Today, there are a lot of churches. The Baptist, Presbyterian, and Methodist are just a few well known ones. According to the Encyclopedia of American Religions, there are 33,820 denominations. What caused such division in the church? Why can we not agree? This division is because of humans who have either 1) been ignorant in the teachings of the Bible or 2) been knowingly wrong but too stubborn to change.
The Bible tells us what God thinks about division. "[S]o we, being many members in one body in Christ, and individually members of one another." (Roman 12:5) The rule of one is applied throughout scripture. In the first mention of the church, Jesus promised to build "My church." (Matthew 16:18) Notice that both church (noun) and My (pronoun) are singular; one builder of one church.
The church is only talked about as one in prophecies of it. For example, in Daniel 2:44 the prophecy relates to God establishing a (one) kingdom. All the uses in this passage of the word "kingdom" are singular.
Passages such as Ephesians 1:22-23 and Colossians 1:18 tell us that the body refers to the church. In Ephesians 4:1-6, there are seven "one”s : Lord, faith, baptism, Spirit, hope, Father, and body. It does not make any sense to think that God would permit more than one body while not allowing more than one of the other six "one"s.
The one gospel creates the one faith which leads a person to the one baptism. When baptized, the Lord adds the believer to the one body (church). If denominationalism is okay, then which body does He add us to? How do we know which one we are in? In Acts 2:47, the scriptures show us that God adds us to the church. Denominationalism teaches that we are allowed a choice as to which church we want to be apart of. Some denominations vote on the membership as to whether or not to accept the new member. That concept has no support in the scriptures.
There is proof in history that there is only one church. A majority of the myriad of churches which exist today were not known until the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. There were contradictions in the teachings of the Bible and Roman Catholicism, so Martin Luther tried to reform Catholicism. This resulted in many people creating their own religions or "denominations". Some that came because of this include the Methodists, Episcopalians, Presbyterians, etc.
Logically, the New Testament tells us that there is one body and one head over that one body (Ephesians 1:22-23; Colossians 1:18). This is just like our own physical body - one head over one body. Some denominations teach that there is one head and multiple bodies; that is what you call a monstrosity. One head (Jesus) with one body (the church) makes logical sense.
Some say that John 15:5 is what teaches about denominationalism. This is taking that out of context. They say that the branches are the churches and the vine is Jesus. I pray that more people will take a closer look at God’s word to see what it really means in context. Here, Jesus is talking to His disciples. Judas (not Iscariot) had asked how He would reach the whole world when He was only manifest in the disciples. In 14:23 and on, Jesus answers his question by saying that whoever keeps His word will be with the Father. Then, in chapter 15, He begins telling them that as individual people, they are branches in Him, and the rest of the world can be reached by His branches if they bear fruit. But, only if they bear fruit will they stay on the vine (have a home with Him). The fruit is mentioned in Galatians 5:22-23. "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law." The more fruit they produce, the more they glorified the Father (vs. 8). This passage is not about denominations (which didn’t exist at this time anyways, because the church had yet to exist). The church was establibled after Christ death, resurrection, and ascent to Heaven.
The New Testament teaches us what we must do to please God and how we must live and worship in order to “abide in [Christ]”. So, since there is one (narrow) road that leads to Christ and it’s difficult, it may not be as simple as following the crowd and going to church. There’s more to pleasing God, but we must study scripture to know what that is. If two groups are contradicting each other in the way they are serving God, one must be wrong because He is very specific in the instructions He provides. An example of people who thought their way might be great (because it must’ve been cool or pleasing to them) but was really not what God wanted was in Leviticus 10. Nadab and Abihu offered “strange”/“profane” fire to God (vs. 1, KJV & NKJV), but it was what “He had not commanded them.” Surely they wanted to please God (because they made an offering), but because they didn’t follow His exact instructions, fire devoured them and “they died before the Lord” (vs. 2). I plead that you search the scriptures to see what God truly intended for us to do to live a faithful life. Good intentions do not always lead to good results, without the proper foundation of truth to support those actions.
2 Timothy 4:2 :
“Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching.”
2 Timothy 3:16 :
“All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness”