06/01/2026
********* "DENOMINATIONALISM: DEMONIC OR DIVINE?" *********
“I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” – John 17:20-21[ESV]
When this writer reads the above words from Jesus’ “high priestly prayer,” he cannot help but wonder why the church is so fragmented across the globe. Surely Jesus knew that the inevitable result of the church spreading across different continents and cultures would have to maintain unity in diversity. Were denominations a part of that plan?
One of the ideals that characterizes Americans is “rugged individualism.” We take pride in “pulling ourselves up by our own bootstraps.” We like the independence of being “do it yourselfers” and want things done our way. Advertisers know this and market goods in a way that appeals to an individual's desire for merchandise to be tailor-made according to their own specifications. We live in a menu-driven culture.
This individualism has bled over into American church life. Unlike our brothers in the East, we value personal autonomy over corporate community. For this reason (particularly with the advent of the internet) some even style themselves as “lone ranger Christians,” watching from home but failing to avail themselves of the graces of the sacraments or mutually edifying fellowship with other believers found in church attendance. Others attend church but their primary concern when choosing a church is what her programs offer them personally. They have no concern that their absence hurts the body corporately.
Over the years churches have caught on to this mentality regarding people's attitude towards religion. Increasingly, churches began to market their product (which is the gospel) by offering a tailor-made gospel that appeals to individual tastes rather than a gospel that confronts people with hard truths about their sin, judgment, hell, and need for Christ.
The “Christ” propagated by many in the modern church is not the way to God but a way to God. He has therapeutic value to those seeking help but not ultimate value if one follows Him for His benefits rather than His supreme worth.
Because of our value for rugged individualism, the tendency of Protestant churches to split is understandable. If one becomes dissatisfied with the teaching of their church, they simply start another according to their theological preferences. Many denominations began that way. In reaction to denominational Christianity, in recent years so-called “non-denominational churches” have proliferated. Increasingly, churches drop the denominational label in their name while maintaining the doctrinal distinctives of their denomination. This is particularly true of Baptists and charismatic Christians. If one examines the doctrinal statements of most so-called “non-denominational” churches, they could be fairly characterized as “hip Baptists.” That is, they hold typically to Baptist doctrinal distinctives – believers’ baptism, low church worship, congregational government and a closely guarded independent attitude.
What most people do not realize is that Baptists are not really a denomination in the strictest sense of the word. Baptists don't have a denominational hierarchy with power over individual churches.
Southern Baptists are often called the “largest Protestant denomination in the United States.” But they are not a denomination. They are a convention of independent churches in cooperation with one another with Baptist distinctives. They largely agree on the essentials of the faith, but churches may hold to ancillary doctrines that differ from sister churches. Each church is autonomous. Churches choose to cooperate and are not under denominational control. If a church begins to advance heterodox teaching outside the parameters of the Baptist Faith and Message, the other cooperating churches in the convention may disfellowship them. But they have no power to discipline them or force them to disband.
Church autonomy is what drives the movement towards non-denominationalism. But there is one dangerous flaw in the non-denominational church zeitgeist; without a governing authority to which they are held doctrinally accountable, they serve as breeding grounds for heterodoxy and, even worse, heresy. There are non-denominational churches that believe Jesus had to be “born again” to enter heaven. They believe that we can become “little gods.” Because the modern church caters to the desires of their constituency, the “health and wealth gospel” sells while the biblical Jesus Christ who calls for death to self is not attractive. Are all non-denominational churches heretical? No! And my point is not to denigrate them. I am simply pointing out the danger of churches having no ecclesiastical body to hold them accountable.
As an American I value the ideal of rugged individualism as well. Like most pastors I once entertained the thought of being part of a church start from the ground floor making it precisely in line with my doctrinal beliefs, worship style proclivities, and church polity. The problem with such thinking is that one’s desire should not be focused on their individual preferences put on the person of Jesus Christ. The church is His body, and individualism must be dethroned for a church to genuinely be the body of Christ.
When Christ established His church, He intended it to be one body. And He prayed in His high priestly prayer that the body would be unified. I once believed that the idea of denominations was antithetical to the one church Christ started. I often remarked much to the chagrin of some that “denominations were not part of God's plan but are made necessary by the tendency of people with doctrinal differences to sort themselves out into groups of like-minded believers.”
As I witness the catastrophic decline in the American church due to her leaders’ capitulation with culture and worldly marketing methodologies aimed at pleasing their worldly clientele, it has become apparent to me that God does have a sovereign purpose for denominations and that they all have something to contribute to others in the kingdom of God. This is countercultural thinking. Indeed, it is philosophically anathema to non-denominational types who hope to eventually unite all churches into one. Historically, this has been tried before without success. Ask Thomas and Alexander
Campbell how well that dream worked out for them in the early 19th century when they tried to bring all denominations into one Christian church. They sought to unite all Christians by discarding human-made creeds and returning to the practices of the New Testament. It did not work then, and it will not now. The result of their attempt was the formation of yet another denomination known as the Christian Church Disciples of Christ! Non-denominational churches will eventually affiliate with each other and, for all practical purposes, form a new denomination or they will collapse due to the “boom-and-bust” results of their independent existence.
I can relate to the heart of the non-denominationalist Christian’s thoughtful question: “How could division in the body of Christ possibly be a good thing?” The trouble is that those who cannot abide anyone at variance with all the specifics of their theology are incapable of regarding other denominations as Christians at all.
Can the body of Christ be served by denominational Christianity? I have come to believe that it has, can, and must! But the only way that it will work is for there to be a revival of genuine Christian humility when dealing with Christians belonging to communions outside our own.
