If the bible is so 'cut & dry' in regards to rules, why all the denominations?

Answer 1

because -- it is so ridiculous and so poorly writtten, none of them can agree on what it says or how it is to be worshiped!! that is why there are over 200 denominations of christian cultists in the US alone!!

Answer 2

Great question. The more denominations a religion has, the more I know it's been "messed with" by human ego over time. According to Mohammed, Islam is meant to be non-denominational - but it isn't.

It's my feeling that humans choose religion that suits their prejudices. And if a religion is not quite 'right', then why not invent a denomination...

You ask a very good question!

Answer 3

Because man starts to leave the simplicity of Gods word and interpret it with their own understanding. Two people may read a scripture and their understandings may be different and instead of seeking Christ deligently we lean on our own understanding and draw conclusions from that which opens the door to division.

Disunity amongst believer creates errors and will lead to different views concerning the scripture.

Difference of the theology of what they were studying concerning the faith created division and this is how the different denominations came about.

Answer 4

Because people have a habit of interpreting the Bible to suit their own needs instead of praying for understanding and knowledge of God's word. Never follow a denomination, follow where God leads.

Answer 5

Who said the Bible is "cut and dry"? The Bible is the most profound piece of writing ever put together...revealing life's deepest mysteries! WHile it makes many things clear, such as that the only path to eternal salvation is through Christ who died for our sins, it leaves much to be debated and discovered by us believers (review the Book of Revelation for instance!)....that is, as God chooses to reveal such wisdom and understanding to us.

Answer 6

Denominations have come about because of various traditions that for the most part have not detracted from true worship of God (for example, some denominations baptize by sprinkling of water, while others baptize by total immersion), although denominations are not wrong as long as they are pointing people to God and not trying to use their own group as a way to draw people away from another denomination. My family went to a non-denominational, very traditional church in the town I was born in, where we lived until I was 9, then we moved several hundred miles away to another state and started going to a Methodist church near our house after neighbors invited us. We went to that church until my dad got transferred to another state about two years later, visited a couple of Methodist churches but then found a Baptist church where we were really being fed spiritually, and we stayed there until my dad again got transferred a couple years after that. We again visited several churches (Methodist, Baptist and maybe Lutheran) before again finding one where we were growing spiritually, and attended that church until my dad again got transferred. My family then ended up moving to the town where I ended up going to college, and while the rest of my family again moved to another state about three years later, I lived there for a total of 14 years and joined a rather large church that was Baptist-affiliated, although they downplayed their Baptist ties because the denomination itself wasn't the real issue--what mattered was that they were preaching the Bible and pointing people to Jesus. I moved from there a little over five years ago back to the state where I was born, and have been a part of a very large nondenominational church that is conservative but contemporary.

So to make a long answer short, as long as the denominations are sticking with the basics of the Bible, any peripheral issues shouldn't really matter. This excerpt is from the first link below:


# "Central doctrines" of the Christian faith are those doctrines that make the Christian faith Christian and not something else.

1. The meaning of the expression "Christian faith" is not like a wax nose, which can be twisted to mean whatever the speaker wants it to mean.

2. The Christian faith is a definite system of beliefs with definite content (Jude 3Off-site Link)

3. Certain Christian doctrines constitute the core of the faith. Central doctrines include the Trinity, the deity of Christ, the bodily resurrection, the atoning work of Christ on the cross, and salvation by grace through faith. These doctrines so comprise the essence of the Christian faith that to remove any of them is to make the belief system non-Christian.

4. Scripture teaches that the beliefs mentioned above are of central importance (e.g., Matt. 28:19Off-site Link; John 8:24Off-site Link; 1 Cor. 15Off-site Link; Eph. 2:8-10Off-site Link).

