WHY SO MANY DENOMINATIONS?

1

The Scattered 153 MinistriesRomans 8:14

For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. 

Matthew 25:31

When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: 

2018

Catholic, Roman Catholic, Protestant, Lutheran, Anglican, Baptist, Methodist, Evangelical, Pentecostal, Holiness Movement, Reformed, Seventh Day Adventist, Jehovah’s Witness, Apostolic, Charismatic, Amish, Mennonite, Mormon, Orthodox, Eastern Orthodox, Non-Denominational, Southern Baptists, Presbyterian, Episcopal, Church of God, First Church of God, Church of Christ, and the list could go on and on and on and on and……, you get the picture.

I am very aware there are a great number of Denominations in the church world, (a drive through my local community verifies this) but I don’t know how many. So, I tried to find out how many there actually are. I could not do so because nobody has the answer.

An internet search for the number of Christian Denominations will yield a variety of information sources. So, in writing this article I finally landed on a site called Church Relevance at www.churchrelevance.com . The following information is taken from that website and also some numbers from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.

According to Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, there were roughly 43,000 Christian Denominations worldwide in 2012. That is up from 500 in 1800, and 39,000 in 2008 and the number is expected to grow to 55,000 by 2025.

If you do the math, there is a new Christian Denomination formed about every 10.5 hours or 2.3 new denominations every day.

You can find other sources that give different numbers for the total number of denominations (as I stated earlier nobody seems to really know the answer).

Whatever the actual number of Christian Denominations, it is safe to say there are thousands of them.

Why?

Don’t they all, or at least most of them claim to believe and believe in God and the Bible?

Most denominations are separate from one another because they don’t agree concerning doctrine.

If you are a Roman Catholic reading this article, why are you not a Protestant? If you are a Protestant, why are you not a Roman Catholic?

If you are a Baptist why are you not a Methodist? If you are a Methodist why are you not a Seventh Day Adventist? Or if you are a ……….. why are you not a ……………., you get the picture.

One denomination says “you can….”, or, “it is this way or that way” and another denomination will say “you cannot….”, or “it is not that way, but it is this way” concerning the same issue.

2

You have probably heard people say “that’s not the way I/we see it” or “I/we don’t see it that way”

Does the Word of God leave us in the dark as to what He expects of us? Or what He expects us to do or not to do?

NO, it does not.

Actually, the scriptures are very plain and very simple.

So, then why are there so many denominations?

Before we search for the answer, let us see how many “denominations” the Bible speaks of.

Romans 12:4,5 For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office: So we, being many, are one body in Messiah, and every one members one of another.

1 Corinthians 12:12,13 For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Messiah. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, ……..

Ephesians 4:4,5 There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; One Lord, one faith………

Colossians 3:15 And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.

It looks like the Scriptures only speak of one “denomination” doesn’t it?

So, do the Scriptures approve of more than one denomination?

1 Corinthians 1:10 Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Yeshua Messiah, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you;…..

1 Corinthians 1:11 …….there are contentions among you.

1 Corinthians 1:12,13 Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul; and I of Appollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Messiah. Is Messiah divided? (the unspoken answer of course is NO)

So, with all this testimony of the Scriptures telling us there is only one “denomination”, and admonishing us not to be divided into many “denominations”, WHY are there so many denominations?

3

Here is the Biblical answer:

Genesis 1:3 And God said….

Genesis 1:6 And God said,…..

Genesis 1:29 And God said….

Genesis 3:14 And the LORD God said unto the serpent,….

Genesis 3:16 And unto the woman He said….

Genesis 3:17 And unto Adam He said,….

Genesis 4:6 And the LORD said unto Cain,…..

Genesis 6:3 And the LORD said……

Genesis 6:7 And the LORD said….

Genesis 6:13 And God said unto Noah…..

Genesis 9:1 And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them…….

Genesis 12:1 Now the LORD had said unto Abram…..

Genesis 17:1 …….the LORD appeared to Abram and said unto him……..

Exodus 3:14 And God said unto Moses……

Exodus 12:1 And the LORD spoke unto Moses and Aaron…..

