Why Are There So Many Denominations In The Church

[Neighbor]

9 minutes ago, Charlie1988 said:

So sharing the Gospel, and preaching the Holy Trinity as One Godhead is not fellowship, it's just what we do out of obedience.    

That reads like it is a chore that one does not enjoy. Is that what you intend to be conveying?

Just a note; I can fellowship with all that  have been called to their own turning about to Jesus as Lord God and personal savior. Even the Tuesday night door knockers LOL.

 

 

[Neighbor]

25 minutes ago, Charlie1988 said:

It's all about God and nothing about us. 

And here I have thought Jesus came to the cross at Calvary because of us. That awesome willing sacrifice being all about us.

[Charlie1988]

1 hour ago, Neighbor said:

Hmm, do you actually know what he thinks? Does he really think he is entitled to not pay taxes?

If so how is he different from those Jesus advised otherwise?

Reference to Matthew 22:15-22 New King James Version

"The Pharisees: Is It Lawful to Pay Taxes to Caesar?

 Then the Pharisees went and plotted how they might entangle Him in His talk.  And they sent to Him their disciples with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that You are true, and teach the way of God in truth; nor do You care about anyone, for You do not regard the person of men.  Tell us, therefore, what do You think? Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?”

 But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, “Why do you test Me, you hypocrites?  Show Me the tax money.” So they brought Him a denarius. And He said to them, “Whose image and inscription is this?”

 They said to Him, “Caesar’s.” And He said to them, “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” When they had heard these words, they marveled, and left Him and went their way."

The Pharisees were not Church Ministers, so that example can not be applied to them. 

In any case Jesus made the point to render onto Cesar, the things that are his and to God the things that are His.

I understand this to be another example of keeping the Church and State separate, in other words Christian are citizens of the country so they need to pay their fair share of tax as citizens. But what we give to our Church and the Minister is a separate issue, which the government has no jurisdiction over.     

[Charlie1988]

1 hour ago, farouk said:

The Lord indeed also left us the Scriptures..........

Sure He did, the question is do we rightly understand them and apply them in their intended context. To do that, we must be lea by the Holy Spirit. As the scripture says, carnal man cannot receive spiritual things as they are spiritually discerned and they are foolishness to the natural man. 

[Charlie1988]

51 minutes ago, Neighbor said:

Seems to me it has occurred, and to very large numbers of people at the same time, as is recorded within the book of Acts for example.

Acts 2 New King James Version Coming of the Holy Spirit

"When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.  And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting.  Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them.  And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.

And there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men, from every nation under heaven.  And when this sound occurred, the multitude came together, and were confused, because everyone heard them speak in his own language.  Then they were all amazed and marveled, saying to one another, “Look, are not all these who speak Galileans?  And how is it that we hear, each in our own language in which we were born?  Parthians and Medes and Elamites, those dwelling in Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya adjoining Cyrene, visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes,  Cretans and Arabs—we hear them speaking in our own tongues the wonderful works of God.” So they were all amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “Whatever could this mean?”

Others mocking said, “They are full of new wine.” But Peter, standing up with the eleven, raised his voice and said to them, “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and heed my words.  For these are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day.  But this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:

‘And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God,
That I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh;
Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
Your young men shall see visions,
Your old men shall dream dreams.
And on My menservants and on My maidservants
I will pour out My Spirit in those days;
And they shall prophesy.
I will show wonders in heaven above
And signs in the earth beneath:
Blood and fire and vapor of smoke.
 The sun shall be turned into darkness,
And the moon into blood,
Before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord.
And it shall come to pass
That whoever calls on the name of the Lord
Shall be saved.’

“Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a Man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves also know—  Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death;  whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that He should be held by it.  For David says concerning Him:

‘I foresaw the Lord always before my face,
For He is at my right hand, that I may not be shaken.
Therefore my heart rejoiced, and my tongue was glad;
Moreover my flesh also will rest in hope.
For You will not leave my soul in Hades,
Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption.
You have made known to me the ways of life;
You will make me full of joy in Your presence.’

“Men and brethren, let me speak freely to you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his tomb is with us to this day.  Therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his body, according to the flesh, He would raise up the Christ to sit on his throne,  he, foreseeing this, spoke concerning the resurrection of the Christ, that His soul was not left in Hades, nor did His flesh see corruption.  This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses.  Therefore being exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He poured out this which you now see and hear.

“For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he says himself:

‘The Lord said to my Lord,
“Sit at My right hand,
Till I make Your enemies Your footstool.” ’

“Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.”

Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?”

Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.  For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.”

 And with many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, “Be saved from this [l]perverse generation.”  Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them.  And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.  Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles.  Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common,  and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need.

So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart,  praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.

 

The account we read in Acts 2, was a specific miraculous event which took place around 2000 years ago. Nothing like that has ever happened since that time.

