the reverse of answers

[me34571]

I don't recall whether I've mentioned this before in a different question, but here goes anyway.

I figure that what the Bible actually says, and what God is really telling us, was THE one important question for many centuries after the Resurrection, and there is a huge amount of surviving scholarship on it, with some of the world's most brilliant and committed people devoting their entire lives to it. So what we've ended up with is something like 200 Christian denominations and a situation in which there appears to be no unanimous agreement about even a single thing. Is it possible that we just cannot understand what God is telling us?

 

[Sketcher]

There's more agreement on more topics than you're giving Christianity credit for. Many splits had to do with church practice more so than theology. And some splinter movements have traditions of ordaining ministers with little to no theological training, which of course means they don't get the benefit of that scholarship - just what they were told by somebody.

 

[aiki]

Many denominational differences are also primarily organizational and cultural rather than doctrinal. Among the evangelical Christian churches in my city there is enormous agreement upon the majority of doctrinal issues. It is the atheist (and the Roman Catholic) who makes more of the "differences" than is always actually there.

Selah.

 

[Hawkins]

I don't recall whether I've mentioned this before in a different question, but here goes anyway.

I figure that what the Bible actually says, and what God is really telling us, was THE one important question for many centuries after the Resurrection, and there is a huge amount of surviving scholarship on it, with some of the world's most brilliant and committed people devoting their entire lives to it. So what we've ended up with is something like 200 Christian denominations and a situation in which there appears to be no unanimous agreement about even a single thing. Is it possible that we just cannot understand what God is telling us?

You speculation is incorrect.

Roughly speaking the Bible can be categorized into two parts, namely, the message of salvation and biblical knowledge. The message of salvation is simple and clear enough for humans to be saved. People mostly divide in terms of biblical knowledge. The basic standard to indicate that a church as the power to save is the Nicene Creed.

Those divided from the correct message of salvation will thus be considered as a heresy. Those divided in the knowledge part are valid denominations.

 

[1watchman]

Is denominationalism valid? Where does it say that in the Bible?

 

[ViaCrucis]

I don't recall whether I've mentioned this before in a different question, but here goes anyway.

I figure that what the Bible actually says, and what God is really telling us, was THE one important question for many centuries after the Resurrection, and there is a huge amount of surviving scholarship on it, with some of the world's most brilliant and committed people devoting their entire lives to it. So what we've ended up with is something like 200 Christian denominations and a situation in which there appears to be no unanimous agreement about even a single thing. Is it possible that we just cannot understand what God is telling us?

Alternatively, there's the Nicene Creed and two thousand years of rather consistent Christian teaching. While even among traditional churches there are disagreements, you'll notice that among traditional churches there tends to be a lot more cohesion and agreement on many things than when you look at the various "Bible only" churches that have popped into existence over the last 150-200 years. The difference between the two ways of "doing" Christianity can't be understated: one looks to the past and sees how Christianity has existed since the beginning and works within that, the latter tends to go about re-inventing the wheel every time.

-CryptoLutheran

 

[ViaCrucis]

Is denominationalism valid? Where does it say that in the Bible?

It's as valid as non-denominationalism, which is also not found in the Bible.

-CryptoLutheran

 

[Albion]

I don't recall whether I've mentioned this before in a different question, but here goes anyway.

I figure that what the Bible actually says, and what God is really telling us, was THE one important question for many centuries after the Resurrection, and there is a huge amount of surviving scholarship on it, with some of the world's most brilliant and committed people devoting their entire lives to it. So what we've ended up with is something like 200 Christian denominations and a situation in which there appears to be no unanimous agreement about even a single thing. Is it possible that we just cannot understand what God is telling us?

Aiki was right to point out that many denominational splits are not about doctrine and certainly not about essential doctrine, so this fact of life reduces the validity of any claim that denominationalism is proof that we cannot understand revelation.

Moreover, I wonder why the assertion is always framed as "WE" can't understand. There is no reason to conclude that if some of us don't get it right, that this means no one can.