In your opinion, what accounts for the tremendous doctrinal and sectarian division within Christianity?

Question

If the Bible is the source of a comprehensible and absolute doctrine, reliable in all instances and application, why are there more than 500 major denominations within Christianity, many of which differ radically from one another? Which particular interpretation is correct? How is one particular interpretation rationally verified over another? Who is to be the final arbiter of which interpretation is correct? If one says God is the final arbiter, then he misses the point, since God has allegedly already had his say in the Bible. It is the interpretation of the Bible – ‘God’s Word’ – that is in question here. Is it the individual? Is it the church clergy? Is it reality? What is the final court of appeal when theological interpretations disagree? Please explain in detail and offer a method of testing your answer for soundness.

Answer 1

I honestly don't know why we, as Christians, have such division. We have a common goal and a common enemy. If a church or fellowship believes in the sacrifice of Jesus, and that through His death and resurrection, the work of salvation is complete, the rest is just window dressing. I could care less if someone choses to have communion with grape juice or wine. I don't care if you are baptised through submersion or sprinkling. It doesn't matter. What matters is Christ Jesus.

There are some denominations that add or subtract to the work Jesus did on the cross. My belief is that there is no work that we can to that can save us. No work. Before grace and faith were given by God to accept Jesus free gift, we were dead in our sins. As my Pastor told me once, what can a dead person do but rot? So any denomination that says you have to do this or you have to do that then you are saved, is taking away from Jesus' work on the cross. Any denomination that does not accord Jesus His rightful place is taking away from the work that He did on the cross. Other than that, if you want to pray with loud voices or in quiet - that's fine. Why can't we, as Christians, just agree to disagree with the small matters? But, like the Israelites before us, we are human and we are, as a body, living in the same disbelief that they did. We often turn our backs on God's true will and build glorious temples to Him that remain empty. We have the power of God here on Earth, but we don't utilize it.

I think our biggest failure, as Christians, is that we forget Jesus' command to love one another - He said that we should love each other so much that the world would see His love through us - but here we sit divided.

Answer 2

Bible Interprets Bible that is to say that the bible has to be consistent in every book. We cannot and should not interpret the bible ourselves and with our own emotions, experiences and intellect. The bible should be interpreted by the bible either thru another verse,chapter or book. Any verse should be viewed in the context of the chapter and the chapter in context with the story or book. This is the very basis of biblical interpretation.

A method of testing for soundness is this:
a sound doctrine should begin in the book of genesis, found in the life of Jesus, expounded on in the epistles.

Mostly denominations disagree on methods, tradition and sometimes theology and very few times on doctrines

hope this helps

Answer 3

You are dealing with the supernatural here so don't expect a natural answer. If you undersand the Bible there are three conditions that must be met in order for someone to know the truth. When individuals do not meet those three requirements they are "spirituall blinded" by God so that they cannot understand the real truth and so they fall into error. The same happens with denominations. One of those requirements is that we need to be willing to do God's will before He will show what it is. When denominations get into their particular "quirk" which is not biblical, they get so hung up on it that they will not give it up, even if the Bible says it is wrong. For example, pentacostals have gotten into the unbiblical teaching of tongues. They have become addicted to it because of the euphoric feeling it gives that makes them feel wonderful. Because they will not give that up, God closes their eyes to see the real truth and so a whole denominaton is swallowed up in error. That is one of the main reasons for so many divisions within the church.

Answer 4

This is a really good question. I am a non denominational christian minister who struggles with this question everyday. The biggest problem that causes devision in the church is pride. I have seen two church splits and both times it was just pride. No theological issues, at the start anyways. Still when theological interpretations disagree the finall court of appeal is to be love, unity, and fellowship. If I live according to Christ's teachings then I must die to myself daily and be a servant to my enemies. If I am willing to be a servant to thoes that hate me then I should likewise be a sevant to my christian brother, who may disagree with me.

