I never understood denominations. Its just something man-made to further separate us from one another.
Was Jesus a Catholic? Did he ever say once to pray to his mother Mary? No.
The golden plates of LDS focus our attention away from the Lord.
I believe non-denominational is the closest we can get to what the Lord originally intended.
All the pomp and glamor and fancy dress and focus on saints.. where did Jesus ever ONCE tell his disciples to do this? In fact, his entire life was on living a life separate from that stuff.
I'm not here to debate, but to give a different perspective.
The goal is to unite all in the Body of Christ.
However, look at the history of the primitive church and you'll get your answer.
I refer to Acts 15 in particular.
Let me quote from the TDNT.
"Now we come to a most difficult area which brought conflict nearly two millennia ago, and one which still brings conflict today. The conflict concerning the Law and its relevance to Christians then and now. There is no clear cut definitive picture of just what the understanding of the Law was in the primitive community. But it is a certainty that they did in fact keep the Law, but as to the extent of the keeping of the Law it is not certain from the account in Acts because no distinctive can be discerned in this record. So what we can do, however, is to look at what records we do have concerning the conflict which are found in the book of Galatians and in Acts 15.
The question of the Law first became an issue when the Apostles began their missionary journeys. When they moved out to the Gentile world, more specifically the Gentile nations, there was so much conflict that the first Apostolic Council is recorded. With regards to this meeting, and the decision they came to, we can work best work out what the fundamental understanding of the Law was in the primitive community.
A problem that had existed from the Day of Pentecost was how to integrate Gentile believers into the church. Apparently, Paul taught his Gentile converts that they did not need to submit to the Law in order to be members in good standing, a point which not all agreed on. Pauls first missionary journey took him from Jerusalem to Antioch to Galatia and back to Jerusalem which led to the first Apostolic Council meeting. AS in Pauls day, there were a group of people who are commonly called legalists. Of whom believed that not only was a belief in God required, but also a strict observance to the Law of Moses was required."
WE see then that according to the First Apostolic Council, there came out two separate "demoninations" (for lack of a better word). One that adhered to some parts of the Law, and one that very little of the Law applied to.
While I agree there is a lot we "Christians" can learn from the book of Hebrews, some fail to realize to whom the book was originally addressed to.
"Nevertheless, its first sentence enables us to
identify at once those to whom the Epistle was originally sent: see
Hebrews 1:1,2. They to whom
God spake through the prophets were the children of Israel, and it was also
unto them He had spoken through His Son. In
Hebrews 3:1, we find a word which, however,
narrows the circle to which this Epistle was first sent. It was not the
Jewish nation at
large which was addressed, but the “holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling” among them.
Clear confirmation of this is supplied in the Epistles of Peter. His first was addressed, locally, to “the elect sojourners of the Dispersion (
Hebrews 1:1 — Gk., “eklektois parepidenois diasporas”). His second Epistle (see
Hebrews 3:1) was addressed, locally and immediately, to the same
company. Now in
2 Peter 3:15 the apostle makes specific
reference to “our beloved brother
Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written
unto you.” Thus all doubt is removed as to whom our Epistle was first sent.
The Epistle itself contains further details which serve to identify the addressees. That it was written to saints who were by no means young in the faith is
clear from
Hebrews 5:12. That it was sent to those who had suffered severe persecutions (cf.
Acts 8:1) is plain from what we read in
Hebrews 10:32. That it was addressed to a
Christian community of considerable size is evident from
Hebrews 13:24. From this last
reference we are inclined to conclude that this Epistle was first delivered to the church in Jerusalem (
Acts 11:22), or to the
churches in Judea (
Acts 9:31), copies of which would be made and forwarded to
Jewish Christians in
foreign lands. Thus, our Epistle was first addressed to those descendants of Abraham who, by grace, had believed on their Savior- Messiah."
A.W. Pink, An Exposition of Hebrews, Introduction.
To a certain degree, that is still playing out today. One group says that if you don't believe such-and-such, your not a Christian. If you don't submit to such-and-such your wrong. And the list goes on.
I am a Baptist because I believe they teach correct in that I am baptized "because of" (eis) the forgiveness of sins, and not "in order to" (eis) have forgiveness of sins.
So, there have at least two "denominations" for the last 1985 years.
One "denomination" of Jewish Christians.
One "denomination" of Gentile Christians.
God Bless
Till all are one.