The Denominational Explosion

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June 25, 2014

We are going to be examining the advent of Denominationalism, which was an inevitable by-product of the Protestant Reformation. We will see in this lesson that, while there are many local churches in the world, there is only one true universal church, the Body of Christ, which encompasses all true believers.

00:00: Let's go to the Lord in prayer, our Father and our God.
00:06: We thank you for the opportunity that we have to be in your house and to study your word.
00:12: We thank you for the lessons that we've been able to share together about the history of the church.
00:17: And we pray that tonight's lesson would edify your people and would build us up in the faith and remind us, Lord, that there is a church in the world that is a universal church.
00:32: It's not the Roman Catholic Church.
00:35: It's not the Mormon Church.
00:37: It's not the Eastern Orthodox Church.
00:41: Father, the church is everywhere where believers have submitted themselves to Christ and call upon him alone for salvation.
00:51: That is the universal church of which we belong and of which you continue to bless.
00:57: We thank you.
00:58: We praise you.
00:58: We give you glory, honor and praise in Jesus name.
01:01: Amen.
01:02: All right.
01:04: So tonight we continue our lesson series.
01:09: And so far in our series, we have walked a pretty long path through church history.
01:17: We have seen some very significant stops along the path.
01:22: We've examined some of the great creeds and confessions of the church.
01:27: We've looked at some of the councils and synods that have helped form the church into what it is today.
01:33: And we've even seen some of the great divisions that have been caused in the church down through the ages.
01:40: And tonight we're going to be examining the advent of denominationalism, which was an inevitable byproduct of the Protestant Reformation.
01:53: We will see in this lesson that while there are many local churches in the world, there is only one truly universal church, which is the body of Christ, and it encompasses all true believers.
02:13: So that is the focus of tonight.
02:15: And we're going to begin with the first heading in your notes, which is the historic root of denominationalism.
02:27: As I stated in my introduction, modern denominationalism is the byproduct of the Protestant Reformation.
02:36: Following the division from Rome, Protestants did not all unite under one heading.
02:42: It wasn't as if there was the Roman Catholic Church and then all the Protestants were together.
02:47: That's not how it was.
02:49: Unfortunately, Luther's students became known as Lutherans.
02:55: Calvin's students eventually became known as either Reformed or Presbyterian.
03:01: Wesley's students became known as Methodists.
03:04: And, of course, Simon Menace or excuse me, Menno Simon's students became known as the Mennonites.
03:12: Many of you are familiar with them.
03:15: But it would be wrong of us to say that denominationalism started with the Protestants.
03:23: And that's your first blank, I think, that it's wrong for us to say that denominationalism started with the Protestants.
03:31: Is that on there? Oh, I'm sorry.
03:32: I was I'm wrong.
03:33: My mistake.
03:34: My mistake.
03:36: That was free.
03:37: You can long before anyone ever heard of Martin Luther or anyone ever studied the works of John Calvin or ever there was a debate with your Zwingli long before those men, there were divisions in the church.
03:55: Even before Christ, there were divisions that had risen up among the Jewish people.
04:04: Back during the time of Christ and before the time of Christ, there were a lot of divisions among the Jews.
04:10: There was a group called the Essenes.
04:12: How many ever heard of the Essenes community? How many ever heard of the Dead Sea Scrolls? The Dead Sea Scrolls are believed to have been written by the Essenes.
04:22: The Essenes were a community which had separated itself from the popular Jewish community and they had separated themselves in sort of a monastic way.
04:32: And they became a scribal community where they were constantly writing.
04:36: And the Dead Sea Scrolls, we believe, again, are part of what they wrote.
04:40: But they had their own scriptorium.
04:42: They had their own little community.
04:43: They had their own way of life.
04:44: And they considered themselves to be the true Jews.
04:48: And they considered the Jewish people that were living in Jerusalem to be the apostates.
04:53: They considered them to be they were wrong and we're right.
04:56: They're the they're the ones who've sold out to the world.
04:58: They've sold out to Rome.
04:59: We've moved away from all that.
05:01: And we've become the true Jewish community.
05:05: So that's the Essenes.
05:06: They were they were a, quote unquote, denomination among the Jews, if you will.
05:12: And also think about Jesus and his ministry.
05:14: He was always talking to different types of Jews.
05:18: He talked to Pharisees and he talked to Sadducees.
05:23: Well, if you want to talk about denominations, well, there really are two right there.
05:28: The Pharisees are your right wing conservatives and the Sadducees are your radical left wing liberals.
05:35: I mean, you know, for lack of a better term, that really was the position that the Pharisees took a very hard line on the law of Moses.
05:43: And they believed in the miracles of Scripture that had come before them.
05:47: The Sadducees took a more liberal approach.
05:51: They didn't believe in miracles.
05:53: They didn't believe in the resurrection from the dead.
05:55: So here you have these two divergent groups.
05:58: But yet they were still considered to be Jews.
06:02: So, as I said, in church history, there have been many divisions that was prior to the Protestant Reformation.
06:11: That's the first blank, the word divisions.
06:14: I did have it noted.
06:16: Yes, sir.
06:20: We could.
06:23: I'm I'm really I'm when I get to the part about the post Protestant, we would say there would be a pre Protestant denomination.
06:31: Well, no.
06:32: Yeah, because it was the followers of Wycliffe, which would have been a hundred years or so prior to Martin Luther.
06:39: But of course, the Lawlers would be a denominational group, followers of Wycliffe.
06:43: Absolutely.
06:44: Absolutely.
06:45: I didn't have them listed, but certainly they would be could be considered a denomination.
06:54: Early in the church's history, there was a rift.
06:58: We've talked about this rift which separated the Western and the Eastern church.
07:02: It occurred in 1054 A.D.
07:06: You remember me talking about that a few weeks ago? The great schism which occurred between the Western Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern, which would be called the Orthodox Church.