We often are catechized into our denomination with the attitude that “everyone else is wrong” but “we were the ones who got it right” when it comes to doctrine. And of course, all of us are quick to identify modern cults with heterodox doctrines as heretics and rightfully so. When a splinter group emerges propagating interpretations of the Bible opposed to two millennia of church
biblical interpretation, they are almost certainly wrong and must be repudiated and hopefully evangelized.
What I don't think many of us Protestants realize is that from the wide-angle lens of church history we too are the “new kids on the block.” The two older Christian communions (dare I call them denominations?) - Catholicism and Orthodoxy - predate our branch of Christendom by over a millennium!
Does that make us wrong and them right? Not necessarily. The purpose of the Protestant reformers was originally to reform the Catholic Church and purify her of the nonbiblical doctrinal accretions and magisterial corruption that had infiltrated the church. They did not wish to establish a new branch of Christendom. But that is exactly what happened when the Catholic Church would not reform her ways. Protestantism, far from being new, was an attempt to recapture the faith of the early church before it became corrupted. A movement birthed with a desire to be more thoroughly biblical was bound to be splintered according to differing opinions about biblical interpretation. Naturally, like-minded believers would coalesce around leaders who propagated their mutual understanding of what the Bible teaches. The result? A plethora of denominations. It is humbling for this Protestant to look at a flow chart of denominational families and see what a tiny minority he inhabits among the whole of Christendom.
In accordance with the spirit of this age, this writer once regarded denominations as a “necessary evil” permitted by God to mitigate the utter chaos that would occur if everyone followed their own particular interpretation of scripture. The problem with a “necessary evil” is that it begins to become increasingly “necessary” and less “evil.” Without a strong centralized church government like the Papacy, Protestants went through split after split over doctrinal disputes. Non-denominational types sometimes say: “Doctrine divides!” In a sense that is true, but it is also true that “doctrine unites.” Doctrinal parameters are necessary in order for people to cooperate together with some sense of unity in their assembly.
There are some essential doctrinal teachings that all orthodox Christian denominations agree upon. I cannot think of one Protestant denomination that at its founding did not ascribe to the formulation of doctrine found in the “Apostles Creed.” Indeed, most Protestant, Catholic and Eastern Orthodox believers can unite around the “Nicene Creed” (Filioque notwithstanding.) We may disagree over the method and meaning of baptism, the presence of Christ in the eucharist, the proper form of church government, the nature of the atonement, the veneration of Mary, the question of biblical authority versus church tradition, or the Ordo Salutis (order of salvation), but we can agree on the Triune God and the person and work of Jesus Christ.
I have come to recognize that every denomination has strengths and weaknesses. And we can learn from one another's strengths. Every genuine Christian denomination can serve as a corrective to the defects of others.
Examples of this abound. High church protestants can be chastened by low church protestant’s enthusiasm and expressiveness in worship. In these times of theological illiteracy, low church protestants can be chastened by the doctrinally biblical liturgy recited in high church denominations which catechize worshippers with doctrinally rich orthodox recitations which - when committed to memory - form a hedge against the ubiquitous false doctrine of this world.
Traditionally cessationist Christian denominations have something to learn from contemporary charismatics regarding faith in a miracle-working God rather than relegating the miraculous to a “pre-canon” God. We need to be reminded that God is still in the miracle-working business. Charismatics are helpful in reminding the church that the third person of the Trinity - the Holy Spirit - is still vitally empowering His church to advance His Kingdom.
To bridle the unrestrained practice of glossolalia (tongues speaking), traditionally charismatic assemblies can avoid unbiblical extremes regarding spiritual gifts by thoughtfully interacting with others from denominations that place a high premium on biblical authority in the proper practice of such gifts.
For the better part of the first 1500 years of church history, the vast majority of Christians regarded Christ as being present in the bread and cup of the Lord's supper. The tendency of those who hold no more than a “memorial view” of this supper is to fail to accord the observance with the reverential awe that those who hold to the “real presence” of Christ as do other Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox communions. Low church Protestants can learn from our high church brothers about keeping the supper in a worthy manner.
Catholic and Orthodox brothers can learn from Protestants that it is the intercession of Christ himself and the Holy Spirit that the believer should seek, and not the intercession of dead Saints.
Spiritually undisciplined modern evangelicals have something to learn from our Orthodox and Catholic brethren regarding the discipline of regular seasons of fasting and prayer.
Examples like these could be multiplied many times over. The point is this: God is not caught off guard by the existence of denominations. Over two millennia, His church has taken root in diverse and often unfamiliar cultures, each shaping its own stylistic expressions and doctrinal emphases in order to proclaim the gospel effectively in its context. If God is sovereign—and He is—then the rise of denominations fits within His providential plan.
The unity of the body for which Christ prayed is attainable if all denominations keep our eyes on Jesus and love our brethren across denominational boundaries. We would do well to remember the words often ascribed to St. Augustine: “In necessariis unitas, in dubiis libertas, in omnibus caritas,” which mean: “In essentials unity, in non-essentials, liberty, in all things charity.”
Prayer: Heavenly Father. Thank You for Your sovereign control over Your church and the provision You made for denominations to spread Your kingdom across the globe. There will be no denominations in heaven and all of us will likely have to face the fact that we were wrong in some particulars of doctrine. May Your people all find common ground in Christ! Thank You that when I gaze upon Him, I forget the trivialities of systematic theologies and dogmas that divide mankind. Continue to help me practice charitable ecumenism bridled by the essentials of orthodoxy. Make me an instrument of peace. Embolden me to take my stand on Christ and Christ alone. Bring about unity amid diversity in Your Church O Lord. Amen! See less
