Denominations

   There are about 2.5 billion Christians in the world. These Christians are divided into 38,000 thousand unique sub categories, known as denominations.

 Each denomination believes a unique variation of the Gospel. Some of these groups are radically different from others, while some are very similar. Some groups are sure that they are the one and only right way and others think that everyone is always right all the time. Some of these denominations have hundreds of thousands of people in their particular branch, and some have only hundreds. However different these groups may or may not be, there is one thing they all agree on. Jesus is God, and we need God to go to heaven.

Every single Christian that I have ever met has agreed on one thing. We need God. Even the Nazarenes who believe that we can become holy on earth, and the health and wealth people who think if we only have FAITH we can achieve the impossible, even they realize that we need God. If we don’t have Christ as a model for our holy behavior, what’s the point? If we don’t have a perfect God to put our faith in, why have faith?

The little things that set denominations apart matter. The little pieces that I believe in, and you don’t, are what make my personal relationship with God so intimate. It means that I have studied the scriptures, and I have earnestly prayed over my beliefs and I made my decision based on what I thought God was tell me. Of course, that’s what everyone does, and that’s why we have so many different denominations.

While representing my college at a fair in Northern MA, I was challenged by a mother of a high school aged student. She came up to my table and started firing questions at me about the school’s religious ties, beliefs on the inherency of the scriptures, Jesus's life on earth, and baptism. This mother had definitely thought out what she was going to say was quite prepared. I did my best to answer her questions as honestly as I could. When I was done responding to her outburst she said something along the lines of “Well, good. You know I choose (insert the denomination of her choice) because I think it’s closest to the scriptures. I don’t know what other people believe, but I’m relying on the Bible” When she walked away I could only stare in amazement. I was shocked by her frank assessment of her beliefs, and total dismissal of every single faith that didn’t completely agree with her own. Nothing to say about her being glad the school would accept her faith (vs. that of her child, whom I’m expecting would be the one to actually attend). Don’t we all choose a particular denomination because we think it follows most closely to the Bible? Who in the world would choose a certain set of beliefs because they thought it didn’t follow the Bible?  It just goes to show that we CANNOT dismiss others beliefs simply because they are different. We can engage in creative discussions where both parties honestly seek to learn about the other, and make decisions based off of reason and intelligent thought.

It seems to me that maybe denominations divide the body of Christ. Aren’t we all suppose to be the UNITED children of God, UNITED under one Father, UNITED we stand for his glory and the betterment of his eternal kingdom? Yes we all believe something a bit different from our neighbor, but we are ALL Christians. We ALL serve the perfect God. Don’t you think that maybe, just maybe…. God is sitting up in heaven looking down at us just shaking his head, laughing at our caterwauling and bickering, and trying to make things certain? Maybe things aren’t supposed to be certain on earth. Maybe sometimes we aren’t supposed to know. Maybe it’s enough that we try, we love, we serve, and we humble our selves before God. Maybe, all we need is love.