Micaiah said:
If you read back over the posts to date, you will notice that you questioned why there were so many denominations. One reason is people's blatant disregard of the plain asertions of Scripture. Genesis lays the groundwork for many of our Christian doctines. It makes it clear that marriage should be betwen Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve. Paul refers the order God established in Genesis as the basis of his instructions about women not preaching. That reference to the OT indicates it was not intended as a culture specific instruction.
The lack of unity in the church is due to unwillingness to accept and obey God's truth, and a lack of forebearance on matters of opinion.
have you ever had a conversation with a brother or sister in the Lord where you disagreed over Scripture? how can you say that lack of unity is due to unwillingness to accept God's truth when there are dozens of issues where both sides are believing conservative orthodox Christians? to make such a statement is simply rash or ignorant of the depth of the issues.
is baptism a matter of opinion?
or church government?
or the big issues of reformed vs arminian?
or little issues like supra vs infra lapsarianism?
or issues of common grace?
each of the above issues have created denominations.
someone believed them to be important enough to be the essentials.
"In essentials, unity. In non-essentials,
charity. In all things, Jesus Christ." -- Chrysostom
i assert that the depth of the disagreement over essential doctrine in the Christian church is evidence that the Scriptures are not plain, note i am not denying the perspicuity of Scripture only that the plain literal etc meaning is not as plain nor as literal as the YECists propose.
note:
i believe non-denominationalism is wrong, for i am creedal.
i believe that congregationalism is wrong, for i am Presbyterian.
i believe that arminians are at best inconsistent Christians, for i am reformed.
i believe that dispensationalism is wrong, for i am covenantal.
baptism is to include covenant children as well as professing adults who were not baptised as children.
sprinkling is fine, dunking is not essential.
i disagree with all the major ideas of the radical reformation as opposed to the magisterial except a believer's church when opposed to the parish ideal.
the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit have ceased.
do you have any idea of the depth of the disagreement?
and this is just from your:
"I attend a non denominational Christian church by the way. We have a mix of Church of Christ, Baptist, Brethren, Pentecostal to name a few."
the big point being:
the disagreements prove that Scripture is not plain.
see:
http://www.apuritansmind.com/Creeds/WestminsterConfession/McMahonTheologicalTraditionalism.htm