07:18: And prior to the Reformation, here's the list.
07:21: I didn't include the Lawlers, but oh, no, I did.
07:24: Look at here.
07:25: I could have answered your question.
07:26: It's right here in my notes.
07:27: I said prior to the Reformation, there were many groups which arose, such as the Waldensians, the Polynesians, the Lawlers and the Hussites.
07:34: All of them would have been pre-Protestant quote unquote denominations.
07:40: They would have been pre-Protestant groups which had already divided and already separated themselves.
07:47: So my point in all of this is to say that to say that the Protestant Reformation brought about denominationalism is a bit of a miscommunication.
07:58: We could say it expanded denominationalism and it gave birth to modern denominationalism.
08:04: But to say that the Protestant Reformation caused division in the church is a little bit of a stretch because that division was already there.
08:12: In fact, I would argue that we see the the kernels of denominationalism even in Scripture.
08:19: Let me read to you a passage, which I imagine you're pretty familiar with, but I still want to read it to you.
08:24: The Apostle Paul is writing in 1 Corinthians 11, he says, for it has been reported to me by Chloe's people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers.
08:35: What I mean is that each one of you says I follow Paul or I follow Apollos or I follow Cephas or I follow Christ.
08:45: Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you or were you baptized in the name of Paul? I thank God that I baptized none of you except Christmas and Gaius and that no one may say that you were baptized in my name.
08:59: What is Paul talking about there? He's challenging people because divisions had already begun to rise up.
09:07: Some people would say, well, I'm Pauline or Pauline and others would say, well, I'm Petrine, I'm a follower of Peter, I'm a follower of Apollos.
09:16: And of course, those super spiritual ones, I'm a follower of Jesus Christ, you know.
09:21: And what's Paul's point? There's already divisions.
09:25: There are already people who are lining up under certain teachers.
09:28: There's already people who are lining up.
09:30: So denominationalism really has its roots in one thing.
09:38: And that's people.
09:41: We always have a tendency to divide rather than unite.
09:45: It's just part of our nature.
09:50: Now, division for the sake of pride is sinful.
09:56: I don't think I put that in your notes, but that wouldn't be bad to write down.
10:00: Division for the sake of pride is sinful.
10:05: Yet division is sometimes necessary for the preservation of truth.
10:14: So there's two truths, both equally true.
10:18: Division for the sake of pride is sinful, but division is sometimes necessary for the preservation of truth.
10:26: When the Protestants divided from the Roman Catholics, they were dividing on the subject of truth.
10:34: Rome had abandoned the gospel.
10:37: It had ceased to be the church.
10:40: The Protestants, as a result, had to abandon Rome.
10:44: They tried to effect reform from within, but Rome was not having their reformation.
10:50: And so they had to divide.
10:55: And thus, even 500 years later, that divide still exists.
11:03: But the problem is there is no unity among the Protestants.
11:09: That's where we live now.
11:10: We live in a church which is very much divided and fragmented all over the world.
11:16: There is very little unity in the church.
11:21: So I want to move now to the second point.
11:25: As you probably noted in your lesson plan, I've got multiple points that I want to get to tonight.
11:32: The second one is this, the difference between denominations and cults, the difference between denominations and cults.
11:43: Before we look at different denominations, which we're going to look at tonight, I think it's important and I was sitting preparing this lesson, I was thinking, you know what? I've got to put this somewhere and this is as good a place as any.
11:55: We got to understand the difference and what is the difference when I talk about when I talk about Lutherans, I typically talk about them as a denomination, but when I talk about Mormons, I typically talk about them as not a denomination.
12:09: And typically I would go as far as to use the word cult.
12:12: What is the difference and how? Yes, sir.
12:17: Well, let me let me tell you the definition I've given and it isn't on your sheet.
12:24: The divinity of Christ is what separates us from the Mormons, but there's so much more.
12:28: There is so much more that separates us from the Mormons.
12:30: But let me just give you the simple definition that I've put in our lesson plan.
12:35: A denomination is any group which has maintained the essential message of the gospel.
12:41: They have maintained the essential message of the gospel.
12:49: A cult is any group which has deviated from the essential message of the gospel.
13:04: That is the easiest way that I know how to to divide up the church and to say here are groups that would still be the church and here are groups that would not be.
13:13: It is the gospel.
13:15: What do we always say? Is this a gospel issue? Is the gospel here or is it not? Lutherans, Presbyterians, Episcopalians and Methodists are often seen as denominations because we believe that they have maintained fidelity to the gospel.
13:38: We're going to talk in a minute about some of the more recent deviations, but but we believe that there's been a maintaining of the gospel.
13:46: Jehovah Witnesses, Mormons and Christian science, we identify as cult.
13:56: Universalists, absolutely, absolutely.
13:58: Unitarian Universalists, sure.
14:01: And the problem is with this designation is it becomes somewhat broad because there are many mainline denominations that have abandoned the gospel and as a result, they have ceased to be churches.
14:14: They've started to be cultish, but we'll get to those in a moment.
14:19: The bigger issue is that there are certain groups which we would often feel uncomfortable about calling cults, but bear the marks of cults.
14:33: We've talked about this in the weeks and I know I probably seem like as if I just constantly am punishing Rome.
14:42: But what is the reason why the Protestants left? Because there's been an abandonment of the gospel.
14:48: So right there is an issue.
14:51: But there are other groups, the historic churches of Christ, churches of Christ being the denominational title, are questionable for me regarding whether or not they have maintained the gospel because they have an allegiance to the doctrine of baptismal regeneration.
15:14: If you're not familiar with that, they wouldn't, by the way, they would not they would not say that they would say that I'm wrong.
15:20: So let me say it the way they would say it.
15:22: They have an allegiance to the doctrine of baptismal remission.
15:27: They wouldn't say baptismal regeneration, though I would argue it's the same thing.
