Why doesn't God just tell us which denomination is right?

[Dorothy Mae]

On the contrary - I gave many examples of God -- telling us which religion is correct all through history.

details matter.

I show that each time He does it - the majority ignore what He says.



Here is the title: Why doesn't God just tell us which denomination is right?

My answer was "God has done that many times"

Here is the OP


God telling man which denomination is right - is the subject. And the question is in the form "why doesn't God tell us?"

My answer -- is that the Bible and history indicate that He has done that very thing many times.

I then give - a few examples.



And I then detail one of those --

Like this -




The OP does not ask "which one is the right one" -- AND it does not ask the reader to guess which one is the right one.

The OP asks if we all agree that it would be helpful if God told us

If God never mentions the word “religion” then He did nothing if the kind and you are adding to and changing what he really said. Seems to be you don’t get that God wants RELATIONSHIP not religion.

 

[BobRyan]

Taking the simplest example -- one debate over religions went like this.

John 4
“Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you people say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.”

21 Jesus *said to her, ... 22 You (Samaritans) worship what you do not know; we (Jews) worship what we (Jews) know, for salvation is of the Jews.


The OP does not ask "which one is the right one"

The OP asks if we all agree that it would be helpful if God told us

If God never mentions the word “religion” then He did nothing if the kind and you are adding to and changing what he really said. Seems to be you don’t get that God wants RELATIONSHIP not religion.

The word "relationship" does not show up in John 4.

But we do see reference to a world religion of the "Jews".

Details matter.

Creative writing... not so much.

 

[Strong in Him]

The OP asks if we all agree that it would be helpful if God told us

No, the OP asks if it would be helpful if God told us which denomination is right.

Denomination = Methodist, C of E, Baptist, Catholic etc etc; groups within Christianity that worship, and interpret the Scriptures, in different ways. Despite these differences, I am sure that all Christian denominations affirm the same Gospel. This is why, in my view, it doesn't matter; we're all Christians.
Religion = a faith or belief system other than Christianity; i.e Judaism, Islam, Hinduism etc. These groups believe that Jesus is not who he claimed to be. They declare him to be a prophet, a good teacher, maybe a guru; certainly not God become flesh. And they almost certainly reject his claim, "no one comes to the Father except by me", John 14:6.

The word "relationship" does not show up in John 4.

The teaching about relationship shows up in many places in the Bible. We are told that we can call God Abba (lit "daddy"); we are told that we can become God's children, John 1:12, Romans 8:16, and heirs with Christ, Romans 8:17. Jesus said that anyone who does God's will is his brother, sister and mother, Mark 3:35 (those are all relationships). Jesus said that he is the True Vine and we are the branches - that is the relationship we are to have with him, like that of a vine and branches. Jesus said that he is the Good Shepherd and the Bible says elsewhere that those who belong to God are his sheep, Psalms 100:3, Psalms 23:1.

Just because a particular word is not mentioned in a verse, or in Scripture, doesn't mean that the concept/doctrine isn't taught.

But we do see reference to a world religion of the "Jews".

If the world were all meant to embrace the Jewish religion, Jesus wouldn't have come.
"He came to his own and his own did not receive him", John 1:11.
Jesus was Jewish, so salvation came from the Jews. The disciples were to witness for Christ first of all in Jerusalem, and Paul went to the synagogues first.
But Judaism doesn't save or give people the Good News of the Gospel.

Details matter.

And that is quite a big and important detail - that salvation is through Jesus, not the Jewish religion.

 

[Lady Bug]

Seems like it would help us out a lot if God told everybody, "The Calvinists are right" (Or whichever denomination).

So many false teachings would be disproven in an instant, everybody would know which Church best aligns with God & His word...

So why not?

I wish I could give you a specific answer but it frustrates me to the nth degree. The Bible tells us not to forsake fellowship, so it should stand to reason that there is one Christian sect out there that has the complete 100% truth and I have yet to find any denomination in which I agree 100% with its beliefs. Now some may get a little ornery and say that their sect has 100% truth and I won't be angry at them for saying that, but I haven't come to that conclusion as of yet. The only thing I've bene able to do is come across a denomination that fits closest to my beliefs, but in my heart I wouldn't know how to join such a church if I have to secretly disagree with some of its beliefs. One thing that is bothering me these days is denominations seemingly making a salvation issue out of eschatology.

 

[Lady Bug]

p.s. it is extremely unbiblical that these divisions even exist in the first place, as far as I see it.

 

[Dorothy Mae]

Taking the simplest example -- one debate over religions went like this.

John 4
“Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you people say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.”

21 Jesus *said to her, ... 22 You (Samaritans) worship what you do not know; we (Jews) worship what we (Jews) know, for salvation is of the Jews.


The OP does not ask "which one is the right one"

The OP asks if we all agree that it would be helpful if God told us



The word "relationship" does not show up in John 4.

