Christians What do you think that Jesus would say about all the disagreeing about which denomination?

Question

is the "right or true" Christian Church. I see so much "hair splitting" and arguing about this subject here on Y/A, that I am beginning to think that there is too much about defending denominations than there is about defending the Gospel of Christ. We are all brothers and sisters in Christ. Just because we disagree on trivial issues, why should there be so much antagonism? Would Jesus approve?

Questioning other's doctrine is healthy - "iron sharpens iron", but the name-calling and insults are nothing short of disgusting behaviour for children of God.

Arthur: Joseph Smith was a polytheist. History of the Church 6:474 records Smith stating, "I wish to declare I have always and in all congregations when I have preached on the subject of the Deity, it has been the plurality of Gods." Joseph Smith declared that "God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man, and sits enthroned in yonder heavens!" (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 345). This is clearly not the biblical God.
Galatians 1:6-7 says that people may be "turning to a different gospel-- which is really no gospel at all . . . trying to pervert the gospel of Christ." And he pronounced a curse upon them for doing so. In Romans 1:16 Paul tells us that the gospel is "the power of God unto salvation" - that's pretty important. Did Joseph Smith teach a "different Gospel"? Yes.

Pastor Art: I was referring the the "Christian" denominations, Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox. LDS and JW's are not Christian Denominations. They teach a false gospel of christ - not the Christ of the Bible.

Answer 1

Christian religious denominations (in and of themselves) are nothing.
The quicker all of us get a grasp on that concept, the better off we are.
All organized religion is condemned. One only needs to take a look at Revelation to understand that this is the prophesy. We are called to make deciples of all nations according to the word of God and the good news of His saving grace. .
We are NOT called to tell people what denomination to belong to. I actually said these very words to a pastor once. He was taken aback for a few seconds, and then said he believed that was right.

You are absolutely right Kait. My family belongs to the Missionary Alliance church. We are not better or worse than any other Christian church organization. Our goal is simply to love God and to love others.

blessings :)

Answer 2

Obviously we should not be reaching the point of antagonism as Christians. The reason there are different denominations within Christianity is because the Bible allows for us to have differences of opinions. However there are a few essential doctrines that is central to the Christian Church.

These essential doctrines are,
Jesus is both God and man (John 1:1,14; 8:24; Col. 2:9; 1 John 4:1-4).
Jesus rose from the dead physically (John 2:19-21; 1 Cor. 15:14).
Salvation is by grace through faith (Rom. 5:1; Eph. 2:8-9; Gal. 3:1-2; 5:1-4).
The gospel is the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus (1 Cor. 15:1-4; Gal. 1:8-9).
There is only one God (Exodus 20:3; Isaiah 43:10; 44:6,8)
God exists as a Trinity of persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary (nature of incarnation)

If your church teaches otherwise, it isn't a Christian Church.

Answer 3

Contention is of the devil, (3rd Nephi 11:29) We are to be one in Christ (John 10:16)

We can only be one with God if we are in agreement with his only begotten son who is Lord of all us Christians, we are instructed to act as Jesus would act. That is largely a matter of faith and because of priestcrafts and doctrines of Devils there is much confusion about how to be true Christians. God will judge us according to what we do with what we truly believe.

Joesph Smith taught that we worship one God, the Father of our spirits, who is also the father of Jesus. We are children of God and our God also has a father, as a baby can grow into a man so can a man become a God we will never supplant our Father although that is what Satan and his followers would like to do.

The only way to grow up into a God is by relying upon the mercies and grace of Christ while acting as we believe Jesus would. When we are wrong then God will correct us
(Hebrews 12:6)

Answer 4

Jesus would be saddened by the arguing. Yet, Peter and Paul had some disagreements. It depends on the extent of the disagreement and the purpose of the disagreement. A lot of times, denominations put too much emphasis on non essential matters and try to make them an essential matter.
"Where there are essentials let there be unity, where there are non-essentials let there be liberty." Francis of Assisi (others with attribute the quote to Augustine, it doesn't matter from whom it came from, just it's a true statement)
The essential: Jesus was born, died on a cross and resurrected for the salvation of mankind.
"Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength." 1 Cor 1:22-25

Answer 5

I believe Jesus is extremely upset with how man has taken that which was pure and corrupted it.