15:32: Basically, what it is is the doctrine that a person is not saved until they have been immersed and their immersion must be under the right circumstances, which means if you were baptized in a Baptist church, you're not saved because even though you were immersed, you are not immersed understanding that your immersion was for your literal salvation.
15:57: It was for the literal washing away of your sins and the literal reception of the Holy Spirit.
16:02: And because you were baptized with a improper understanding of baptism, that your baptism is still not effectual.
16:12: No, it is not.
16:14: It is to to call it an expression of faith is to is to is to is to walk headlong into error would be their position.
16:25: Yes, our position on baptism would to them be heresy.
16:29: So I have difficulty with the churches of Christ calling them a true denomination because they have abandoned Sola Fide, they have abandoned justification by faith alone, they have abandoned that we are saved not of ourselves, but they have included this work.
16:46: And I remember having a conversation.
16:47: I used to have a young man.
16:47: I really, really enjoyed spending time with this young man, but he was committed to this teaching and it ultimately led to a division in our relationship because we could not see eye to eye on the gospel.
16:58: And for me, that was it just we could not continue.
17:01: I remember the last time he heard me preach, he said, you're too Calvinistic for me.
17:06: I said, well, OK, I just remember him saying that very, very clearly because I had said in my sermon, I remember what I said in my sermon, I said, God grant those who are unsaved the gift of repentance.
17:23: And he said, repentance isn't a gift.
17:25: We do that.
17:27: I said, no, the Bible teaches us that we can't do anything outside of God's grace and everything, repentance and faith and all is a gift from God.
17:37: So he and I deviated and divided, but I just remember him arguing the point of baptism and I remember saying, how can you say that you're that you're not justified by works? If you believe that baptism, this this obvious work is necessary for your salvation, he said, well, it's not much of a work.
17:57: But well, the thief on the cross is there's two things that I've heard in response to the thief on the cross.
18:06: One is that the thief on the cross is an exception to the rule or an exception that proves the rule.
18:13: That's one.
18:14: The other is that the thief on the cross preceded Christ's command and the command of Acts two thirty eight to repent and be baptized against sin.
18:22: And because that was that was prior to the command of baptismal remission.
18:27: Acts two thirty eight, which is a verse that they use, and I believe they misinterpreted it, but the verse that they use is that because it preceded that, then he would have been under the old covenant dispensation, not which they wouldn't use where the dispensation, the old covenant system, then not the new covenant system.
18:41: So again, there's there's always a way around.
18:45: There's always a way around.
18:47: I've heard what I heard one guy say, well, it must have been raining that day, which is that that was a joke.
18:53: That was not an attempt at really making a point.
18:55: But you see where I would have issued them with the churches of Christ as a denomination because they have adopted something which which a fundamentally changes the gospel.
19:05: This is my problem with Duck Dynasty.
19:07: And don't be all hating on me because I say something negative about that dynasty.
19:12: The guys are nice enough guys and the show is fun enough to watch, but those guys are historic Church of Christ guys.
19:18: I know a guy who drove three states just to be baptized by Phil, the head of the Duck Dynasty clan.
19:25: And when I watched the baptism on television or on Internet, I watched it because I wanted to see what he said.
19:32: And he said he said to the young man, he said, you're going to be baptized.
19:36: Your sins are going to be washed away.
19:38: And when you come out of this water, you're going to be given the gift of the Holy Spirit and you're going to be a new person when you come out of this water.
19:45: And he was so clear that the water itself, it's the it's the old Roman teaching of ex opera operata.
19:53: The water is doing the work.
19:56: So it really is a it's a step backwards to Rome.
20:01: And to me, it is questionable as to whether they are maintaining the gospel, I have very difficult time calling them a denomination.
20:11: Which they don't like to be called a nomination anyway, so I'm not making a man, but they say that we're the real Church of Christ, so that's why they call themselves the Churches of Christ.
20:21: All right, the other one, and I imagine some of you have had to deal with these folks, and that is the Seventh Day Adventists.
20:32: The Seventh Day Adventists have a very cultish history.
20:37: They were established by the false prophecy of William Miller that the world would end in 1844, which it did not.
20:46: And they were perpetuated by the teachings of Ellen G.
20:52: White.
20:53: She herself considered to be a prophetess in their movement.
20:58: They have strict teachings regarding the keeping of the Old Testament Sabbath law, especially the dietary restrictions which are contained therein.
21:07: My wife spent a lot of time with the Seventh Day Adventists, didn't you? When you used to work at the sheriff's office and there was a lady there and was always talking about celebrating the feasts and celebrating this and having to be the Sabbath, which was Saturday, had to had to maintain these things.
21:24: And of course, she never went to Jerusalem.
21:25: So she wasn't really keeping the feasts as she was supposed to, because the feasts are supposed to be done there.
21:29: Come on in.
21:31: So now you're fine.
21:34: But there's so much in the Seventh Day Adventist movement.
21:38: I got one.
21:39: Oh, you got it.
21:40: There's so much in the movement itself, which lends itself to saying this is it's hard to identify them as a denomination because they have not just added works, but they have added a fidelity to the Old Covenant law, which we believe was fulfilled in the work of Christ.
21:59: And their fidelity to the Old Covenant law is one of has to be abided by.
22:06: And I always jokingly say you're not obeying the Sabbath when you drive to church on Saturday.
22:12: Why not? Because you have kindled a fire.
22:15: You put your key in the car and it's called an internal combustion engine.
22:21: Ding, ding.
22:21: Combustion is a fire.
22:24: You just kindled a fire on the Sabbath.
22:27: Oh, now you're nitpicking.
22:29: That's a pretty big nit to pick.
22:31: That's a that's a point, isn't it? But isn't that what they do? That's what I'm saying.
22:36: They're doing that.
22:39: Sure.
22:40: Absolutely.
