Why are there different Christian Denominations?

What is the church with the big “C”? The Church is made up of people all over the world that love God and are faithful, obedient to Him and show their love for Him by loving all the rest of mankind. For a Christian, this Church is made up of people that also Love and believe in our savior Jesus Christ. This “Universal” Church has always been God’s plan that all people would be “One” with Him. So why did so many divisions or denominations in the church occur?

The easy answer for most of us is always Sin. By naming this reason we don’t have to deal with it because we all know that God will take care of THOSE SINNERS! I believe the truthful answer is the “We”. When the collective “We” look at things then the “We” soon becomes the “I’s. Next, because all the “I’s” don’t always look at things in the same way, the “I’s” separate into groups of “Me’s” and “You’s”. These groups cannot come to an agreement and so they then become the “Us” and “Them”. The “Us” and “Them” groups both eventually rename themselves. They each begin to call themselves “We” and refer to the other group as “They”. This then makes any further reconciliation or agreement between them unlikely.

When you look at all of this, it seems as though God is left out of this process, and His desire is not what is done or even considered. Unfortunately, leaving God out of the conversation has gone on since the beginning. As the Messiah, Jesus Christ was a Jew and died as a Jew, and all of His disciples were Jews. However, the leaders of Judaism in His time could not accept His interpretation of scripture or even the miracles that Jesus performed as His proof that He was the Son of God. The one Church of Jesus Christ evolved as the Way from the Jewish religion. Then came the split that formed the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic denominations. Their different groups of worship were formalized in 1054 and their split continues to this day. Martin Luther the reformer in 1517, while trying to stop some practices within the Catholic church, started the split that resulted in the Protestant movement. He did not want the church to split, but rather he wanted it to reform. After this split other Protestant movements resulted in other denominations. In Methodism it was never John Wesley’s intention to form a new denomination but rather to hold to what he saw as a truer worship of Christ by living the Gospel and by serving others. And so, the story continues to this very day. Other means of worshiping God and Jesus continue to appear as long as there are perceived shortcomings of the present denominations. So, we must ask the question “Is this what God wants?”.

What God wants God knows, but if He wants us to know His will He will tell us through the Holy Spirit. So how do we know it is the Holy Spirit telling us to do something? That is the rub. Each Christian denomination uses the Bible as a guide to understand His will. They also formulate a list of things that they believe in and expect others in their group to believe in. Jesus did preach about obedience to rules and earthly authorities (Mt 22:15-22), but He also taught that we should first show compassion for all people as we attempt to follow the rules when we practice our faith (Ga 6:2, Jn 13:34-35, Mt 22:37-40). Rules, worship reverence, church rites like communion, and baptism, and other means are some tools to help non-believers become believers. God gave the Law to Israel in love, as a means to help them become believers. Mature believers instead are supposed to be wise, use our knowledge, our experience, our heart and with prodding by the Holy Spirit come to a proper path forward.

“We” always go astray when our love of self is greater than our love of God. In our country we have a Democracy. We have an independent spirit, and are mostly concerned about ourselves first. This culture of ours gives us the wrong picture of God’s Kingdom. What “We” think, “We” believe that is what God wants. Jesus’ relationship with His disciples and their work was not done by agreement or by vote (Mt 16:23). God, the Son and the Holy Spirit rule by Love. Unfortunately, in our imperfect world we have church boards, and many of them function by some form of democracy. “We” also want to quickly solve any problem. “We” rush to a solution, “We” vote on it, all in favor, which establishes the direction and “We” proceed. Often times “We” proceed without considering what other effects it may cause elsewhere and to whom else. Unfortunately, God does not rule that way and problems in God’s Kingdom are solved through Love without any defined timetable (Ex 14:14, Ps 37:7, 1 Co 4:5).

All denominations have arisen because of a failure of people to love each other and follow what Jesus has taught us, however they do provide a means to introduce non-believers into the path that leads to life in Christ. So, when problems occur and we are searching for an answer, what should “We” do? Pray, sit in solitude and listen for the Holy Spirit to speak to you in love. When you believe that He has given you a direction, then act as a mature Christian should. Remember though that if you are having second thoughts, then you have not connected to God but are following your own path. Also, if things go awry, remember that God is in control, He doesn’t need your help and He may be allowing this to happen so that something better will come from it.

The Disciple group suggests that this next week you select something that is troubling you. At your normal prayer time say a prayer about it. Then set a timer, clear your mind of all thoughts and sit in silence for 5 minutes to enjoy the Presence of God’s Holy Spirit. Then go about your day. Repeat this for a week, and if you are successful then perhaps God will answer you through His Spirit and give you the proper direction to go.