There
are hundreds of different religious denominations, all wearing different
names, teaching different doctrines, practicing different forms of worship,
promulgating different plans of salvation, and each with its own earthly
headquarters.
How could anyone conclude that scripture authorizes this present
confusion or that God is at all pleased by the wholesale abandonment of His
plan? “For
God is not the author of confusion” (1 Corinthians 14:33), but man is.
The people of all denominational churches call Jesus, Lord.
But Jesus says in Matthew 7:21-23, “Not everyone who says to Me,
Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My
Father in heaven.
Many will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in
Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?
And then I will declare to them, I never knew you; depart from Me, you
who practice lawlessness.”
On Judgment Day there will be many people pleading with the Lord that
they had prophesied and done many wonders in His name.
They hadn’t done “the will of My Father in heaven”, but man’s
will. Because
of this they will be horribly surprised when they are told by Jesus, “I
never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness”.
This is the worse thing that will ever be said to an individual because
he will be eternally lost in Hell forever.
This is very serious.
They practiced lawlessness because they did not do what God says but
what man said in following their many, various, and differing denominational
creeds. One
must do the will of the Father in heaven, and not the will of man, if he
expects to go to heaven.
Doing the will of the Father has never put one into a denomination.
People must do something more or less than what the Bible says to
become a member of a denomination.
Satan uses many devices to deceive man into accepting his way and to
reject God’s way, so man will be eternally lost.
We read in 2 Corinthians 2:11, “Lest Satan should take advantage of
us; for we are not ignorant of his devices.”
Satan and his ministers pass themselves off as ministers of Christ.
We read in 2 Corinthians 11:14-15, “For Satan himself transforms
himself into an angel of light.
Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform
themselves into ministers of righteousness.”
Satan and his ministers are still hard at work today.
Denominationalists falsely claim to be the ministers of Christ.
They urge people to reject the Lord’s one plan of salvation and
substitute one of Satan’s plans, such as to “accept Jesus as their
personal Saviour” and to say the “Sinner’s Prayer” to be saved; but
where in the Bible is any of this found?
It is not there because this plan has come from Satan, “who changed
the truth of God into a lie” (Romans 1:25). Satan’s
ministers persuade people into believing they are saved without doing what
Jesus says we must do to be saved, so they are still lost.
They urge people to reject Christ’s one true church and to accept a
man-made denomination. They urge people to reject the worship of God in truth
as found in the New Testament (John 4:24) and substitute man-made worship
which is more entertaining.
Denominations are one the cleverest and most deceptive things Satan has
ever done.
Christ died for His one church and purchased it with His own blood (Acts
20-28). He
did not purchase nor die for any of the hundreds of differing denominations. When
the Book of Mormon is planted into the human heart, the result is a Mormon,
not a Christian.
When the Baptist Church Manual is planted, it results in one becoming a
Baptist, not a Christian.
When the Methodist Discipline is planted it brings forth a Methodist,
not a Christian.
It takes Catholic Catechism to make one a Catholic, not a Christian.
Etc. Each
man-made denomination has a different name that separates it from all the
other man-made denominations.
Each teaches a different doctrine from its own man-made creed.
Obeying any of these false doctrines will never make one a member of
the Lord’s one true church.
All denominations exist without divine authority and those who remain
in them will be eternally lost.
Denominationalism exists because something other than God’s word is
taught. Anything
taught that is more than, less than, or different from the Bible is false
doctrine, which is designed by Satan to cause people to be eternally lost in
Hell.
From where did all this religious confusion come?
“But evil men and imposters will grow worse and worse, deceiving and
being deceived” (2 Timothy 3:13).
If all people were following the Bible and the Bible only, there would
be no denominations.
The Lord only has “one body” (Ephesians 4:4) and the Bible says His
“one body” is His one church (Ephesians 1:22-23).
After Peter confessed to Jesus “You are the Christ, the Son of the
living God” (Matthew 16:16), Jesus promised “Upon this rock I will build
My church” (Matthew 16:18).
The
church
of
Christ
was established in
Jerusalem
on the Day of Pentecost after the resurrection and ascension of Christ into
Heaven as we read in Acts chapter two.
The church Jesus built is not a denomination.
The Lord did not say He would build many churches, but He said “My
church”, singular, and it belongs to Him.
None of the many differing denominational churches belong to the Lord.
