Great question. I've got to go with biblical on this one (although certainly denominations have been distorted, making them unbiblical).
While our ultimate hope is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, that will never be fully realized this side of heaven. Not only are we fallen humanity, we're simply humanity. That means we have natural divisions and natural social inclinations. Rather than viewing denominations as divisive, I see them as actually strengthening the body and strengthening the unity of believers. No single group can focus on everything. Denominations weight different aspects of scripture differently and what results (to me, at least) is a beautiful picture of the body at work.
good thoughts. I don't know that we can call denominationalism biblical, in light of the fact that there is no evidence in scripture of it. It may be extra-biblical, but not unbiblical. I know there are clear differences in the beliefs held in different denominations, but do our separate churches cause unnecessary divisions? should the call to unity be upheld? what should unity look like?
2 comments:
Great question. I've got to go with biblical on this one (although certainly denominations have been distorted, making them unbiblical).
While our ultimate hope is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, that will never be fully realized this side of heaven. Not only are we fallen humanity, we're simply humanity. That means we have natural divisions and natural social inclinations. Rather than viewing denominations as divisive, I see them as actually strengthening the body and strengthening the unity of believers. No single group can focus on everything. Denominations weight different aspects of scripture differently and what results (to me, at least) is a beautiful picture of the body at work.
good thoughts.
I don't know that we can call denominationalism biblical, in light of the fact that there is no evidence in scripture of it. It may be extra-biblical, but not unbiblical. I know there are clear differences in the beliefs held in different denominations, but do our separate churches cause unnecessary divisions? should the call to unity be upheld? what should unity look like?
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