Do Denominations Have The Divine Right To Exist?
Absolutely not.
While personally ministering upon the earth, Jesus stated that He would build His church (Matthew 16:18). In Acts 2 Luke writes that the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved (Acts 2:47). Paul writes some thirty years that there is only one body (Ephesians 4:4), which he defines as the church (Ephesians 1:22,23). Therefore, there is one church that the Lord built and He was adding the saved to His precious body, the church. We recognize then from the Scriptures that the concept of denominationalism is foreign and goes against God's plan. Denominations do not have any Divine right to exist for the following reasons:
They despise the precious unity that Jesus had prayed for on behalf of His disciples (John 17:20-23).
They despise the instructions that Paul commanded in that we are to yield to speaking the same thing in the same mind and the same judgment (1 Corinthians 1:10).
They despise the historical fact that all the congregations that were established were sown and planted by the word of God (Luke 8:11), were to be unified together on the Divine platform of unity that is located in Ephesians 4:4-6.
They implicitly destroy the family unit in which God had designed for a husband and wife to become one flesh (Genesis 2:24). That goal is hindered when each spouse has a different religious affiliation with some denomination. Therefore, the children suffer for it and are forced to take sides.
It is important to understand that a denomination is not a “church” in the New Testament, spiritual sense of the word. The Bible calls religious people who go beyond the doctrine of Christ as departures, divisions, or offenses (1 Timothy 4:1; Romans 16:17). From such we must avoid and not enable in any way (Romans 16:17; 2 John 1:9-11).
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