They all belong to Satan.
Many denominational churches react in bitterness and hatred when the
truth about denominationalism is presented.
This is similar to the hatred and bitterness we read of in the four
gospels, when Jesus taught the truth and was crucified for it.
In the book of Acts, all the apostles were imprisoned and beaten and
commanded to no longer teach the truth (Acts 5:17-42).
Stephen was stoned to death (Acts 8:58-60) and the apostle James was
killed with a sword for teaching the truth (Acts 12:1-2).
Secular history tells us that all the apostles died a violent death,
except the apostle John who was exiled to the Isle of Patmos, for teaching the
truth. Satan’s
war against the truth of God’s word continues in full force today, with
false doctrine being his main tactic.
Jesus came into this world to establish one and only one church to which
only the saved are added.
When one obeys the Lord’s command, “He that believes and is
baptized shall be saved” (Mark 16:16), it is then “the Lord added to the
church daily those who were being saved” (Acts 2:47).
There are no unsaved people in the
church
of
Christ
. Men
may join their own denominations, but the Lord adds only the saved to His one
church. No
Protestant denomination can trace its beginning back farther than the
1500’s. There
are hundreds of different denominations, each founded by different men at
various times and different places.
Psalms 127:1 says, “Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in
vain who build it.”
Because the Lord did not build any of the many denominational churches,
many people are laboring in vain.
Denominationalism promotes the false notion that any of the
denominations are just as valid as the Lord’s one true church.
This is what Satan wants people to believe.
“Christ is the head of the church and He is the Saviour of the
body” (Ephesians 5:23).
Christ has only promised to save His one body, which is His one church.
Many people refuse to accept that the Lord only has one church that He
is going to save.
But what is going to happen to the hundreds of differing denominational
churches which men have started?
Jesus says, “Every plant which My heavenly Father has not planted
will be uprooted” (Matthew 15:13).
If one is in any of the many denominational churches, he will be
uprooted and thrown into the eternal fires of Hell forever.
This is sad because it doesn’t have to be this way.
Satan’s main tactic in causing people to be lost is deception.
Denomanationalism offers a deceptive satisfaction to many people which
will only lead them to be eternally lost.
It does great harm by elevating human opinion over the truth of God’s
word as found in the Bible.
Proverbs 14:12 says, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but
its end is the way of death.”
Man doing what seems right in his own eyes will end in his spiritual
death, which is being eternally separated from God (Isaiah 59:2).
Many people do not want the truth.
The Bible says, ‘because they did not receive the love of the truth,
that they might be saved, and for this reason God will send them strong
delusion, that they should believe a lie that they all may be condemned who
did not believe the truth” (2 Thessalonians 2:10-12).
If one doesn’t love the truth of God’s word, he is going to be
condemned on Judgment Day.
Many people applaud the system of denominationalism.
We hear it stated, to “attend the church of your choice”.
God doesn’t give us a choice of churches so we can select the one we
like best. We
must select the church of God’s choice so we can be saved and go to Heaven?
The process by which one becomes a member of a man-created denomination
is not the process by which one becomes a Christian and a member of the
Lord’s one church for which He gave His life (Ephesians 5:25).
Consider all the exclusive and conflicting doctrines held by the
hundreds of different denominations and they all are deceived into thinking
they are going to Heaven.
Denominationalism does great harm by fostering a false sense of
security. Its
lies have caused multiplied millions of people to go through life believing
they are saved.
This destroys any capacity to examine their condition in light of
scripture. People
in denominations are “tossed to and fro and carried about by every wind of
doctrine, but the trickery of men, in cunning craftiness of deceitful
plotting” (Ephesians 4:14).
People must seek the truth of God’s word if they expect to go to
heaven.
If one will only take the Bible and obey only the instructions therein
without adding to, deleting from, or changing it in any way, then he becomes a
Christian and a member of the
church
of
Christ
. The
church
of
Christ
is composed of all the saved in Christ but all those outside His one church
are deceived and are lost. It
will not be a joking matter to find out on the Day of Judgment that the Lord
is not going to save anyone in the hundreds of different man-made
denominational churches, since they are not His.
If we really want salvation, it must be on the Lord’s terms, not
ours. Horrible
surprises will greet many on Judgment Day.
The Judgment will be final.
There will be no second chances or appeals.
We must get it right the first time.