22:40: They pick what they want.
22:42: And so there's a lot of difficulties.
22:45: So the question which would underlie our assertion of whether or not a group would be a cult or a denomination would be the answer to the question, does this group possess the gospel? If a group has the gospel, it is a denomination.
23:02: If a group has abandoned the gospel, it is a cult.
23:08: Somebody says, well, what is the gospel and what are you identifying as the gospel? Can you bring the gospel down to a simplified version and say, well, if you're here, you have just enough.
23:23: And if you're here, you don't have enough.
23:26: Hmm.
23:27: Well, yes, well, you can.
23:29: How would you if you don't mind me? I'm not trying to call you out.
23:32: I just I would and I would agree.
23:40: And I think that it is the finished work of Jesus Christ that is the underlying message of the gospel, that it is by grace and not of ourselves, that is that it is completed in the work of Christ.
23:55: What is the what is the heart of the religion of man? It is adding something to the grace of God, something that I have done, whether it is being baptized, whether it is keeping a law, whether it is maintaining some level of discipline, whether it's giving a certain amount or or going a certain amount of times or going to the mass this many times or doing that, it's always in addition.
24:18: What is it that I've seen it on bumper stickers and it was a Christ plus anything equals heresy.
24:30: Yeah, I don't I don't think I have the idea of Christ incarnation.
24:46: I like that outline.
24:48: I've never heard that before because I wrote something.
24:55: It's I like what both of you have said.
24:57: I did write something.
24:58: If somebody would ask me how what is how could you bring the gospel down to a simple term? This is what I've written.
25:07: And it is a it is three things.
25:11: One, man is a wretched sinner deserving of hell.
25:16: If you deny that, you've denied the gospel, I believe that I believe that if you deny that man is a wretched sinner deserving of hell, then you've denied the gospel.
25:28: Number two, God is gracious and sent his son to be the savior.
25:38: And I say the savior, to add the definite article, not the indefinite, I would never say he's a savior, one of many saviors.
25:45: He is the only savior.
25:49: And thirdly, salvation is achieved in the completed work of Christ alone, to which nothing can be added.
26:05: And that would be my answer.
26:06: If somebody said, what is the gospel? It is those things.
26:08: It is the absolute, complete wretchedness of man, the perfect work of Christ and the inability of me to do anything for myself.
26:21: You look at any any cult and I can show you where they have violated one of those three things, whether it's man is not sinful and that's what the new mainline Protestant problem is, is they've they've abandoned the sinfulness of man or that Christ is not sufficient.
26:38: At the last Ligonier conference that I was at, they were talking about reductionism and there was a little bit of a disagreement on the panel.
26:49: I love it when the panelists disagree because that makes it fun to see godly men have a discussion that you can tell is not scripted and they're sort of going back and forth with each other is a fun thing to watch.
27:03: And one of the questions was, can you reduce the gospel down to to to to the bare minimum? One of the one of the men on the panel said the problem with our modern day is reductionism is we want to reduce everything down and I don't want to even try because I think that's not a good thing.
27:25: I think reductionism is bad, to which R.C.
27:28: Sproul, Jr.
27:30: Responded, not senior, not the one that we're normally used to hearing.
27:33: But the son who was also on the panel said the greatest reductionist was Christ.
27:41: Because he was the one who said that a publican went into went to the temple and said, Lord, have mercy upon me, a sinner.
27:52: And he left that day justified and he said, really, justification is what coming before God with nothing.
28:00: And saying, God, I am a sinner, I'm desperate and you alone can save me.
28:08: And I thought that was kind of a neat way if you had to reduce it down, Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner is the best way.
28:14: So so in a sense, we can't be reductionistic.
28:18: But in another sense, if somebody said, what is the gospel, you are a sinner and Christ is the only savior and the only way to be saved is through his finished work.
28:31: So those who have abandoned that have abandoned the gospel, let's move on now to the mainline denominations.
28:38: When we talk about mainline denominations, we are not addressing necessarily the best or the most fit denominations.
28:53: Rather, we're talking about the ones that have the most adherence.
28:57: They are sometimes called the seven sisters of American Protestantism.
29:02: The seven sisters of American Protestantism are the United Methodist Church, the United Methodist Church has a little less than eight million members.
29:19: After that, it is the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, which I will simply call the ELCA, Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, which has three point nine five.
29:32: These are two 2012 numbers, so could be a little different now.
29:38: Three point nine five mil.
29:43: The third would be the Episcopal Church.
29:48: Remember, the Episcopal Church is the American Anglican Church.
29:53: This is the Church of England in America.
29:55: So the Episcopal Church has one point eight nine million.
30:04: The Presbyterian Church of the USA, this is not the PCA.
30:12: This is the PCUSA.
30:14: I know you know the difference, right, Mr.
30:16: And if you heard in the news just this past week, the PCUSA has decided that they will begin to ordain the marriage of same sex couples in the church, that they will begin allowing those services to be performed in the church.
30:35: It was it was a national conference.
30:37: They decided on this issue.
30:39: The PCUSA is one point seven six million.
30:46: The American Baptist Churches of the USA.
30:52: So with the ABCUSA, one point three million.
31:00: The United Church of Christ, the UCOC, nine hundred ninety eight thousand.
31:12: And this will be interesting.
31:14: The seventh of the seven sisters is the Christian Church, Disciples of Christ, the CCBOC, the Christian Church, Disciples of Christ, six hundred twenty five thousand.
31:33: Now, there is one thing that marks all of these liberal.
31:41: Every one of them has a bent towards liberalism all the way down.
31:47: All seven sisters have a bent toward liberalism.
31:52: This is why we have you often hear us talking about the failure of mainline Protestantism.
31:57: That's who we're talking about.
31:58: Yes, it's a historic nature and size we're going to talk about in a minute.
