Are Denominations Biblical?

Hello and thank you for listening to the Testing the Spirits podcast. Today we're going to be talking about denominations.

So if you belong to, let me just say this up front, if you belong to a denomination, I'm not against you,

I'm not looking to pick a fight, but I am going to give you my thoughts on this and I'm going to give you several reasons why

I don't agree with denominations. So I believe the

Bible teaches, we'll start with this. The Bible teaches two offices in a local church, pastor and deacon or bishop and deacon based on first Timothy chapter three,

Philippians one, one, Paul writes to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi.

This is the example he says he's writing to the bishops and the deacons.

So two offices in a local church. Now obviously denominations didn't exist in the

Bible. You wouldn't expect there to be an explicit statement. So we kind of have to figure this out. So follow the logic.

Two offices in a local church, bishop and deacon, and that's generally accepted that pastor elder, you know, based on first Peter five bishop, pastor, elder, overseer, it's all the same thing.

So those terms can be used interchangeably. So therefore a church should be led by a pastor, depending on the size of the church, by a pastor or a group of qualified elders.

They are under whose authority, the authority of Christ. Christ is the head of the church.

That's the way the Bible presents the structure and authority within the churches.

And obviously it's Christ and his apostles, right? And that's the way it worked. There are no apostles today.

Don't want to get ahead of myself, but in a denomination, here's the problem with a denomination, the local leadership in a denomination, instead of being accountable only to Christ and the apostolic teaching in a denomination, the local leadership is accountable to some guy, maybe hundreds of miles away or some board.

But this guy, this man who rules over a region or over a group of churches, he is acting basically as an archbishop.

Okay. So you have a bishop in your church, a pastor or a group of pastors, but in a denomination, you have this archbishop off somewhere else.

And he's acting like an archbishop or a Pope. He might not be called by those titles, but that's how it's functioning.

And I think that that is an unbiblical hierarchy and it really is similar to the

Catholic church and it usurps the role that Christ has as head of the church.

So I made this post on YouTube in the community section, community post.

I'll read what I wrote and then I'll give you some of the replies. I wrote, here's an easy to understand reason why

Bible -believing Christians are often against denominations. The man in the denomination that exercises oversight of your local church, that person who's in charge of a group of churches, he is essentially acting as an archbishop over your local bishop or pastor.

This is a non -biblical office. That is, archbishop is not in the Bible and it's no better than the

Catholic church with their unscriptural hierarchy. The Bible teaches that there is only one head of the church and that is

Christ. So one head. Anything else is a multi -headed monster.

And then someone responded, multi -headed monster is a great description. The denomination

I used to belong to had a leadership flowchart so complex it would make any good corporate

CEO proud. Someone else wrote this, and maybe this is a little pushback, but I actually agree with what he says.

He wrote, in the ancient church, local bishops and pastors met in councils and synods to resolve disputes and deal with theological challenges.

They submitted to these councils. Local bishops and pastors did not operate autonomously.

Runaway pastors that we see so much of today were challenged and corrected.

So I actually agree with that. In fact, the independent churches in our area,

I was involved in this, we held sort of like a small council last year to deal with an issue and we all got together and we agreed and it was good.

Now unfortunately, one of those pastors reneged on the agreement and then when

I tried to gather the churches together to address that runaway pastor, as this person called it, nobody really seemed to want to do that.

And then word came down that the problem had resurfaced and a couple churches then didn't abide by the agreement.

So long story short, we live in an imperfect world, but I am convinced of the following points.

So three main reasons why I reject denominations and the associated

Bible verses. Okay, number one, there are no denominations in the

Bible. You say, well, there wouldn't have been, it was too early. Yeah, but Jesus knows all things, right?

I mean, the Lord knew what was going to happen in the future, presumably. So he could have instructed the church to break into denominations.

He could have done that. He didn't. There are no denominations in the Bible. That's number one. Number two, the multi -headed monster argument.

Scripture presents each church as autonomous, only accountable to Christ and his delegated authority, which we have the apostolic teaching it's in the

Bible. So Christ is the authority. Well, Christ isn't here. Well, we have, we have the apostolic teaching.

We have the Bible. Okay. So we submit to Christ by submitting to his word. That is how it should be done.

