“WHY SO MANY DENOMINATIONS?”
category: history
Notice: All Scripture References are from Roman Catholic approved versions, e.g., the Catholic Public Domain Version, Latin Vulgate. I have capitalized Church per the versions quoted.
Why are there so many denominations? When one searches the New Testament there existed only one church. There were human problems mentioned but the church described was together. “And then all who believed were together, and they held all things in common” (Acts 2:44, CPDV).
During His earthly ministry, Jesus said He would build His church, “Upon this rock I will build my Church” (Matthew 16:18b). John the Baptist was dead when this prediction was made so it was not to be John the Baptist’s church. Neither was it to be the man Peter’s church. Jesus said “I will build my Church.”
“Simon Peter [had] responded by saying, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’ And in response, Jesus said to him: ‘Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father, who is in heaven. And I say to you, that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it’” (Matthew 16:16-18). “This rock” refers to what Peter had just said who Jesus is.
Jesus’ Church was to be built upon Peter’s confession (“this rock”) which was that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God (v. 17). Later, the apostle writes “For other foundation no man can lay, but that which is laid: which is Christ Jesus” (1 Corinthians 3:11). Jesus Christ is the foundation of His Church that the Holy Spirit witnesses about through the apostles and prophets in the Sacred Scriptures (Ephesians 2:20). “All Scripture, having been divinely inspired, is useful for teaching” (2 Timothy 3:16,17).
The apostle writes, “And I ask him to grant to you to be strengthened in virtue by his Spirit, in accord with the wealth of his glory, in the inner man, so that Christ may live in your hearts through a [Greek: the] faith rooted in, and founded on, charity [love]” (Ephesians 3:16,17). Jesus the foundation of the Church lives in our hearts by means of the Faith rooted in love. God’s choice is that Jesus the foundation dwells then in the hearts of the Church through the Faithi delivered by the apostles.
Jesus prayed for all His believers to be unified with His apostles “through their word.” “But I am not praying for them [His apostles] only, but also for those who through their word shall believe in me. So may they all be one. Just as you, Father, are in me, and I am in you, so also may they be one in us: so that the world may believe that you have sent me” (John 17:20-21).
It is not Jesus’ intent that His believers be divided. He wants us to be one as He and the Father are one. He wants us to be one with the apostles. The key to that oneness is attention to the apostles’ teaching. Indeed, those at the beginning were one because they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ teaching. “Now they were persevering in the doctrine of the Apostles, and in the communion of the breaking of the bread, and in the prayers” (Acts 2:41). The Church divided when they began to rebel against the words of the apostles.
Based
on James Huggins chart by permission; Adapting
from https://www.biblestudylessons.net/Huggins1/JH.html
WARNINGS OF REVOLT AGAINST THE FAITH:
Bible quotes below are from the 1899 Douay-Rheims Bible, approved by the Roman Catholic Church. To see answers go to endnotes.
Matthew
7:15, Jesus warned,
“Beware
of false prophets, who come to you in the clothing of sheep, but
inwardly they are ravening wolves.”
How
do false prophets come?
Answer:
“in
the clothing
of
__________ ii
_________.”
Acts
20:28, 29, One of the apostles, Paul
warned the
Church’s leaders,
“I
know that after my departure ravening wolves will enter in among you,
not sparing the flock.”
Who
would enter in among the leaders?
Answer:
“ravening
_______ iii_____.”
1
Timothy 4:1- 5, Paul
wrote,
“Now the Spirit manifestly
saith that in the last times some shall depart from the faith, giving
heed to spirits of error and doctrines of devils, Speaking lies...,
Forbidding to marry, to abstain from meats...”
What
is the Spirit saying through
Paul? Answer:
“Some
shall “depart
from ____iv
_______.”
v.
6, “These
things proposing to the brethren, thou shalt be a good minister of
Christ Jesus, nourished up in the
words of [Greek:
the]
faith
and of the good doctrine
which thou hast attained unto.”
A
good minister is nourished up in
the ____ v
__ and the good doctrine.
2
Timothy 4:2-6, the apostle
Paul wrote,
“Preach the word:
... For there shall be a time when they will not endure sound
doctrine but, according to their own desires, they will heap to
themselves teachers having itching ears: And will indeed turn away
their hearing from the truth, but will be turned unto fables…
”
After
Paul’s time,
“they
would turn away their ____vi____
from the truth.”
2
Thessalonians 2:1-7, Paul
wrote,
“And we beseech you, brethren, by
the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and of our gathering together
unto him: That you be not easily moved from your sense nor be
terrified, neither by spirit nor by word nor by epistle. as sent from
us, as if the day of the Lord were at hand. Let no man deceive you
by any means: for unless there come a revolt
firstvii,
and the man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition Who opposeth and
is lifted up above all that is called God or that is worshipped, so
that he sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself as if he were
God. Remember you not that, when I was yet with you, I told you
these things?”
What
would come
before the day of the Lord?
Answer: “there come(s)
a revolt first, and the man of __________ viii_____.”
RESTORATION (MEANS OF):
1
Peter 4:11, “If any man speak, let
him speak, as the words of God. If any minister, let him do it, as of
the power which God administereth: that in all things God may be
honoured through Jesus Christ: to whom is glory and empire for ever
and ever. Amen.”
If
anyone
speaks
let him do it according to ________ ”ix
_____.
2
John 9, “Whosoever revolteth and
continueth not in the doctrine of Christ hath not God. He that
continueth in the doctrine, the same hath both the Father and the
Son.”
