“Research vs. Rehearse”

Friday, June 12, 2020

Dear AYP Readers,

We received an anonymous question that included a link to another website that promotes the concept that many churches that call themselves ‘church of Christ’ have fallen into denominational thinking, and instead of teaching the Bible, they are simply rehearsing their own sectarian creeds.

As a general rule, we don’t post questions that link to other websites because we don’t wish to come across as promoting their views as our own… nor do we wish to get into a “cyber-war” to be battled out between web administrators.  That simply isn’t why we are here.  Our goal is to focus on the Word of God and its answers to life’s questions.

So, without reposting the question, how does a congregation avoid falling into denominational thinking?

The denominational world exists because churches started following their own traditions and failing to return to the Bible for their practices.  This isn’t a modern problem; even the early first-century churches in Asia were rebuked for “leaving their first love” (Rev 2:4).  Jesus railed against the Pharisees because they valued their traditions more than they valued the Bible (Matt 15:3).  They taught the same behavior as their ancestors… not the Scriptures (Matt 15:9).  The problem with that behavior is that even if the generation before you was right, if you don’t know why they were doing what they were doing, you can end up missing the point.  It’s like the old story about the granddaughter that cut the Thanksgiving turkey in half before cooking it because that was what Granny did – turns out the only reason Granny did that was because her oven was too small!

Denominations build the same way; if we only repeat what our forefathers did, we are merely rehearsing traditions, not placing our faith in the life-giving Word of God (Rom 1:16).  Faithful churches have always been built upon the noble-minded attitude of the Bereans who “examined the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so” (Acts 17:10-11).  If we give our hearts wholly to the Lord, we will work out our own salvation by asking questions, examining the Bible, and comparing our practices to God’s eternal Word (Php 2:12).

So, are some churches that were once faithful turning to sectarianism or denominational traditionalism?  Sure.  They’ve been doing that since before the book of Colossians was written (Col 2:8).  Thankfully, people have been turning away from denominationalism for just as long.

Sincerely,
AYP

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