Why Denominations Exist
Foreward	Why do denominations exist? This article serves to help us look straight at the heart of the issue of our human divisiveness, rather than attempt to create a historical timeline of denominations. Before His death, Jesus had prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane that we could all be one, yet we are so fragmented today, and His return is very soon. Our denominations and unwillingness to unite has become a turn-off to many who reject Christ because they are rejecting us! They feel that if Christians are so denominated and divided and so vehemently disagreeing, then how could they ever know the Truth? Here we will see that our unfortunate excess in devotion to traditions, human wisdom and philosophy (versus Godly wisdom), denominational pride and our own personal judgementalism hinder us from being in God's will as a corporate Body of Christ.
How were Denominations Formed?	"and that He may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before, whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began." - Acts 3:20-21 The First Century Church was walking in a tremendous dimension of God's truth and power. However, this was lost to us, almost completely, by the time the Dark Ages were upon us. Thus, in Acts 3:20-21 we see that it is God's heart to restore it all to His Church. Thus, over the last several centuries, God had begun a restoration of revelation of His Truth. What we know today, and our intimate relationship with the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, and how we have the Holy Spirit indwelling us born-again believers are things that the prophets of old had so longed for. We are very privileged! Understand that restoration often takes place across a long period of time. How much God can restore and reveal to us depends on the degree of our receptivity. Let's look at a few denominations and see examples of some truths God restored through them: Lutherans - Justification by faith. You will recall that Martin Luther received a revelation from God, and with it led many monks away from the Roman Catholic Church and hence became some of the first Protestants. For centuries, the Roman Catholic Church had taught that you had to do good works to earn your way into heaven. But God revealed to Martin Luther that we are justified by grace through faith, not of works, lest any man should boast! (Eph. 2:8-8) Calvinists - God restored revelation of the Lord's Table to John Calvin. Fundamentalists - Base it on the Bible. So much religion throughout the ages was based on many things other than the Bible - other texts, books, even traditions. God restored a desire to base the Christian faith solely on God's own Words - the Bible. Baptists - Baptism in Water by full immersion. The revelation that we are buried in Christ has a powerful effect of putting to death the sin-tendency of our flesh by an act of will of our own repentance. This awakened understanding helped many - who were baptized as babies - to realize that true baptism is a burial into Christ's death from which you arise in HIs resurrection power. Pentecostals - Primary the Baptism in the Holy Spirit through which the nine Spiritual Gifts (1 Cor. 12) come about in our lives as the Holy Spirit operates through us. Other things like Speaking in Tongues, dreams and visions, etc. Charismatics - A vibrant, holy, awesome and powerful reverential worship characterized by the lifting up of hands, clapping, shouting, dancing (all Biblical, by the way) and an remarkable and amazingly strong degree of the manifest presence of God. Many denominations started off as revivals and thus originally had something very good and new. People with the same vision came together and received mightily of God. But, gradually, people begin to slow down in their receptivity of the new thing God is doing in the earth. The next generation comes along but does not have the same fire and zeal as the previous generation, and so successive generations end up being an weaker echo instead of a strong voice. Thus the denomination decays into dogma, history, lifelessness. Some even end up condemning other groups of Christians who are on the cutting edge, who are constantly receiving God's restoration. Is it more important to honor denominationalism and traditions than to honor God in the new thing He wants to do in us? There is a saying, "You can't teach an old dog new tricks." Have we so much spiritual oldness that we can no longer progress with God? In Isaiah 43:18-19a, God says, "Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it?". In the NIV, this is phrased: "Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?"
Movement vs. Memorial	There is a peril that comes if we do not progress with God. Christianity is about change lives. Yet our lives are not only changed at the Cross when we give our lives to Christ and are saved, but the Holy Spirit is constantly changing us. But don't resist the Holy Spirit. Don't grieve Him, or you will miss out. The difference between those who progress with God versus those who don't and refuse to come out of their denominational walls can be illustrated by the difference between a Memorial and a Memorial. Movement - No matter how challenging, a people who are moving with God who are willing to receive all that He has for them will have a powerful dynamic. Movement speaks of life, momentum, energy, and direction. The focus is believing God to do great things in this day. Supercharged with faith. Memorial - The focus is on what God did historically. Remembering the past more. Limiting what God can do in the present by measuring it with what God did in the past. Less life, momentum, and energy. Direction is uncertain, as it circumnavigates around the origins of the memorial. On the extreme, people tends to condemn people for their sin (which turns them away from Christ), because the Holy Spirit is not manifest strongly enough among them to bring conviction on His own! So it's like how the people of Israel walked in circles for 40 years, when the trek across the wilderness was less than a week. All that time, they were a scant few days away from their Promised Land of blessings and bounty! Yes, there is a cost to pursuing God beyond our denominational limitations. There are giants in the Land. These represent our spiritual enemies (not people). But are we so stuck in our traditions and oldness that we refuse to pioneer ourselves forward? Are we too comfortable where we are that we've become obsolete? In the film, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, Spock asked Kirk, "Have we grown so old that we have exceeded our usefulness? Would that constitute... a joke?" God loves you, but history does record that God does continue to move on with the rest of the people who would follow Him.