Now having said that pastors have a harder job because they are responsible for making sure their flock is instructed correctly according to the Bible. If they teach false doctorine the Bible is very clear that thier punishment will be pretty rough, and eternal. So they have to make decisions on what to teach and what not to teach. They also are confronted with another issue. There are so many areas that can be emphasised in Christian teachings that each denomination seems to have its own area of emphasis. Baptists are teachers of Grace, Pentecostals of Faith, Methodists are more academic, and underneath these each one has probably 100 subgroups. Now when emphasis and not division is the reason for the denomination you can tell because you will have things like interdenominational prayer meatings. I also know pentecostals that preach at methodist churches, and vice versa.

Now that may help you understand why there are denominations, but on the question of interpretation I have always found that most differences come from tradition, not an actual study of scripture. Most of the time the true answer lies in the middle of the argument not really to either side. In almost every denomination I have studied the basics are always the same and alot of the differnces are more based on terminology than on a real perspective change. This is especially true between Catholics and Protestants. Essentially most of thoes denominations believe very much the same things practically they just say them differnetly dogmatically. That is a bad thing.

The problem is that nobody wants to change the way mom and dad worshipped to bring about unity in the church. I have shown people in an absolute verse where they were wrong in scripture and yet they simply refused to believe it. See the problem is not with the Bible or the wording. The Catholic church actually has many of the same theological debates that prostestants do, but they have an answer for your question that protestants don't. The Pope. He keeps the whole thing held together under tthe authority of Jesus Christ. So that pride either get sucked up or diciplined when someone wants to make division over a small issue. I wont say that's right, but it works. So that brings me to my solution and my answer. Jesus Christ taught us that when we have faith and believe He will work for us. It is not theological perfection that He seeks it is the struggle to know Him as our Lord. Then Jesus teaches us that every one who believes in Him are to be one even as He and the Father are one. I believe He gave us a way to accomplish that. So I use the Bible to interpret itself. If there is a theological question this is the method I use to answer it: I look up every verse that utilizes words related to my subject, (usually on a computer, e-sword.com offers a great free program with multiple translations for even greater clarity), then I give the most wieght to whatever Jesus teaches in the 4 gospels (hence the term christian), then I look at the other verses in light of that. Often I will look in the greek language to see if words are actually related as they were written as opposed to related just in the english language. Often the historical or cultural circumstances help to resolve some of the more complicated issues so they tend to be last on my list of checks, but I do check them. Finally, to check for soundness I try to look through the writings of christians in and around the first century, as they were much more unifed than we are now and many learned staight from the apostles(www.newadvent.org- look at the church fathers links) to see if they held any oposing views. As well as I pray before and after I study for the Holy Spirit's guidence. I have done this on a few issues and if you would like to check out my work you can visit my website: www.freewebs.com/servant2006

Answer 5

Gods message to man and mans interpretation of God's word are seldom the same thing. It is like when two people look at a cloud, one sees a rabbit, and the other sees a bear. Or when two people read a passage from the bible and come to two different opinions on what it means. That is why I try to ignore religious dogma and focus on my own personal relationship with Jesus.

Answer 6

Most denominations differ on silly religious things. I belong to a southern Baptist church and I do agree that we interpret the bible more correct than most.I used to go to a Methodist church.The main thing that Jesus told Nicodemus is that you must be born again by the Holy spirit. Water baptism or infant Baptism cannot save you.You have to know that you are lost before you can be saved.Jesus died on the cross for all of us. We just have to believe and accept him.

Answer 7

thank you for affirming what maximum of in the church have did no longer notice. The church does could concentration greater on solidarity and much less on being precise. IF we could basically stay the way we've been meant to stay, this is, in relationship with Father, below the learning of the Holy Spirit, we could lend a hand. The Holy Spirit could instruct us all, and we could all understand the reality in a similar way. the difficulty is as quickly as all of us attempt to understand the Bible with our little human brains. Jesus prayed that we could be one, and then He'd come again... 2000 some years later..... Hmmmm

