The Church has been divided, split into many sects that we call denominations. Why is there this divide? Why do we have Baptists, Methodists, Catholics, Pentecostals, Presbyterians, Lutherans...etc...etc? Even after Paul makes such a clear statement about this in 1 Corinthians 1:10
Now I beseech (or - appeal to) you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment
Paul goes on to ask in verse 13 “Is Christ divided?” If Christ is not divided than why should His body on earth be divided? So how can we claim to be believers when we so blatantly ignore such a clear statement in the Word of God? What is it that drives us to divide? The Bible is a huge document and each person who reads it, reads it from his or her own perspective. This leads to many different interpretations of the Word and thus many different sects. Each sect says that it is inspired by the Holy Spirit so how do we know which one really is, or if any of them are? Why would God give us His word if it can be interpreted in so many different ways? The Answer is this, God never intended for us to use our human faculties to understand His word. Let me now illustrate my point with these statements...
God has revealed the interpretation to me
God has increased my mental ability to understand His word
God gives me good logic to use while studying His word.
On the surface these statements might sound fine. But we have to go deeper. Do you notice a pattern in these statements? The use of the words “Me” and “My” What happened to “It is no longer I who lives but Christ who lives in me”? God doesn't “fix” you; He removes you from the picture. Many times you will hear statements in the Church like this “Jesus destroyed sin” Wrong, it never says that Jesus destroyed sin, it says that He destroyed “The Body of sin” What is the body of sin? It' is you and it is me. It is our flesh nature. Sin is still here, but the sinner has been nailed to the cross with Christ and has been Crucified. It's like if you don't put any gas in your car; your car will still be there. You can see it and touch it but it can't go anywhere without the gas. The gas is it's life. Sin becomes non effective if the vessel in which it is made manifest is destroyed. But He doesn't just remove you; he replaces you with His own life. So if I can say with all honesty, “It is no longer I who lives but Christ who lives in me” then at this point He will not need to reveal the interpretation to me, He is the interpretation. He will not need to increase my mental ability, He is my mental ability. He will not need to give me good logic, He is my logic. God doesn't empower my flesh; He removes it and replaces it with His own glorious life. This transformation is not something that can be achieved or even understood mentally. It only comes through faith and His divine revelation of our oneness with Christ on the Cross. Christ said that we must daily take up our cross and follow Him. So this is a repeated leap of faith that we must take, daily acknowledging our death with Him and also His glorious resurrected life that lives and breathes and drives our mortal bodies. There is only one true form of Christianity; there is only one truth and one way. If Christ is our life, than there is no more division because He will be living out the truth through us. Division in the Church is the evidence of the lack of Christ. Any Church that takes a name other than the name of Christ (denominational labels/mans stamp on God’s truth) is committing spiritual fornication. They are only seeing Christ from the outside looking in, not the inside looking out. When we are on the outside looking in, the Jesus experience is merely second hand to us, we are only experiencing Him though others. But when we, through faith and divine revelation, acknowledge our death with Him, and that it is no longer we who live but Christ’s resurrected life that lives in us, we can truly experience Him first hand in all of His glory, for His life is now our own.
