Category: Division

We can not agree with the appeal to “attend the church of your choice.” It is our conviction that the church that Jesus built in the first century is the only church that the Lord will recognize as His own today. This church can not be found by tracing history, or by a majority vote (i.e., the church with the largest membership), but rather by looking at the pattern of the church that is set forth in the New Testament. Denominations divide believers by subscribing to creeds, councils, catechisms, and conventions. We simply try to follow the teachings of the Bible alone. Until we can find different kinds of churches in the Bible we can not encourage men to attend the church of their choice.

1 Kings 18 records a conversation between the great prophet Elijah, and Obadiah, the steward over the house of King Ahab. Despite his close association with the evil king, scripture describes Obadiah as a man who “feared the Lord greatly” (18:3).

A number of lessons can be learned by becoming familiar with these two men, and examining the conversation they had on that eventful day.

While division is ugly and undesirable it is a reality. We dare not try to circumvent it by promoting a unity-in-diversity doctrine. We must continue to sound forth the pure word of God with love and patience but without apology, and those whom God calls will unite with His word and His people.

True, we all have opinions and where God has not spoken we have a right to our opinions. We also have a right and a responsibility to keep our opinions to ourselves at times. May God bless us with the wisdom to know when.

Note how that in nearly every generation issues have arisen and often have reoccurred. So, repeated teaching is necessary for each generation, in order to avoid falling victim to apostasies. All of these “neo”, or new, movements, and doctrines, reflected the rebellion of men against established authority, and opened the door for more and greater departures from the apostolic order of things. Many in the brotherhood are fast on the road to classic modernism.

There are little churches all over this country that exist because of some division that occurred twenty five years ago that only a handful of people can even remember. But if you were to suggest that one of these close their doors and unite with other brethren of like faith in their same community, that messenger would likely be burned at the stake or worse.