Why are there so many churches? | Rapp Report Daily 0121 | Striving for Eternity

Welcome to The Rapid Pull, daily edition, where we provide a quick biblical interpretations and applications. This is a ministry of striving for eternity.

Why Churches Differ and What Makes a Biblical Church

A new believer, Sonia, asked us a question. Why are there so many churches? Now, she happens to have come from a Mormon background where you'd have one church. It doesn't matter where you go in the country, the same Mormon church, they're all going to preach the same message in all of them.

And so, it doesn't matter which Mormon church you go to, they're all the same in that sense. And so, now that she's come to know Christ, she's asking the question, why are there so many churches? What are the differences?

Where should I go? That's what we're going to try to address this week. And so, the first thing we have to notice is, yes, there are different churches.

Why?

Well, the short answer is because they disagree with one another, sometimes on major things, sometimes on minor things. But when we talk about biblical churches, there are going to be churches that are going to follow a pattern of what God says a church should be.

Those churches are going to be ones where you're going to get the Word of God proclaimed from the pulpit, week after week, no dramas and games and things like that. It's preaching of God's Word. They're going to have the ordinances, which we would say would be baptism and following of the Lord's Supper.

Church Discipline and the Purity of the Church

And the Puritans used to add church discipline. It's a place where the churches would actually take the purity of the church serious, serious enough that they would end up having to discipline people who are disobedient and refusing to repent.

Now, we're going to end up doing a longer podcast on church discipline, but this week what I'd like to do is take a look at some of the differences that we have in different churches and what would define good churches versus churches maybe we should, well, stay away from.

And so, that's what we're going to look at this week.

This podcast is part of the Striving for Eternity ministry. For more content or to request a speaker or seminar to your church, go to strivingforeternity .org.