5. Because these central doctrines define the character of Christianity, one cannot be saved and deny these.

6. Central doctrines should not be confused with peripheral issues, about which Christians may legitimately disagree.

Peripheral (i.e. non-essential) doctrines include such issues as the timing of the tribulation, the method of baptism, or the structure of church government. For example, one can be wrong about the identity of "the spirits in prison" 1 Peter 3:19Off-site Link) or about the timing of the rapture and still go to heaven, but one cannot deny salvation by grace or the deity of Christ (John 8:24Off-site Link) and be saved.

7. All Christian denominations -- whether Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, or Protestant -- agree on the essential core. The relatively minor disagreements between genuinely Christian denominations, then, cannot be used to argue that there is no objectively recognized core of fundamental doctrine which constitutes the Christian faith.

Answer 7

Religious Unity

O ye that dwell on earth! The distinguishing feature that marketh the preeminent character of this Supreme Revelation consisteth in that We have, on the one hand, blotted out from the pages of God’s book whatsoever hath been the cause of strife, of malice and mischief amongst the children of men, and have, on the other, laid down the essential prerequisites of concord, of understanding, of complete and enduring unity. Well is it with them that keep My statutes.—BAHÁ’U’LLÁH, Tablet of the World.

Sectarianism in the Nineteenth Century

Never, perhaps, did the world seem farther away from religious unity than in the nineteenth century. For many centuries had the great religious communities—the Zoroastrian, Mosaic, Buddhist, Christian, Muhammadan and others—been existing side by side, but instead of blending together into a harmonious whole they had been at constant enmity and strife, each against the others. Not only so, but each had become split up, by division after division, into an increasing number of sects which were often bitterly opposed to each other. Yet Christ had said: “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another, “ and Muhammad had said: “This your religion is the one religion. … To you hath God prescribed the faith which He commanded unto Noah, and which We have revealed unto thee, and which We commanded unto Abraham and Moses and Jesus saying: ‘Observe this faith, and be not divided into sects therein!’” The Founder of every one of the great religions had called His followers to love and unity, but in every case the aim of the Founder was to a large extent lost sight of in a welter of intolerance and bigotry, formalism and hypocrisy, corruption and misrepresentation, schism and contention. The aggregate number of more or less hostile sects in the world was probably greater at 117 the commencement of the Bahá’í era than at any previous period in human history. It seemed as if humanity at that time were experimenting with every possible kind of religious belief, with every possible sort of ritual and ceremonial observance, with every possible variety of moral code.
At the same time an increasing number of men were devoting their energies to fearless investigation and critical examination of the laws of nature and the foundations of belief. New scientific knowledge was being rapidly acquired and new solutions were being found for many of the problems of life. The development of inventions such as steamship and railway, postal system and press, greatly aided the diffusion of ideas and the fertilizing contact of widely different types of thought and life.
The so-called “conflict between religion and science” became a fierce battle. In the Christian world Biblical criticism combined with physical science to dispute, and to some extent to refute, the authority of the Bible, an authority that for centuries had been the generally accepted basis of belief. A rapidly increasing proportion of the population became skeptical about the teachings of the churches. A large number even of religious priests secretly or openly entertained doubts or reservations regarding the creeds adhered to by their respective denominations.
This ferment and flux of opinion, with increasing recognition of the inadequacy of the old orthodoxies and dogmas, and groping and striving after fuller knowledge and understanding, were not confined to Christian countries, but were manifest, more or less, and in different forms, among the people of all countries and religions.

Answer 8

if i were to cross my hands and look at the sky, 1 might think im considering something.

then again someone else would look at the sky too and ask me, wat're u looking at so attentively?

a close friend might then come and ask me "are u angry with so and so?"

if so many interpretations could be made out of 1 simple gesture, what more the Bible, written by men of God?

Remember, for His ways are higher than ours, and His thoughts are higher than ours. He definitely has the reasons for putting the thoughts into them.

Answer 9

The Bible's cut and dry? That's news to me.

Answer 10

Pride. It's like when kids say, "I know something you don't know..." And when others don't agree with that 'revelation' then a new denomination would be formed because of a tantrum.

Answer 11

Because so many can't agree on all the "cut" and "dried" pieces they made of the bible.