Not submitting to some guy, some archbishop, you know, 500 miles away. So accountable only to Christ and the apostolic teaching as found in scripture.

And I said, there are no modern day prophets and apostles that's based on Ephesians chapter two, verse 20 says that the church has been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets,

Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone. So the foundation was laid in the first century.

I mean, we're 20 stories high. You don't go and relay the foundation. So the apostles and prophets were in the early church to lay the foundation.

They work miracles to prove they were apostles. The apostles of today, like, you know, whatever, you know, the prophets of today, like Kenneth Copeland and Bill Johnson of Bethel church and Chris Vallotton and all these people claiming to be prophets and apostles and the new apostolic reformation.

I mean, these men are false prophets and false apostles. The third reason

I don't believe in denominations is how they Lord it over the flock. I could tell you stories about how some guy acting as an archbishop or regional director came in with heavy handed tactics and gained control over the church property and the church bank accounts and just kind of railroaded everybody.

And, you know, they've even told pastors what to preach and what not to preach. And our church went through this almost a hundred years ago, more on that later.

But I know of denominations where the local pastor actually gets a script to read on Sunday.

So he isn't actually studying in these denominational churches. This doesn't always happen, but I know of situations where it does.

The pastor isn't studying the Bible for himself. He's not studying and presenting sermons.

He gets a script from headquarters and he's just preaching what the denomination tells him.

He's saying whatever they tell him to say. And if he doesn't, let's say he believes

God's word teaches something different. If he doesn't toe the line and read the sermon that they sent from headquarters, he can be fired, he can be replaced.

Again, the church building can be taken away. The bank account can be seized by people you've never even met.

You know, the hard earned money of the saints donated can be taken away by some archbishop somewhere and the elders, deacons, and congregation have no say in it.

That's not biblical. 1 Corinthians 1 verse 12. Here's a verse that may apply.

Paul says to the Corinthian church, now I say this, that each of you says, I am of Paul or I am of Apollos or I am of Cephas or I am of Christ.

There are denominations today founded by and or named after men.

Lutheranism, the Amish, the Mennonites, these denominations are all named after men.

I mean, that seems to at least violate the spirit of this statement in 1 Corinthians 1.

Now, again, I want to point out if someone is involved in a denomination, let's say you're a

Christian, you're watching this right now, you're part of a denomination. I'm not against you. Like I said, I'm not looking to pick a fight.

I'm just expressing what I believe the Bible teaches. What is the biblical position?

If someone thinks I'm wrong, make a response video. You know, I'm trying to be respectful, make a video in response, being respectful.

If you do that, I'll listen to what you have to say. This is what another commenter said.

He said, I love a good debate. This is how we grow. And I say, yeah, amen. If you think I'm wrong, let me know how.

I mean, this is how we grow and learn. We need to be challenged. And I really believe the status quo of denominations, a lot of the large churches are part of denominations and the status quo needs to be challenged.

We need a new reformation in the church today. So another commenter said this, if a pastor exercises oversight over a local congregation, or he says, does a pastor exercise oversight over a local congregation?

Of course, the answer is yes. If so, then isn't that the same thing you oppose?

If not, should congregants submit to pastors at all?

And here's how I replied. I said, pastor or bishop is a biblical office. Archbishop is not, which is how denominations operate.

Some ruler from afar is ruling over other pastors.

And he said, oh, I see what you mean. I can believe that some behave in that way.

But he said, not all. I think the Southern Baptist Convention is, you know, sort of like, okay, the churches are autonomous and the people in charge at the

SBC don't really have any real authority over the churches that are in the SBC.

So people say, well, it's not a denomination. And yeah, it doesn't run the same way.

But the leadership at the SBC, I mean, it's a top -down system.

And here's the problem. When a church goes bad, okay, that's not good.

But if a denomination goes bad and you get, you know, woke leadership like you have in the

SBC that filters down into the churches, even if the denomination doesn't actually own the property, it really is more about the influence and the doctrine.

That's more of my concern. So if some want to disagree with me on this, that's fine.

I don't believe this is a primary issue to divide over. I mean, I've had fellowship with people in denominations.

I didn't really give it a second thought. It's just not something I would want to be a part of.