32:06: The Southern Baptist Convention is actually double the size of UNC, but it's not it's not considered one of the main Southern Baptist Convention does not consider itself a denomination because it does not own the property or anything in relationship to the churches.
32:22: The Southern Baptist Convention is a is a is a group.
32:26: It's a convention of churches, but each church is autonomous within the convention.
32:31: There is no authority or ownership which comes from the convention to the individual churches, whereas in a denomination like in certain denominations, if you leave the church, they own the property.
32:45: We know about that only there's there's there was a fear when we left because we left the Christian Church, Disciples of Christ in ninety nine.
32:52: We've seen a major revival as a result of that.
32:55: But that was when we left officially the denomination and doing so there was fear of losing property because there's ownership within the denomination.
33:06: There's power within the denomination, which is not seen in the SBC.
33:10: So that's that's where there would be a major dividing line there.
33:14: In fact, that's what I was going to say.
33:15: There are two groups.
33:16: If you want to add this to your list, there are two groups that people normally refer to as denominations, but really are not technically denominations.
33:25: One is the Southern Baptist Convention.
33:28: It is the world's largest Baptist body with nearly 16 million members.
33:34: It more than doubles the size of the United Methodist Church.
33:37: And praise God, because it's good to know that there there is, you know, there is that many who are apart.
33:46: And I'm not saying the SBC is perfect, but far be it.
33:48: But we know that the gospel is preached in the SBC, so to know that they're doubling this makes me happy because one thing that SBC is not is liberal.
34:03: They're not.
34:04: If anything, they're they're they're somewhat uber conservative in some areas, but they're certainly not liberal.
34:10: So the other one, the other large group would be the Pentecostal group.
34:18: Which we're going to learn more about when we in a couple of weeks, when we get to the last hundred years of the church, we're going to really look at the Azusa Street revival, which brought about the advent of the new Protestant, new Pentecostalism.
34:31: We'll talk some about that in a couple of weeks.
34:34: But here's the thing about Pentecostalism, it has exploded in the last hundred years.
34:40: And this is not necessarily a good thing, but it has exploded.
34:45: It now has adherents numbering over five hundred million worldwide that identify themselves as Pentecostal and or charismatic.
34:57: Five hundred million worldwide.
35:03: We're going to talk about that.
35:05: I do think that I'm sorry, but that doesn't say don't let it fool you, because when I say five hundred million worldwide, a lot of these people and even some in the SBC, unfortunately, would identify themselves as Pentecostal.
35:21: So when you talk about Pentecostal charismatic, it's almost as if that's why it's not a denomination.
35:26: And it's not even really it's a movement within a movement because there are Catholics who identify themselves as charismatic Catholics.
35:33: I remember I got interviewed for a church one time and the guy told me that he wasn't going to hire me because I wasn't Pentecostal enough.
35:46: This was years ago.
35:48: It was when I was still in seminary.
35:49: I didn't realize I was going to become the pastor here.
35:52: And there was a church that was looking for a minister.
35:56: And so I just in in in seeking God's will, I went and interviewed with the man.
36:03: Jennifer came with me and he told me before I came that the church was back to costal and I was young and not sort of naive.
36:12: I didn't know what that meant.
36:13: I kind of knew what Pentecostal was kind of what a bad this wasn't too bad to school.
36:16: So I feel like, hey, you know, OK, he's a bad to costal.
36:20: Maybe I can still work it out.
36:22: So we went and had lunch.
36:25: And over breakfast at Famous Amos, I realized he was much more costal and I was much more Baptist.
36:31: And that's what he told me.
36:32: He said, you're too Baptist and not enough costal because I told him I believe that the gift of tongues had ceased and that practicing such in the church was no longer to be done.
36:41: And he told me that I was wrong.
36:43: And I said, well, I don't think that we will do well ministering together.
36:48: So he bought my breakfast and that was it.
36:52: But that was that.
36:55: So you are right.
36:56: When I talk about five hundred million worldwide, it's not as if it's its own thing.
37:01: It's something that bleeds into many other things.
37:04: Pentecostalism is in a lot of places.
37:06: But there is a a truly, if you want to call it Pentecostal, a sort of house or denomination.
37:15: And we call it the Assemblies of God.
37:16: The Assemblies of God is Pentecostal.
37:19: And then, of course, you have congregational Methodists, which are Pentecostal or holiness, which is congregational Methodists, also known as holiness, are there.
37:27: All these are examples of groups that would identify themselves as Pentecostal only.
37:34: They wouldn't say that they are they're Lutheran, Lutheran charismatic or Presbyterian charismatic or Catholic charismatic.
37:42: They would identify themselves first as Pentecostals.
37:44: So I don't have that data off the top of my head.
38:04: You would be surprised.
38:06: And it depends on what you.
38:08: Yeah, yeah.
38:11: Southern Baptist is the largest Baptist body in the world.
38:16: Sixteen million identify themselves.
38:18: So, yes.
38:19: But when you talk about the South, you also sort of have to define you talk about South Mason Dixon, I'm assuming, you know, and what you know, because you go you go north just a little ways and you're going to start running into a lot of restoration churches.
38:33: You're going to start running into a lot of churches of Christ.
38:36: You know, there's you know, we see a Baptist church on every corner here because that just seems to be what is very popular here, but not always.
38:44: I mean, there's some places you go in and even in the South where it's not Baptist, it's mainly Catholic.
38:52: So, I mean, it depends on where you are.
38:54: Yes, ma'am.
39:01: Non-denominational churches are I don't have the numbers for them, but they are more popular now than they ever have been as a result of this.
39:14: The new as mainline Protestantism went liberal.
39:22: People tended to either go towards Pentecostalism, which still maintains a certain amount of conservatism in their views on things like salvation and stuff like that, or towards the Southern Baptists, which are very conservative or towards the non-denominational.
39:38: Unfortunately, I did not bring the data tonight as to how many churches identify themselves as non-denominational.