So that event is not something we will ever see, nobody else was ever given any special powers to perform miracles after the Apostles.

We hear of healing ministries and deliverance ministries, but we know these are all fake as they have no special abilities or power to perform any supernatural feats. 

The other scriptures you mentioned are all future events, we haven't seen any of them take place yet. The sun has never been darkened and none of those other events have taken place yet.   

[warrior12]

2 hours ago, RdJ said:

Only the pentecostal church was not boring. He took me there. My mom thought we had gone to a cult and came over to check. She also stayed. Poor dad. It was too much for him. He got saved too but almost 40 years later.

Yes, indeed the pentecostal church is not boring in their worship and preaching sessions.  Some can be overdramatic in expression and dancing on the stage is permitted , of course non vulgar types.   More so, if you ever been to a caribbean type pentecostal church, wow, you would be blown away, or I hate to say it like this, but to get to the point the black church, they can really put on a performance.  

The preaching can go anywhere and I verse can be the whole of scripture read and the rest of the sermon , examples and stories to accentuate the points made. Well, I don't have to outline all of it as most people would have at least visit or attend a pentecostal church at some point and compared to other denominations, their program service keeps the congregation tuned.

The part that is questionable and at least to my visits to pentecostal churches is the closing of the service, that always culminate with the speaking of tongues by most of the congregation as the pastor or preacher makes alter calls for prayer and the laying on of hands, which leads to falling backwards , meanwhile many praying in tongues as to assist or seemingly invite or keep the holy spirit intensity and presence during that closing session.   That part of the service does not fit to well with me, as the speaking in tongues at that point is not done accordingly to scripture.

In a way, I can see if the holy spirit is genuinely moving in a place and en mass , then the jubilation and worship ect., would be an act of uncontrolable praise and worship.  Many thinks or believe those spiritual experience are false or fakes, but I can say , the falling down and others are real , as their are real spirits in operation there as I have felt them.

In my early days of going to a pentecostal church, I was cautious as I had not to long ago had teriffying affliction by an unseen force, as I would call it at this time, that I though I was going to die.  So usually, I would not go up to alter calls and be prayed for ect. One day, I prayed and then made the decision to go and it did not go to well, is all I would say for now.  But my point is , I felt that spiritual movement there .   I would leave the observation like this and let others comment.

Now, I don't know if all pentecostal church services are like this, as I know their are different sects or branches that holds different beliefs and do service in their way.

The fundamental Baptist Church on the other hand, if you are not a keen follower of the preacher points, you can easily droop the head and struggle to stay awake.  They have a set routine and they belive God is a God of order and so do things that is formal and in a set pattern.

[Charlie1988]

53 minutes ago, Neighbor said:

That reads like it is a chore that one does not enjoy. Is that what you intend to be conveying?

Just a note; I can fellowship with all that  have been called to their own turning about to Jesus as Lord God and personal savior. Even the Tuesday night door knockers LOL.

 

 

Laboring in the great harvest is a chore, it's very hard work because the harvest is so great but the laborer's are so few. Yes it's hard work and it's not enjoyable, especially when we encounter hostile people who hate God and His people. So it's certainly not always pleasant. 

We can fellowship with those, who the Lord Jesus Christ is their God and personal Savior. I mean you just described a fellow believer, the difficulty with that though, is the Disciples all believed that Judas Iscariot was genuine born again Christian but he turned out to be a Devil. 

We need to be careful not to have fellowship with Devils.   

Edited June 22, 2024 by Charlie1988

[Vine Abider]

10 hours ago, Charlie1988 said:

My Pastor doesn't allow us to attend any events where people from Non Reformed Churches will be present. His view is that we are not to have fellowship, with Churches who hold to different systems of theology. 

He teaches that there is only one church (the Body of Christ), and he considers certain Denominations as being outside the Body of Christ due to what they believe, that being contrary to what the Bible teaches.  

Do they have Christ in them, that is, are they reborn?  Then that makes them members of the body.  Now their teaching may be deemed unhealthy, and that may be some consideration, but if they have the life of Christ in them, by definition they are members of His body .  . . 

[RdJ]

4 hours ago, farouk said:

Hi @Neighbor Spurgeon is a great guide to the Scriptures; the Lion in Winter, as he was called...............

He's also on Facebook LOL. He even talks Dutch.

[warrior12]

11 minutes ago, Vine Abider said:

Do they have Christ in them, that is, are they reborn?  Then that makes them members of the body.  Now their teaching may be deemed unhealthy, and that may be some consideration, but if they have the life of Christ in them, by definition they are members of His body .  . . 

I will give an example of a church that has statues that are strictly enforced.  If a member is living with another person and the church finds out, then that person is called in for  counsel and if they continue, they are then taken of the members list. It is considered as fornication and living in sin.

How would you conclude on a chuch that implement those standards.