Answer 8

The Church which compiled the Bible is the only authoritative interpreter of its own writings. It is also the only Church its founder, Jesus Christ, ever intended to exist. To this Church alone Christ promised, "whatsoever you bind upon earth is bound in heaven". To this Church alone Christ promised, "the Holy Spirit will guide you to all truth. To this Church alone Christ promised, "he who hears you hears Me". This Church alone is described in Scripture as "the pillar and foundation of truth". Truth results from following the holy will of our Lord and Savior, Who is the truth. Denominationalism is a direct and flagrant violation of His clearly stated will, and separates those who participate in it from these promises of Christ. Unbiblical practices like sola scriptura - an idea the Apostles never dreamed of - further guarantee that untruth will become rampant. We know that denominational churches are full of untruth because their teaching on virtually every point of Christian doctrine conflicts from one denomination to the next, and truth cannot conflict with truth. The one Church Christ founded for all mankind continues to teach in unity and in the fullness of truth, as it has taught for 2,000 years and will continue to teach until the end of time, free of fragmentation and denominationalism. Truth can exist only in unity, and unity can exist only under the guidance of true authority. Rejecting the authority of the Church Christ founded is a guarantee of disunity and untruth, as recent history has sadly confirmed.
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Answer 9

Apostasy for one thing, the Devil does not want God’s guidance to reach man. Therefore, it is reasonable to assume that he and his cohorts would try to have the Holy Scriptures corrupted so that mankind might be misled and turned away from God. But did they succeed in corrupting God’s words? Would God allow them to do so? No! Throughout the Scriptures, he affirms that he would preserve his words.

“The green grass has dried up, the blossom has withered; but as for the word of our God, it will last to time indefinite,” says Isaiah 40:8. (See also 1 Peter 1:24, 25.)

Please take note that in any one time period, Jehovah did not deal with more than one group of worshipers. For instance, in Noah’s day, only Noah and those in the ark with him came under God’s protection and were carried safely through the waters of the Deluge. (1 Peter 3:20) Likewise in our day, we should expect to find only one people acceptable to God as his true worshipers. But how can we identify the congregated people who are following God’s guidance today, so that we can join with them in worshiping him?

We find this people where we find real unity. God is one and his guidance is one—harmonious, not contradictory. Those who follow God’s guidance constitute a united body, where all members apply God’s righteous principles. We do not find divisions or prejudice among them, but rather we find harmony and brotherly love, even though they come from diverse backgrounds, nationalities, religions, and races. (1 John 4:20, 21) Who, then, are God’s people in our day?

We read: “‘You are my witnesses,’ is the utterance of Jehovah.” (Isaiah 43:10-12)

The weekly Kujawy i Pomorze published the report “You Will Recognize Them by Their Fruit.” In part, the article said that worshipers in Christendom “in reality do not treat very seriously the religious principles they have accepted. They stand in sharp contrast with Jehovah’s Witnesses who act as they say, and they say what the Bible commands.”

After contrasting the appearance of the Witnesses with that of nominal Christians, the report continued: “The latter most likely do not know, and far too often do not apply, the essential truths and principles of their faith. . . . By their attitude, Jehovah’s Witnesses manifest the harmony of their words and actions, thus proving they are not the ‘false prophets,’ rather, they can be recognized by their fruits. ‘Never do people gather grapes from thorns or figs from thistles, do they?’ (Matthew 7:15-20).”

One woman wrote a letter to the Przyjaciółka weekly, lamenting that her son left the Catholic Church and became one of Jehovah’s Witnesses. What was the editor’s advice? “If your son came to associate with Jehovah’s Witnesses, learned and accepted their faith, it is all his own decision, which is to be recognized and respected. . . . This religious group is characterized by many beautiful and socially desirable features, such as their unusual solidarity and profound group ties, great honesty and close following of the accepted rules of community life, and finally, ability to live in harmony with their truth, accomplishing in practice the professed values. These are precious virtues.”

Answer 10

The answer is very simple... they have all given up their promised domain of spiritual guidance and rely on intellect alone.. What does the Bible have to say about "what will happen to the wisdom of the wise"????