Exodus 19:3 And Moses went up unto God, and the LORD called unto him out of the mountain saying…….

Exodus 20:1 And God spoke all these words, saying…… (“The Ten Commandments”)

Exodus 20:22 And the LORD said unto Moses…… (begins more commandments/instructions of the Torah or “law”)

Leviticus 1:1 And the LORD called unto Moses, and spoke unto him out of the tabernacle of the congregation, saying,

Leviticus 11:1 And the LORD spoke unto Moses and to Aaron, saying…….(instructions on clean and unclean)

Leviticus 19:1 And the LORD spoke unto Moses, saying……… (instructions on Holiness)

Leviticus 23:1 And the LORD spoke unto Moses, saying, (instructions for the Feasts of the LORD)

4

And we could go on with the list of times YHVH spoke, but I think you get the point, which is:

Deuteronomy 8:3  And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live. 

Deuteronomy 18:15  The LORD thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken; 

Deuteronomy 18:16  According to all that thou desiredst of the LORD thy God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, Let me not hear again the voice of the LORD my God, neither let me see this great fire any more, that I die not. 

Deuteronomy 18:17  And the LORD said unto me, They have well spoken that which they have spoken. 

Deuteronomy 18:18  I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him. 

Deuteronomy 18:19  And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him. 

John 1:45  Philip findeth Nathanael, and saith unto him, We have found him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. 

Now, lets fast forward a few centuries:

Matthew 3:17 And lo a voice from heaven, saying, this is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.

Matthew 4:3 And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.

Matthew 4:4 But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

John 3:34  For he whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God: for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him. 

Luke 8:21  And he answered and said unto them, My mother and my brethren are these which hear the word of God, and do it.  

5

John 17:6  I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word.

John 17:8  For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me. 

Finally, we got the answer!!!

Matthew 4:3 And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.

Matthew 4:4 But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

Oops, does your denomination (one of the thousands of denominations) teach you that you are to live by EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDETH FROM THE MOUTH OF GOD? Or do they teach that you are to just live by a few of them, with those few words being the words the leaders of the denomination like and the words of man that they have added.

Well, none of the other denominations teach that man is to live by EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDETH FROM THE MOUTH OF GOD either.

Instead, just like your denomination, they teach that most of THE WORDS THAT PROCEEDED FROM THE MOUTH OF GOD have been done away with and are no longer relevant, that they were for a different people a long, long time ago in a land far, far away.

6

Almost all of the thousands upon thousands of denominations agree that you don’t really have to live by EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDED OUT OR THE MOUTH OF GOD (refuting what the Messiah himself said), but the problem they have and that causes so many Denominations is they can’t agree on which few words you do have to live by and they certainly can’t agree as to which “words of men” should be added to the WORD OF GOD (you know, Sunday observance, Christmas, Easter, pigs are OK to eat, yes these and many more are additions to and/or deletions from The Word of God).

Matthew 15:3  But he answered and said unto them, Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition?

Mark_7:9  And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition.

Mark 7:13  Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye.

This is why there are so many different denominations!!!

If we all lived by EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDETH OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GOD (Just like the Messiah said we are to do), we would truly be one body (not any denomination). There would not be any more denominational disputes because we would merely look to the Word of God for the answer, instead of our Denominational Creeds, Statements of Faith, Rules and Demandments.

Now you might ask yourself (or your pastor, bishop, priest, pope or whoever) if Yeshua emphatically said that man is to live by EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDETH OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GOD, why does our denomination teach most of the WORDS THAT PROCEEDED FROM THE MOUTH OF GOD have been done away with and are no longer meaningful?

GOOD QUESTION! WHAT IS THE ANSWER YOU GOT?

Hey, if you don’t like the answer and you don’t think the Messiah knew what he was talking about, you can always dismiss the Words of God that you don’t like, pick a few that you do like, add in a few of your own for good measure, mix them all together and start your own Denomination. A lot of other people have and on average someone will be doing so today.

Les CollinsworthModern HebrewThe Scattered 153 Ministries

7

8