39:43: And the thing is, I want to just add this.
39:46: A lot of churches that are a part of certain groups are not naming those groups in their name.
39:54: For instance, New Berlin Baptist Church is no longer New Berlin Baptist Church.
40:00: Now it's just New Berlin Church.
40:03: No, it was it was New Berlin Baptist Church.
40:05: It was.
40:07: And they changed it because I remember when it happened, I knew the pastor at the time, they changed it, they dropped the title Baptist because they wanted to be inclusive.
40:15: The idea was to be inclusive.
40:19: Oh, yeah, it's happening a lot of places and a lot of churches like are adopting newer names that are more.
40:25: And I hate to use this word as if I'm being negative.
40:28: I want to say, but it is it's trendy, you know, twenty to eleven or upper upward church or journey church or elevation church.
40:37: It's always it's some kind of a trendy sort of like a like a like like like like a word that sort of makes them appear very inclusive.
40:46: You know, when we when we changed our church name, we went through months of deliberation among the elders and then we presented it to the church and many, many weeks of talking amongst ourselves.
40:55: But what did we want to do? We wanted to define ourselves.
40:59: You think of a church called Elevation.
41:01: What is that? You have no idea until you go and search it.
41:06: Sovereign Grace Family Church says a lot.
41:09: It says we're reformed.
41:10: It says we're focused on the family.
41:12: It says a lot in the title.
41:14: That's what we wanted.
41:15: We didn't want to hide from who we are.
41:17: And I'm not saying that's necessarily the motivation for everyone else.
41:20: But I think there is an attempt in coming up with trendy names.
41:24: There's an attempt to find this all inclusive middle ground.
41:27: And we wanted to firm up who we were.
41:30: And and so not saying we're better or anything, I'm just saying that's just the way it was.
41:35: We wanted people to know what we're about.
41:37: And a lot of names you can't tell what somebody is about.
41:40: All right, let's move on, because time, as it always does, is getting away from me.
41:47: The Roman Catholic argument opposing denominations.
41:51: The Roman Catholic Church points to the fragmentation of the denominations as the central failure of the Protestant Reformation.
42:03: In fact, this was the warning that Rome said.
42:08: They said if every person is given the Bible to read for themselves, the church would divide and fracture.
42:16: And guess what? They were right.
42:19: They were absolutely right.
42:21: That was a righteous prophecy on behalf of Rome.
42:25: But guess what Martin Luther said in response? Yes, he said that is true.
42:31: But he also said that it was a necessary consequence for keeping the Bible hidden within the church had not kept the church from corruption.
42:43: He said giving the word of God to people was necessary.
42:49: He said, yes, fractioning will occur.
42:52: That's a necessary consequence of this.
42:54: But keeping it locked up in the church, keeping it in Latin so no one could read it, except for those who knew Latin, which were very few, had not kept it from being corrupted.
43:10: A lot of times the priest himself, by the time of the Reformation, did not know.
43:15: And they were simply repeating stories that they had been told.
43:19: It was simply a regurgitation of what their higher ups had told them.
43:24: Many of them did not know scripture themselves.
43:28: It was it was a maintaining of control.
43:31: One thing that you will often hear from Catholics is an inflation of the number of denominations.
43:39: The number changes all the time.
43:41: But I hear this from Catholics.
43:42: They'll say there's 12,000 denominations or there's 20,000 denominations.
43:47: I think last time I heard 33,000 Protestant denominations.
43:53: This inflation of the numbers is an attempt by the Roman Catholic Church to pull people into it by saying, see, there's 30,000 of them, but there's one of us and we're the true one.
44:09: Here's the here's the problem with their argument.
44:13: Number one, within Roman Catholicism, there is hardly unanimity of thought.
44:19: There are many conservatives in Roman Catholicism and many liberals.
44:23: There are some who are charismatic and some who are not.
44:27: There are many nominal adherents.
44:29: In fact, there is a lot of nominal Catholics and there are some who are very hard in their faith.
44:35: There is a division in the one true church which runs very deep.
44:40: So when they talk about themselves as the one true church, I challenge them and say, why then did two popes back Pope John Paul II make an issue and say that he was not happy with people who were practicing cafeteria style Catholicism? That they took what they wanted and left what they didn't.
45:04: You see, he recognized himself that there was division in the one true church.
45:10: So this idea of the one true church, it's the guy, it's the kid who runs down the street with his fingers in his ear going, la la la la la, when Mom is saying, come back, come back, come back.
45:20: They're just they're deceiving themselves.
45:22: They're closing their ears, closing their eyes and saying la la la.
45:26: Because there is no the idea of the Roman Catholic Church is a one unified body of believers is a myth.
45:32: But the second thing, though there is great divergence within Protestant churches, there is uniformity in one area.
45:41: There is one area that all Protestants agree on.
45:46: And that is this.
45:49: We may differ on the modes of baptism, we may differ in our understanding of the Lord's table, but we all agree that the pope is not the vicar of Christ.
45:58: So there is uniformity in Protestantism in one main area.
46:03: We deny their most foundational teaching.
46:07: And that is that the pope himself is the doorway to Christ.
46:14: So there is, yeah, there's a lot of division amongst us, but there is one thing we agree on.
46:22: Roman Catholics argue this is the next blank.
46:24: Roman Catholics argue that denominational.
46:29: Denominationalism is the natural result of the doctrine of sola scriptura.
46:35: Sola scriptura is the teaching that the Bible alone is the sole and fallible rule for faith and practice for the Christian.
46:45: This is one of our five solas that we often talk about.
46:48: And Rome will say that is heresy and that's the cause of denominationalism because they believe that Rome itself, the magisterium of the church, which is led by the pope, must interpret the scripture for us, for us to have a righteous interpretation.
47:08: The beloved sola scriptura is not the culprit.
