He or she also must
repent of sins (Luke 13:3; Acts 2:38),
confess Christ with the mouth (Romans 10:10), and then be
immersed in water with the understanding
that
the blood of Jesus washes away sin at the point of water baptism. Acts
22:16 indicates that it was at the moment that Saul was immersed in
water that his sins were washed away (cf. Galatians 3:27; 1 Peter 3:21).
Most people in the religious world believe that a person is forgiven of
sins
before they are immersed. But, once again, that is a departure from New Testament teaching.
The New Testament is equally explicit on the subject of Christian
living. It is frightening that American civilization as we have known it
is deteriorating and moving away from the fundamental behaviors that
were common to our way of life from our inception as a nation. But it is
happening. Many people are showing the same lack of knowledge and
disrespect for God’s instructions in this area as they are in the other
areas we have noted. Our society is getting farther away from the Bible.
Many do not even believe the Bible to be a supernatural, inspired
(i.e., God-breathed) book. They think it is just a collection of Jewish
myths, a bunch of fairy tales, and the writings of mere men.
We have reason for alarm. Any civilization that does not structure
itself around the mind of God as revealed on the pages of the Bible,
cannot last for long. Look back over the centuries of human history and
you will see this truth. Every nation that rejected God and His
principles for living, eventually deteriorated from the inside out and
fell to pieces, crumbling into the dust of human history. American
civilization is rushing headlong down that same course. So what does the
Bible teach concerning Christian living and Christian morality?
For example, regarding marriage, Genesis 2:24 and Matthew 19:9 are
sufficient to demonstrate how far our society has deviated from God’s
will. Those verses show that God’s will is that one man (never married
before) marry one woman (never married before) and that those two
individuals remain married for the rest of their lives. Only death
should separate them. And only one exception is given to that rule. If
one of those mates is sexually unfaithful, God permits the other mate,
the innocent partner, to divorce the guilty mate
for fornication,
i.e., for sexual unfaithfulness, and to marry an eligible partner. The
New Testament is that clear and that simple. Yet our society as a whole
is so far from that simple teaching that it is frightening to consider
whether we could ever recover our spiritual and moral senses.
What about the use of alcohol? People all over our society consume
alcoholic beverages in restaurants, in homes, on airplanes, and at ball
games. You cannot go to a football game without people freely drinking
alcoholic beverages without giving it a second thought. They appear
oblivious and unconcerned about the fact that the Bible speaks
definitively and decisively against consuming intoxicating beverages
(e.g., Proverbs 23:29-35). If you are honest and love God and desire to
follow His will, you will examine what the Bible teaches on this matter.
What else is occurring in our society? People use foul language and
take God’s name in vain. How often do we hear people say, “O my God”?
The expression has saturated our society. But the Bible condemns the
vain use of God’s name (Exodus 20:7; Ephesians 4:29). It is sin, and it
offends God. Likewise, the practice of lying and deceiving is
commonplace, though God hates such acts (Proverbs 6:17; Ephesians 4:25).
What about gambling? The lottery has been legalized in most states,
along with horse racing and other forms of gambling. Large numbers of
people flock to these activities as if they are perfectly acceptable and
moral. My friend, I don’t mean to offend you in any way, but I am
telling you that the Bible speaks decisively and clearly against these
practices. They are immoral, they are unchristian, and they are ungodly
(Matthew 7:12; Ephesians 4:28; 5:3; 2 Thessalonians 3:10; 1 Timothy
6:9-10).
Our society says, “People ought to be free to believe what they want.
Don’t be judgmental. You don’t have any right to say they are wrong.”
But such propaganda is wrong.
God has a right. He is the Creator,
and He said in His Word that we must know His truth, and we must be
right about that truth, and we must obey that truth (Hebrews 5:9). Jesus
said, “If you love Me, keep My commandments” (John 14:15). He also
said, “[Y]ou shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free”
(John 8:32). Paul spoke about the time when people would not want to
hear healthy teaching (2 Timothy 4:3). They would reject it. But God
wants all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth (1
Timothy 2:4).
The New Testament teaches that we must stay with
God’s words. We are not free to deviate, or to believe and practice whatever
we
choose. We must not do it (2 John 9; 1 Corinthians 4:6; Galatians 1:8).
In the final analysis, denominationalism is what results when humans
assert their own religious inclinations, formulate their own religious
doctrines, and originate their own churches. Solomon’s words ought to
cause every single person to refrain from affiliation with
denominationalism: “Every word of God is pure. He is a shield to those
who put their trust in Him. Do not add to His words lest He reprove you
and you be found a liar” (Proverbs 30:5-6).
REFERENCES
American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), (Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin), fourth edition.