I wouldn't advise others to be a part of it. I know churches that have had problems within denominations.

It just doesn't make sense why you would want to link up with some other organization or denomination.

To me, it does not seem wise at the very least. So like I said, this is what you see with denominations.

It's a doctrinal drift over time. It's a top -down system that trickles down into the local churches.

And you see this in denominations. They almost always go bad. The ones that haven't gone bad yet, yeah, it's exactly that.

They haven't gone bad yet. So given enough time, a denomination will go bad.

Now, to be fair, that's true for local churches. Most local churches, given enough time, they do go soft.

They end up going liberal or apostate. For example, you have the seven churches in Asia Minor in the book of Revelation.

Where are those churches now? Well, they've all ceased to exist. But you see this in the major mainline denominations in the

United States and Europe. I mean, most of them are apostate. Many of them, if not most, are apostate.

The area that I live in, all of the denominational churches, or I should say 90%, if not 100%, 90%, the denominational churches, they're the ones flying the rainbow flag.

It's typically the independent churches that are preaching the gospel. So again, when a denomination goes bad, the leaders at the top usually try to force their will on the local churches under them.

And that's just a bad system. Two warning signs that a denomination is going liberal or apostate.

Number one, it's usually a compromise on female pastors. So they go against 1

Timothy 2 .12 into chapter 3, where the bishop or the pastor should be qualified men.

But you can just take it to the bank. When a denomination starts ordaining female pastors, that doesn't happen in a vacuum.

They're going liberal. Also, another warning sign that the denomination is going liberal.

They stop preaching on the blood of Christ. For example, our church in the 1940s, our church, my church,

Morris Corner Church was established in 1896, and it was part of the Congregationalist denomination.

Now, Congregationalists back then were different than they are today. But somewhere in the early to middle 20th century, the denomination went liberal and apostate.

They told their ministers, stop preaching about the blood of Christ. They took the hymns about the blood of Christ out of the hymnal.

So don't preach on the blood of Christ. Long story short, our church left the denomination, which then split into the

UCC and then the conservative denomination. But we have been independent since,

I think, the 1940s, 1950s. So really, we're a completely different church now.

But yeah, these mainline denominations and big denominations, they almost always go bad.

And again, the ones that haven't gone bad, I think it's more that they just haven't gone bad yet.

So before I wrap this up, I just want, and that's why we don't want to be part of a denomination, because if you're part of a denomination, when it goes bad, you're in big trouble.

And just why, why get involved? Now, if you're already involved, what can you do?

I mean, I guess you could leave and go to, but if your church, if your local church is a solid church and your pastor's preaching sound doctrine,

I would not counsel someone to leave. I want to be clear on that. But again, I would not, unless I was in like an area where there was one church and it was part of a denomination, that was the only choice that I had.

I still think I'd move somewhere else, but I don't think I'd ever want to be part of a denomination.

So before I wrap this up, I just want to read what our church constitution says. After we got out of the denomination, the leaders of our local fellowship had the wisdom to put this in the constitution.

It says, this church shall be known as an autonomous, independent, Bible -centered ministry and is and shall remain unaffiliated.

And this includes not only from denominations, just be careful because there are some smaller organizations that maybe they don't have the label of denomination, but really, if you look at them, they are acting as a denomination.

They just don't use that term. So be careful about that. But our church constitution also says

Morse Corner Church shall never join corporately with any other organization.

But maintains its position that every independent church should be free to support or not support, to fellowship or not fellowship, as it feels led of the

Lord. Now, would we work together with another church? Absolutely, we have, we do. Would we work together with a local church that's part of the denomination?

If that local assembly is solid, sure, we'll work together with people, but we're not going to yoke up with them.

We're not going to officially join ourselves together because Christ is the head and we don't want to link up into some system where then there's this other guy who's ruling over us and he's taken the place of Christ.

I would just add one last thing because each church is autonomous. In fairness, here's the thing, you don't have to listen to me.

You don't have to listen to what I'm saying because I'm not the archbishop telling everyone what to do.

I mean, what do I do? I tell you what I believe the Bible says, and you should be a good

Berean and you should test what I say and what everyone else says over and against the

Word of God. Amen? Amen. Thanks for listening, and until next time, may the