How We Bicker	For example, "Does God still heal today?" "Does God still speak to people today?" These are questions that are asked by many non-Charismatic denominations because the Charismatic Movement (there we have the word "movement" again) is already moving in this area and has moved beyond it - hopefully. Unfortunately, rather than actually believe that God still has power to heal cancer, heart disease, and that God still speaks to His people, many come up with very sad reasons why He doesn't. "In those days, God healed and performed the miraculous. But we didn't have the Bible. Now that we have the Bible, we don't need those miracles any more." You mean to tell me that God no longer loves His own child enough to heal that beloved child of a physically destroying disease? Don't forget his name was "Jehovah Rapha" which means "I am the God that healeth thee." And the Bible says that Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever, i.e. He is -ever- our healer. To glorify this reason that God does not heal is to make Him a liar, because, His very name means that He is ever our healer (Exodus 15:26). He is the I AM! "Those charismatics tend to place more emphasis on feelings and not so much on the Word of God." Well, the documented fact is that Charismatics and Pentecostals have skyrocketed evangelistic growth more than any denomination, and their numbers now how that the majority of Christians world wide are charismatic. It is a movement of the Holy Spirit. To say something as mean as that is condemning some estimated 30-40 million people in the United States. Before labeling so many people, maybe we should interview each of them first, right? While they are correct in that some and many charasmatics put more emphasis on feeling, I personally am one who relies strongly on the Word of God. In fact, some charismatics know the Word better than many denominationalists! Christians in China are predominantly charismatic, yet their evangelism rate is higher than the average non-charismatic Evangelical in the United States!
Why Do We Resist Him So?	Why is it hard for people to accept that God has to restore everything that the prophets prophesied? Is it that with each restoration of truth from God that we are healed all the more and restored more and more to facilitate the Holy Spirit's operation of that Truth in the earth? Are we merely afraid that He will open up our scabs and our improperly stitched wounds which would at first cause us pain, but effect a greater and more thorough healing? But, as Acts 3:21 says, there will be a restoration of all things. God will restore what has been lost since the First Century Church, but not to bring us back but to bring us forward in all that He has purposed for us to enter into: our Promised Land. As mentioned prior, many denominations started out as revivals, but gradually they decayed. When a new denomination came about with new revival fire, the recipients of the previous revival tends to be the greatest persecutors of the next recipients of revival. Fundamentalists accuse Pentecostals. Evangelicals accuse Charismatics. And everyone is accusing the Holy Laughter phenomenon and the Father's Blessing Movement. Who are we going to persecute next?
What To Do Now?	Personally, and corporately, we must lay down our pride. A denomination or tradition is utterly useless if our fire for God does not exceed that of the previous generation, but we rather spend time glorifying the great fire of the men of God of the days of old. We need a personal revival. We need to all hear from God ourselves. We cannot live on someone else's personal pressing into God; we must have our own cutting edge. Note that articles like these are complained against very vehemently. This article was not written to make any church or denomination feel inferior. God loves us all very much. And everyone is at a different spiritual level. Not everyone has the same degree of zeal. Jesus had the most zeal - it consumed all He was in His purpose and His relationship with God. What about your zeal? Would you pray with me? "Dear Lord, I thank You that You are constantly revealing things to us, as we are able to receive. But stretch us and expand us beyond our own limits and beyond our limiting you because our flesh is so incapable and prideful. We repent of not having You as our first love and truly loving You with all our hearts. Renew our strength this day, as we lay down our divided identities and call ourselves united disciples and followers of Jesus Christ. We give our churches and denominations to You, Lord, and we pray that Your refiner's fire will come and set all our hearts on fire for You. In Christ's name we pray, Amen!"