One
has the Father and the Son if he
continues in the “______
x
____.”
1
Corinthians 4:6, “And
so, brothers, I have presented these things in myself and in Apollo,
for your sakes, so that you may learn, through us, that no one should
be inflated against one person and for another, not beyond what has
been written”
(CPDV).
We
are to learn not to behave “beyond
_______ xi
______________.”
Jude
3, “Dearly beloved, taking all care
to write unto you concerning your common salvation, I was under a
necessity to write unto you: to beseech you to contend earnestly for
the faith once delivered to the saints.”
When
Jude 3 was written, what had been delivered and
what are we to contend for? Answer:
the ___________ xii__
once delivered
Ephesians
4:3-6, “Careful to keep the unity of
the Spirit in the bond of peace. One body and one Spirit: as you are
called in one hope of your calling. One Lord, one faith, one
baptism. One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through
all, and in us all.”
How
many Spirits are
there and how many Faiths?
____xiii_____
.
PATTERN:
Hebrews
8:5, “Who
serve [OT]
unto the example and shadow of
heavenly things [NT].
As it was answered to Moses, when he was to finish the tabernacle:
See (saith he) that thou make all things according to the pattern
which was shewn thee on the mount.”
In what
way are we to follow the OT’s example?
Answer: Do all things
according to the _______xiv____.
Romans
1:16, “For
I am not ashamed of the gospel. For it is the power of God unto
salvation to every one that believeth: to the Jew first and to the
Greek.”
What
is God’s power to save?
It is the
_____xv____.
1
Corinthians 4:16,
“Therefore,
I beg you, be imitators of me, just as I am of Christ” (CPDV).
v.
17-18, “For
this cause have I sent to you Timothy, who is my dearest son and
faithful in the Lord. Who will put you in mind of my waysxvi,
which are in Christ Jesus: as I teach every where in every church.
As if I would not come to you, so some are puffed up.”
What
are the ways in Christ Jesus that we
are to imitate?
Answer: As Paul teaches ________xvii
________ in every church.
THE REVOLT FROM THE FAITH:
Matthew 13:19, “When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, there cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart: this is he that received the seed by the way side.”
Luke 8:11, “Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God.”
1 Peter 1:22-25, “ … Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible, by the word of God who liveth and remaineth for ever. … And this is the word which by the gospel hath been preached unto you.”
Hearing God’s Word is like a sowing of ___xviii___ in one’s heart.
Who catches away the seed from our hearts? ______xix_______.
Sequence of Examples of Revolts.
150 AD- Clergyxx
250 AD- Adamic Sin inherited dogmaxxi
251 AD- Novatius divisionxxii
325 AD- Nicaea creed
350 AD- Holy Waterxxiii
606 AD- “Pope” Boniface IIIxxiv
604 AD- Bellsxxv
622 AD- Islam rises
1000 AD- Celibacyxxvi Required
1311 AD- Council of Viennexxvii
31 October, 1517 - “Reformation Day.” Martin Luther.
Latter Day Prophets: Mormonism, Seventh Day Adventism, etc.
Why are there so many denominations? They are not produced from the perfect Word of God but in spite of it. The divisions result rather from a series of rebellions from the Faith that was once delivered by the Spirit baptized and inspired apostles. According to Jesus the hearing of the Faith would be and has been corrupted by the Wicked One.
- Gaylon Westi The Faith. Thayer’s Heb. & Greek Dict.: “the religious beliefs of Christians.” See Jude 3; Eph. 2:8-10.
iiClothing of sheep
iiiWolves
iv“Spirit manifestly saith. Depart from the faith.”
v“the words of the Faith and the good doctrine.”
viTurn away their hearing from the truth.
vii“Apostasy”, CPDV
viii“the man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition”
ix “the words of God”
x “continueth in the doctrine (teaching)”
xi “beyond what has been written.”
xii “the faith” “the faith”
xiii “one” “one”
xiv “Do all things according to the pattern.”
xv “gospel”
xvi Strong’s definition of “ways”: “a road; a progress (the route, act or distance); figuratively a mode or means.”
xvii “teaches everywhere in every church.”
xviii “seed”
xix “the wicked one.”
xx “By the end of the 2nd century, the church’s bishops were called priests (Latin sacerdos).” https://www.britannica.com/topic/priest-Christianity
xxi The concept of original sin was popularized by Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, a.d. 354-431.
xxii https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novatian. An influential priest and the first Roman theologian who used the Latin language, at a time when there was much debate about how to deal with those baptized Christians who had denied their faith or performed the formalities of a ritual sacrifice to the pagan gods under the pressures of the persecution sanctioned by Emperor Decius in AD 250. Novatian was shortly afterwards excommunicated. The schismatic church which he established persisted for several centuries.
xxiii “a fourth-century bishop, and likewise the "testamentum Domini", a Syriac composition dating from the fifth to the sixth century, contain a blessing of oil and water during Mass
xxiv “Roman government, proclaims Boniface III, as the ‘Head of all the Churches’ and ‘Universal Bishop’ http://www.bible.ca/ntx-organization-historical-development-papal-patriarchal-systems-588-606AD.htm
xxv AD 604 Pope Sabinianus officially sanctioned bells’ usage. https://www.gotquestions.org/church-bells.html.
xxvi The Church was a thousand years old before it definitively took a stand in favor of celibacy in the twelfth century at the Second Lateran Council held in 1139, when a rule was approved forbidding priests to marry. In 1563, the Council of Trent reaffirmed the tradition of celibacy. https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/696
xxvii https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Council_of_Vienne
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