47:12: In denominationalism.
47:15: The cause of denominationalism is not scripture itself.
47:20: The cause of denominationalism is men who raise their opinions above scripture.
47:25: And beloved, that is not missing in Rome.
47:32: So the problem that they call sola scriptura, the problem is not the problem at all.
47:37: The problem is men and always has been the opinions of men.
47:44: All right.
47:45: Moving right along to the error of modern ecumenism, ecumenism, the error of modern ecumenism.
47:54: What is ecumenism? Ecumenism is the desire to break down denominational walls and create a unified church in the world.
48:05: And I will say this, it is a lofty goal.
48:09: It is a noble goal, unfortunately, is a goal which is fraught with error.
48:15: The error of modern ecumenism is the willingness to seek unity at the cost of forfeiting the gospel.
48:23: That is the error of modern ecumenism, beloved, we cannot seek unity in error.
48:32: We must be unified by truth.
48:35: Those who will not unify around the truth cannot be one with us.
48:39: It is an impossibility.
48:41: Second Corinthians six, verse 14, do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers for what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness or what fellowship has life with lawlessness.
48:52: What accord has light with darkness, what accord has Christ with Belial or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God.
49:05: As God said, I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them and I will be their God and they shall be my people.
49:11: Therefore, go out from their midst and be separate from them, says the Lord.
49:15: Touch not the unclean thing.
49:17: Then I will welcome you and I will be a father to you and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Almighty.
49:24: We cannot be yoked together with those who have not a commitment to the truth.
49:31: We cannot be yoked together with those who are ambivalent about the gospel, and this is the error of modern ecumenism, because it says we can.
49:42: It says that we can unify.
49:43: R.C.
49:44: Sproul has one of the best stories, and I really wish I would have been there.
49:49: I wish I'd been a fly on the wall on this day in his life, because it was a long time ago.
49:53: I don't even know if I was born.
49:55: He'd been doing this a lot longer than me.
49:58: Years ago, a group came to Ligonier Ministries, Ligonier offices, and they were saying, we have found the secret to unity and we have people from every denominational line.
50:14: We have Lutherans and Presbyterians and and we have Baptists and Methodists and we have Roman Catholics and Mormons and we've all gathered together and we found this unity.
50:27: And we want you, R.C.
50:29: Sproul, and your ministry, Ligonier, we want you to join with us as we show the world how the church can be unified.
50:36: And they were all so happy.
50:38: And R.C.
50:38: said, that's great.
50:40: You know, if you know, R.C., you know, he was he was he was being a little facetious because he knew what was about to happen, because he said, OK, you found the secret to unity.
50:49: And they said, yes, we know it.
50:52: He said there's about seven or eight guys there.
50:54: And he looked at one of them.
50:57: And he said, are you justified by faith alone or not? He said, and within five minutes, they were all arguing.
51:10: I mean, I mean, you talk about unity, but they only obtain this unity by sweeping the truth under the rug.
51:27: Sure, absolutely.
51:34: All right, I'm going to I'm going to ask you for a few more minutes as I run through these last few, because I don't want to I don't want to give up and I certainly don't have an ability to stretch this another week.
51:45: But I want to I want to share with you these things.
51:48: The unity of the universal church and the autonomy of the local church, most of you should know this, but just in case you don't, the word church does not refer to the building.
52:02: The word church refers to the people, ecclesia, the called out ones is the is the Greek word.
52:11: X is to out of it's where we get the prefix for exit to go out of something.
52:16: And Kaleo is called and Ecclesia is the ones who've been called out is it is us who are believers.
52:26: And there are two ways that the ecclesia are identified.
52:31: One is the universal church.
52:37: The universal church is made up of all of God's elect who have been taken from spiritual death to spiritual life.
52:45: That's the universal church and the local church.
52:50: Number two, the local church is a group of believers which is submitted to one another under a common understanding of scripture and under the authority of locally ordained elders.
53:03: So understanding that there are two things that we need to understand further.
53:08: One within the universal church, there is complete unity.
53:17: What I mean is that when I sit down to the communion table and I take of the body of Christ represented in the bread and the blood of Christ represented in the cup, I am sharing in the same body and same blood that the the guy from from Eastern Europe or the guy from China or the guy from South America who at the same time in the same way is sharing in the same body in the same blood.
53:46: OK, there is unity among us in Christ and that unity is perfect.
53:53: Now, within the local church, there is autonomy.
53:59: What does that mean? What is autonomy? Autonomy means freedom.
54:07: It's where we get the word actually autonomy.
54:10: Autos is self.
54:11: Namas is governing.
54:13: So it means to be self-governing is what the word autonomy is.
54:17: That's what the word construction is.
54:23: And here's why I point out the autonomy of the local church.
54:29: We do not have a group or body which is over the local church to govern it.
54:37: The Bible never describes anywhere a district court or a magisterium for the church.
54:46: There is none found in Scripture.
54:49: The individual church has a structured outline which is given to us in Scripture.
54:55: Sunday, I'm going to preach on this hard because Sunday I'm preaching on deacons, because Sunday we are appointing a new deacon in the church and I'm going to address the role of the deacon in the church.
55:07: And in the midst of that, we'll talk also about elders and members, because in the church there are only two offices.
55:18: The office of apostle has gone away and has been replaced by the office of elder.
55:24: The elder is the teacher of the church.
55:26: He, along with the session of elders, are the governors of the church, because why? The Scripture is the governmental authority of the church and the elders are responsible to interpret the Scripture.
55:38: So they are the governors, but they govern with Scripture, not with their own intentions or opinions, but with Scripture.
55:44: That's the point.
55:45: The deacons are the servants or ministers of the church.
55:49: In fact, the word deacon is often translated minister in Scripture.
55:54: In fact, it's only translated as deacon, I think, three or four times in the New Testament.
