Are Church Denominations Biblical?

“I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment. For it has been reported to me by Chloe's people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers. What I mean is that each one of you says, ‘I follow Paul,’ or ‘I follow Apollos,’ or ‘I follow Cephas,’ or ‘I follow Christ.’

“Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, so that no one may say that you were baptized in my name. (I did baptize also the household of Stephanas. Beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else.) For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power” (1 Corinthians 1:10-17 ESV).

What this always brings to my mind when I read this are church denominations. What I mean is that each one of you says, “I am a Baptist,” of “I am a Presbyterian,” or “I am Methodist,” or “I am Episcopalian,” or “I am Church of God,” or “I am Christian & Missionary Alliance” (the church denomination I grew up under). But is Christ divided? No! Are church denominations then of God? No! They are not authored by God. But has God used some of these denominations for the glory of God? Absolutely!

But aren’t these denominations the church? No, they aren’t. It doesn’t mean that true followers of Christ are not engaged in these denominations, and it doesn’t mean that some of them are not doing the work of God which he has called us to do. But these are creations of men, not of God nor of the will of God. For the body of Christ, his church, is not to be divided. We are all to be of one mind and heart and purpose which is not the purpose driven church taught by a man, according to business and marketing models.

For we are all to be of one heart and mind and purpose which is that of God according to his expressed will written down for us in the Scriptures. And for us who live in this present age, these would be those under the New Covenant. But whether Old Covenant or New Covenant, God’s expressed will for his people is always that we believe on him, that we forsake our sins and our idols, and that we follow him in obedience to his commands and in holy and righteous living for the glory and praise of God.

Now, as I mentioned, I grew up under the Christian & Missionary Alliance (C&MA) church denomination, which didn’t even become an official church denomination until sometime in the 1970s, I believe. Anyway, the denomination came about via a calling of God by a Presbyterian minister in New York City by the name of A.B. Simpson. Now God was not calling him to form a denomination, but to actually leave one. And it was because his church congregation rejected the migrants of the city from coming into their gatherings, and these were the people God was calling him to minister to.

So, he left the Presbyterian church to follow the calling of God on his life to minister to the needs of and to share the gospel with the disenfranchised of the world and with the migrants in his community. And in the process he connected with many other Christians who were likeminded with him regarding God’s calling on all of our lives to go into all the world and to make disciples of Christ of people of all nations, teaching them to obey the commandments of Jesus Christ under the New Covenant. 

And the Lord Jesus gave me a similar calling back in 2004 because the denominational church had rejected God’s calling on my life to teach the truth of God’s word to the people. One pastor even told me that he was warned about people like me, “people with strong convictions,” and so he invited me to go someplace else where I would be “a better fit.” So, you see, I, too, am among the disenfranchised of the world who “don’t fit” with the culture of the world, not even with our present “Christian culture.”

And my husband and I were church planters for awhile under the C&MA, and so we were asked to go to their “church planting seminar,” and we did. But one of the teachers there taught something astounding. He said that we are to use needy people until we get up and running, and then we are to get rid of them, for they will drag us down. Wow! “What??”, I thought. For God had called us to minister to the needy and to the disenfranchised of the world. Anyway, we didn’t end up as church planters with the C&MA.

Instead, the Lord gave me a calling similar to that of A.B. Simpson, and that was for me to go where the people are and to minister to them and to share the gospel with them. And the people in today’s culture are mainly on the internet. This is where we can talk with people. This is where we can share our devotions and what God is teaching us and where we can share the gospel with the people of the world, and we should all be doing that, either on the internet or in person with people, for to this we are all called.

Anyway, to leave the denominational church is not to leave the church. If we are believers in Jesus Christ the only way we can “leave the church” is to reject Jesus Christ, because we the people are the church, not these buildings, and not these denominations, and not these corporations under the state, and not these businesses of men being marketed to the world and who are thus altering the character of God and his gospel and the character of his church in order to draw in large crowds of people from the world.

So, be the people of God who are not divided from other followers of Christ on the basis of church denominations or the theologies or practices and traditions of men. Be those who will pray together and who will study the Scriptures together with other followers of Christ in a unified effort to learn the truth of the Scriptures so that we can all walk in that truth in obedience to the Lord, so that we collectively as his body are also taking that truth out to the people of the world to where they are.

[Matt 5:13-16; Matt 28:18-20; Jn 4:31-38; Jn 13:13-17; Jn 14:12; Acts 1:8; Acts 2:14-18; Acts 26:18; Rom 10:14-15; Rom 12:1-8; Rom 15:14; 1 Co 12:1-31; 1 Co 14:1-5; Eph 4:1-16; Eph 5:17-27; Php 2:1-8; Col 3:16; Heb 3:13; Heb 10:23-25; 1 Pet 2:9,21; 1 Jn 2:6]  

Video Talk

https://youtu.be/4CsKSLmFHRc 

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Oh, to Be Like Thee, Blessed Redeemer 

Lyrics by Thomas O. Chisholm, 1897

Music by W. J. Kirkpatrick, 1897

Oh, to be like Thee! blessèd Redeemer,

This is my constant longing and prayer;

Gladly I’ll forfeit all of earth’s treasures,

Jesus, Thy perfect likeness to wear.

Oh, to be like Thee! full of compassion,

Loving, forgiving, tender and kind,

Helping the helpless, cheering the fainting,

Seeking the wandering sinner to find.

O to be like Thee! lowly in spirit,

Holy and harmless, patient and brave;

Meekly enduring cruel reproaches,

Willing to suffer others to save.

O to be like Thee! while I am pleading,

Pour out Thy Spirit, fill with Thy love;

Make me a temple meet for Thy dwelling,

Fit me for life and Heaven above.

Oh, to be like Thee! Oh, to be like Thee,

Blessèd Redeemer, pure as Thou art;

Come in Thy sweetness, come in Thy fullness;

Stamp Thine own image deep on my heart.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrYhiK2nQBg 

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