For he would tell us there are no denominations in the kingdom of God. He would tell us that man by adding and taking away from the Word of God has brought about the many different and diverse denominations. He would tell us that men chose to believe things other then the Word of God, and to believe things other then the Word of God is to believe the lies of the deceiver.

Which makes perfect sense. For the world has a multitude of different and diverse religions and many people avoid the faith because they see the confusion and arguing among the different denominations. So it is easy to see that the creation of the many different and diverse denominations do not benefit the faith, but they do benefit the devil who is the father of confusion.

Answer 6

Again, this denomination thing. Jesus has never preached religion or denomination. His message was simple. Yet groups of men have formed around an argument and formed there religion. To drink or not to drink; to seal in the temple or not; to have church on Saturday or Sunday; kneel, or not; raise hands and shout, or be silent; to wear a tie in church, or just shots. Come on!!!!

The simple message for us is to accept the give of Jesus Christ as our savior for our sins, that we can return to heaven, and worship an all loving God. We can't get there by our selves being good. So we must accept Jesus.
And then, we must love, cherish, and honor each other. But most of us can't do that, it is too hard, and we and to selfish.

Jesus would not approve of much of what we do now days. There is too much hate, to much self thinking, not enough love and charity.

Answer 7

Well we are called to defend the word of God as the Bible says- BUT we also are not called to debate on so many issues, for the Bible says it leads to fruitlessness.

2 Timothy 2:23
Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels.

2 Timothy 4:2
preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.


-So there is a time to defend God's word, showing others the truth, by sharing His word. Or if we hear something that is false doctrine we should always show what God's word says.
But we should always avoid controversary that does not lead anywhere, but only causes strife.

Answer 8

What get's debated here on Yahoo Q&A are not trivial matters.

Its not hair splitting.

I've never seen Presbyterians and Baptist debate the best type of local church government or what color to paint the church nursery.

That would be trivial.

Debating the JWs or LDS are major issues.

Likewise the debates about the Bible are very important.

Likewise those who debate on the issues of Mary, those are important.

I've seen many major debates on this, but I've never seen a trivial debate.

Pastor Art

Answer 9

Kait, my sister -- it should come as no surprise that I agree with you. But you also know that one man's trivial issue is another's critically essential point of doctrine. In a sense, then, those who argue these points passionately *are* defending the Gospel of Christ, to the degree that they see it threatened or diluted.

I submit that it does the cause of Christ a great deal of harm, though, for the hair-splitting and wrangling to occur in a public fashion so that unbelievers observe us doing so -- and are so repelled by it that they reject the Gospel itself. It's a fine line we walk, and often overstep, between respectful disagreement and outright mud-slinging.

I can't help thinking about what Jesus prayed in the garden; "that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me."

Answer 10

i agree with you one hundred percent...we should all come together in Jesus name to reach the lost.
I feel that division in the church is the work of the enemy, both individual churches and the whole world wide body of Christ.
Is one denomination right or wrong? Only God knows. We should all just serve him in the way we feel best, and obey the Bible. Dividing lines aren't going to matter once we get to heaven. We should all just unite together for the body of Christ and for the cause of Christ and reaching the lost.
Consider the worldwide Christian church. Say different denominations are different parts of the body. Is it right for the leg to tell the arm that it's wrong because it can't walk? Or the arm to tell the eyes that they're wrong because they can't touch? Or the eyes to tell the heart it's wrong because it can't see?
Different churches are different parts of the body, but each serve their purpose. We are all still the body of Christ. And just because we cut out the tonsil's and the gall bladder, doesn't mean God justified it. God make the tonsils just as much as the eyes. We might not see or understand the purpose, but God knows...God made the whole body, complete. We should all have respect for eachother and eachothers churches, and not cut out others that we see useless. God knows their purpose. It doesn't matter if we understand or disagree that we're all here to serve God's purpose. God made us all, and inhabits all of our churches.
For the cause of Christ, the body of Christ as a worldwide whole, and the body of Christ in each church.