But we do see reference to a world religion of the "Jews".

Details matter.

Creative writing... not so much.

"This is eternal life, that they know YOU, the one true God." Depart from me, I never KNEW you." This is relationship. Notice Jesus did not say "this is eternal life, having the right religion" or "depart from me, you have the wrong religion." Words matter, especially the absence of words and the meaning of those there.

God does not think in terms of religion, right or wrong, but in terms of relationship, yes or no.

 

[Original Happy Camper]

But that doesn't answer MY question. Quoting Scripture can be tricky. For instance, how do you KNOW that the Remnant is NOT the Catholic-Orthodox Church? You can quote Scripture all you want, but there is no way that you can PROVE that the Catholic-Orthodox Churches is the anti-Christ's church, or that the Reformation churches are the one True Church that God ordained to be the perfect church that He wants every one to attend.

I will Quote Scripture as it is the source of all truth to answer your question.
John 14:15
If ye love me, keep my commandments.
Exodus 20:9-11 King James Version (KJV)
9 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:
10 But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:
11 For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
PLEASE NOTE THAT IT IS THE SABBATH OF THE LORD NOT MANS

Exodus 31:14
Ye shall keep the Sabbath therefore; for it is holy unto you: every one that defileth it shall surely be put to death: for whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people.

Isaiah 66:22-23 King James Version (KJV)
22 For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain.
23 And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord.

The "Catholic-Orthodox Church" does not keep the Sabbath of the LORD thus they can not be the remanant church. They worship on Sunday which the LORD did not hallow.

Revelation 12:17
And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.

hal·low
ˈhalō/
verb

1. 1.
   honor as holy.

JUST LOVE LETTING THE WORD OF GOD EXPLAIN ITSELF.

MANS EXPLANATION follows

In the Convert’s Catechism of Catholic Doctrine, we read:
Q. Which is the Sabbath day?
A. Saturday is the Sabbath day.

Q. Why do we observe Sunday instead of Saturday?
A. We observe Sunday instead of Saturday because the Catholic Church, in the Council of Laodicea, (AD 336) transferred the solemnity from Saturday to Sunday….
(WHAT DID THEY TRANSFER?)
Q. Why did the Catholic Church substitute Sunday for Saturday?
A. The Church substituted Sunday for Saturday, because Christ rose from the dead on a Sunday, and the Holy Ghost descended upon the Apostles on a Sunday.

Q. By what authority did the Church substitute Sunday for Saturday?
A. The Church substituted Sunday for Saturday by the plenitude of that divine power which Jesus Christ bestowed upon her!
—Rev. Peter Geiermann, C.SS.R., (1946), p. 50.

Can the church make anything HOLY?

 

[Monk Brendan]

Did you think they were "born as Protestants"??

No, they CHOSE to leave the Church in order to foment heresy and rebellion.

BTW, Jerome is one of the Doctors of the Church, and is considered one of the Fathers of the Church.

 

[Monk Brendan]

Can the church make anything HOLY?

YES! The abundance of the faith of the Church, given by Jesus TO the Church can make anything that is NOT sin to be holy. For instance, sex outside of marriage is wrong. Inside of marriage, it is holy.

 

[Original Happy Camper]

YES! The abundance of the faith of the Church, given by Jesus TO the Church can make anything that is NOT sin to be holy. For instance, sex outside of marriage is wrong. Inside of marriage, it is holy.

The church did not make sex within a marriage holy GOD did at creation.

Two institutions were established by GOD at creation the marriage between man and woman and the HOLY SEVENTH DAY SABBATH.

These two institutions are under attach today.

 

[Hawkins]

Seems like it would help us out a lot if God told everybody, "The Calvinists are right" (Or whichever denomination).

So many false teachings would be disproven in an instant, everybody would know which Church best aligns with God & His word...

So why not?

The Bible is composed of human accounts of testimonies about the deeds of God. Some parts of the Bible thus may not be completely understandable by humans. The Bible also contains prophetic writings, humans can't possibly know the future to confirm what is said. For these reasons, humans will inevitably divide.

Jesus ever said, if we can't have faith about earthly things said how can we believing in heavenly things. This means the Bible itself doesn't provide detail explanation of heavenly things. God doesn't demand humans to understand everything, including heavenly things completely for them to be saved. What humans have to rely on is the salvation message. The salvation message itself is made clear to His sheep.

The various denominations are about the same understanding of the salvation message but different understanding of other parts of the Bible. If a "denomination" is varied in the salvation message, it is a heresy instead of a valid denomination.

Human understanding to a certain thing may be all wrong. There may be situation where all denominations are wrong about a certain thing. It's no point for God to point out each of the thousands of the denominations is wrong.

For an example, none of humans may possibly have a full understanding of what predestination is. God doesn't need to point out which denominations are wrong about it, as long as all denominations are valid and with the same salvation message.