Unity Of The Faith

Friend: "So what denomination are you?"
Me: "Err, we do not quite have a denomination but if you REALLY want to classify, I guess it should be 'Charismatic' or 'Word of Faith'."

Very common question that pops up during my chats with acquaintances. I used to be very proud of answering such a question a long time ago but now I am not. In fact I would prefer not to have to answer such a question if I could choose. Why? For one, I do not like to idea of being 'boxed up' under any particular denomination by anyone as if they knew fully what that denomination meant. I would be the first to admit I am very ignorant about the various denominations that exists. Another reason is that I do not believe that God enjoys having His children divided and classified under various denominations. It seems to me from the bible that God does classify people but His classifications are way simpler than what we do nowadays. For example, a few of the denominations that I have heard about that exists are Catholics, Baptists, Charismatics, Protestants, Evangelicals, Anglicans, Church of God, etc. When God classifies people, He uses very simple classifications like Jews and Gentiles, believers and unbelievers, children of God and children of the devil, etc which very simply breaks down into 3 categories Jews, Christians and non-Christians.

So God only sees the world in 3 categories but sadly His children try to divide themselves into many more divisions because of the differences in doctrines. I am not a father myself but I have yet to find any father who enjoys seeing divisions between his kids. What more when it comes to the perfect Father God? But we don't give a rip about it. As long as it satisfies our doctrine and perception of God, who cares if there is division among us? At least that seems to be the vibes I get from most denominational people, myself included. So sad. It is really interesting to note that many things in the bible really is not as complicated as we make them out to be. When Jesus spoke to Nicodemus about salvation, He only had 5 words, "You must be born again." But how many times do we hear of things that we have to do to be saved or remain saved after that?

When Jesus prayed His priestly prayer on the night He was betrayed, He highlighted God's heart over His church, "that they may be one even as We are." as found in John 17:11

I like the way the apostle Paul talked about gifts given to the church in his letter to the Ephesians which is generally accepted to be for the whole church.

Ephesians 4:11-13 (NASB) And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.

It's interesting that nothing is mentioned about unity of doctrine or anything like it. But we seem to be wanting a unity of doctrine more than anything such that anyone who does not stick to our doctrine, we tend to dismiss them in our mind already. I ever heard of a friend who was in my former church and firmly believes with his whole heart that the "Grace" message needs to be brought to the whole world as if it is the only important message around. I might be wrong in this but I do not agree that any single message is of that significant importance that it overshadows everything else. Take for example when Jesus was speaking to the various churches in the book of Revelation, He did not have a single message to all of them. In fact He spoke different issues to different churches. He did not just preach "Grace" for example to all of them. The different churches were at different junctures in their own walk with Him and thus needed different messages spoken to them. There is never a one size fits all message to everyone. Granted, there are certain doctrines which are basic for all believers for example salvation. But no one or no church does have a monopoly over a doctrine that the whole church must know. 


Hmmm, seems like we have slipped a fair bit from what God would like for us to be. Think we really need to go back to the basics prescribed in the bible rather than the ideas passed to us by people or even by the church if those ideas are not biblical.