The Denomination Philosophy

[The Seb]

Hey people,

Just thought I'd share this all with you. Its a philosophy that dawned on me when another person mentioned it.

On another chrisitan forum, a man joined and in his introductory thread he said 'I don't care about denominations, each denomination has its specific purpose in the will of God. There is no right and wrong with each denomination, unless they believe something against the bible.'

Now i've always thought denominations were wrong (sorry if i'm spelling this wrong as well, I'm a shocker when it comes to spelling ) and that people that practised different things could never be united under christ. I always thought they were tricks from Satan to bring people further from God.

But now that I think of it in this context, everything seems right. I mean, each denomination seems to have its own pro's and con's when it comes to congregation. Some denominations are prophetic, spirit based etc. and other are focused heavily on learning through god and the word and yet other denominations help people tell others about Christ.

Well thats just my 2 bits. I thought I'd share it with all of you in case any of you were in the same frame of mind that I was.

Seb out.

 

[tapero]

Dear Seb, I also believe as you do that because we all have different gifts and different desires to be part of a congregation that varying denominations are good. Some people like one thing, and some another.

I think different denominations are good also as long as they are in line with the word of truth. Blessings.

 

[foxsta]

yeah, i agree...however, a lot of ppl dont have as open minded views as others

 

[KATHXOYMENOC]

It sounds good and modern, but when you study church history, especially the writings of the 2nd and 3rd centuries (e.g., the Apostolic Fathers in the Ante-Nicene Church Fathers), such schisms and splittings of Christians into different groups were considered sinful and terrible, a rending of Christ's seamless garment. Jesus didn't say, "I will build My churches," or "I will build My denominations," but "I will build My church." The fact that we have the NT Scriptures that we have today, and are unified in our beliefs about the Trinity and the nature of Christ, is due to the efforts of these men to preserve the Apostolic teaching of Christ and the Gospel, and to label as heretics those who would distort the Apostolic faith and would try to bring their own writings and teachings into the church and create their own groups apart from those founded by the Apostles and their successors.

Denomination comes from de + nominare = to give a name to, and denominationalism seems to exhibit the kind of factionalism that Paul seemed to speak against when he expressed his dismay about people calling themselves followers of Paul, followers of Apollos, etc.

 

[christandisrael]

The Greek for 'church' is ekklesia. The word 'ek' means 'out' and kalleo means 'to call' So, true ecclesia means a calling out. We are citizens of another world out there and I pray that we will be able to act like it.