55:59: It's often translated minister, servant, because that's what deaconing is.
56:03: Servant, servant, servant.
56:08: So how is the New Testament church set up? This is something I've spent a lot of time with.
56:16: The New Testament church is set up as Christ is the head.
56:20: The word of God is the document in which there is no error that we look to as our guide.
56:26: And we are governed through the body of elders, the session of elders, which is interpreting that word.
56:31: And we are managing ourselves through that word.
56:35: There is no district assembly, there's no magisterium, and there ain't no pope in the Bible.
56:42: So wherein does the local church have its authority? The Bible.
56:49: The local church gets its authority from the Bible.
56:56: Now, final one on your sheet.
57:00: Calvin's definition of a true church.
57:04: Rome claims to be the true church.
57:08: So to do the Mormons and the Jehovah Witnesses and even the historic churches of Christ.
57:13: They're the church.
57:17: We do not claim to be the true church.
57:20: We claim to be a true church.
57:25: That's important distinction because you ask the question, what makes a true church? What makes a true local body of believers a church? John Calvin established three principles upon which he said a true church must be built.
57:45: And apart from them, a group would cease to be a church.
57:50: And I think that these are powerful principles.
57:52: I want to share them with you now.
57:55: Number one, the preaching of the pure gospel, the preaching of the pure gospel.
58:01: That is the first principle for a true church.
58:03: Any church that's not preaching the gospel is not a church.
58:08: Number two, the administration of the sacraments.
58:13: And you might add slash ordinances if you prefer to call them ordinances.
58:19: I don't have any problem myself using the term sacraments, but I understand that people have an issue with the word sacrament at times.
58:26: So normally I'll sacraments and it is talking to.
58:30: Right.
58:31: When you say that, yes, there's only two ordinances which we've been given.
58:35: The Lord's Supper and baptism.
58:37: Yes.
58:37: Baptism is the singular ordinance done once.
58:39: Lord's Supper is the one which is perpetuated.
58:42: But that's the two.
58:46: Finally.
58:47: And this is the one that's going to hurt the practice of discipline, the practice of discipline.
59:00: Calvin said if the gospel is preached and the sacraments are administered and the discipline of the church is maintained, then the church is a church.
59:13: I want to read to you from the Belgian Confession.
59:15: I don't know if you've noticed, but some of our readings have been coming from the Belgian Confession.
59:19: I've read it.
59:20: I've been reading it to my kids.
59:22: It's so beautiful.
59:23: Are there parts of it I would disagree with? Yes.
59:27: But just as a statement of the gospel and the truth of the word, it's beautiful.
59:32: Belgian Confession is just it's a powerful, powerful document.
59:37: But I read to you what it says about the church.
59:38: It says this.
59:40: We believe that we ought to discern diligently and very carefully by the word of God.
59:44: What is the true church for all sects in the world today claim for themselves the name of the church? I just stop right there.
59:55: It's funny because this is 1500s and they're saying, yeah, man, they all say they're the church.
01:00:00: But who is the church? We are not speaking here of the company of hypocrites who are mixed among the good in the church and who nonetheless are not part of it, even though they're physically there.
01:00:11: But we are speaking of distinguishing the body and fellowshipping of the church, true church from all sects that call themselves the church.
01:00:18: The true church can be recognized if it has the following marks.
01:00:21: The church engages in the pure preaching of the gospel.
01:00:25: It makes use of the pure administration of the sacraments as Christ instituted them.
01:00:30: It practices church discipline for correcting faults.
01:00:33: In short, it governs itself according to the pure word of God, rejecting all things contrary to it and holding Jesus Christ as the only head.
01:00:48: By these marks, one can be assured of recognizing the true church and no one ought to be separated from it.
01:00:57: It's powerful, it's beautiful, and it's a great encapsulation of what we've talked about today, because our aim is not to be the church, that there's no others, but our aim is to be a church among that which is the true body of Christ.
01:01:17: No denomination is perfect and some have gone the way of heresy and sadly, some even so far as becoming cults.
01:01:26: As a result, many churches have divided from all denominations and the title non denominational, which we talked about a moment ago, has become very popular.
01:01:36: In a sense, we would call ourselves non denominational because we are not Lutherans and we are not Presbyterians and we are not Methodists.
01:01:46: We don't line up with any of the seven sisters.
01:01:49: But at the same time, in the end, denominational titles matter little.
01:01:57: What really matters is if a church has or has not the gospel, if a person tells me they're a Lutheran, I don't care, do you have the gospel? You tell me you're a Presbyterian.
01:02:11: I don't care.
01:02:11: Do you have the gospel? Because that will define whether or not first and foremost, you even understand what it means to be a church.
01:02:29: I appreciate the question, but obviously I would need a definition.
01:02:35: We would we would discuss the definition of the gospel because Mormons would say they have the gospel to Mormons have taken the idea of the gospel and so misconstrued and so misdefined that they have robbed from it any meaning that would that would in itself identify it as the gospel.
01:02:51: So, yes, it's more than just the word gospel.
01:02:53: Of course, I mean, do you have the true gospel next week? We're going to be looking a little bit a little deeper at one specific group within Christianity.
01:03:03: We're going to be looking at Baptists because we're going to be looking at two documents from history.
01:03:11: The last 400 years, there have been two documents that I think are worthy of our attention.
01:03:16: They have not had the following of the early creeds like the Nicene Creed, the Apostles Creed and that.
01:03:22: But I think they still demand our attention.
01:03:24: The 1689 London Confession of Faith and the abstract of principles.
01:03:31: So next week, those will be our focus.
01:03:34: Let's pray.
01:03:35: Father, thank you for this opportunity that we've had to study.
01:03:38: And we pray that you would bless it to our further understanding of your truth and that you would bless your church here as we continue to seek to be a true church in Jesus Christ.
01:03:49: We pray.
01:03:50: Amen.