Walk With Me
Christian discussion of biblical topics, and a dose of daily application. Yes the Bible is still relevant, and we find out more and more each day how relevant it has always been.
Walk With Me
What denomination am I?
Do you ever wonder why Christianity is divided into so many denominations and if these divisions align with biblical teachings? In today's episode of "Walk With Me," we promise to unravel the complexities behind denominational differences within Christianity and explore the notion that these divisions are fundamentally anti-biblical. Reflecting on nearly three years of enriching conversations with our listeners, we express our deep gratitude for your unwavering support and emphasize our commitment to inclusivity in our content. We delve into a listener's thought-provoking question about denominational splits, using the book of Acts and Revelation to spotlight the church as a singular, unified body. By focusing on unity and historical context, we highlight how true Christian faith transcends these denominational boundaries.
Our discussion takes you on a historical journey through the early church's persecution, the emergence of the Catholic Church, and the impactful Protestant Reformation, which led to today's diverse denominational landscape. We reference Jesus' teachings on unity, specifically citing Luke 11:17, to underscore the importance of a united Christian doctrine. As we dissect the historical roots of denominations like Lutherans, Episcopalians, and Baptists, we stress that one's denomination does not determine salvation. Instead, we spotlight the core elements of true Christian practice—repentance, baptism, receiving the Holy Spirit, and living a holy life. Join us in this compelling episode as we call for unity among Christians, encouraging you to share God's love and guide others toward a transformative relationship with Jesus.
Hello everybody and welcome to today's episode of Walk With Me. I am your host, jj. It's so good to have each and every one of you here with me today. I don't know if I tell you all this enough, but I really love each and every one of you. Thank you all so much. Thank you for the emails and questions and just sharing it, telling other people about it. I really, really really do appreciate it. It means a lot to me Because when I first started this podcast I didn't think it would go anywhere.
Speaker 1:But here we are, coming up on three years of this podcast and I have no other people to thank except God. You, god first, and then you, and that's who this podcast is for. It's not about JJ, it's not about fame or money or anything like that. That's why I kind of shied away from the whole members section that people were trying to say JJ, you should get a members-only section. No, no, no, because then that way I feel like if I have members, only content and the people who really need to be reached are not. So I thank each and every one of you for your suggestions and thank you. Thank you for your emails and things of that nature. Thank you all so much.
Speaker 1:We're actually going to be dealing with the question, but before that, you know, we got to do the housekeeping thing. Be dealing with the question, but before that, you know, we got to do the housekeeping thing. Thank you to my sponsors, true Bars, lyricist and Exquisite Creations. I can't wait to see what our next generation Walk With Me Club is going to look like. I have a feeling it's coming soon. So good to have you guys as sponsors. And if you're also looking to sponsor, go ahead and drop me an email WalkWithMeBibleStudy at gmailcom. Walkwithmebiblestudy at gmailcom. I will admit, with my work schedule it might be a little bit of a delay getting back to you, but I promise you I will get back to you, just like with these questions.
Speaker 1:We're actually going to be dealing with a question today, and I'm always excited to deal with questions. I don't care what kind of study plan we have going on. Today I get a question and it's a question that I can't just answer in one or two scriptures. I will do a show on it and I get excited about it. And today we're going to be dealing with a very, very, very important.
Speaker 1:Well, it's an important question, but it was a question that I was not going to do when I read it, because it's one of those things that's I don't want to use the term super biblical, because you know the thing is not in the Bible so, and I thought about not doing the question, but God said no, do not shy away from this question, go ahead and answer it. So before we get started, please understand, we have a rule on this podcast. One important rule is not about wearing white socks to the gym. The only rule we have is read a verse or two above, or a verse or two below, but prefer the whole chapter because context is key. That being said, this is why I say the answer to this question is not necessarily biblical. The complete question is not necessarily biblical. The complete answer is not necessarily biblical, but more historically.
Speaker 1:So, now that I've got you all beat and got you all trying to figure out what the question is, the question was to me JJ, what denomination are you? Now I have to admit I was almost put off by the question, because that was just my plan. I was almost put off by the question, but please, guys, don't think you can put me off that easily, because God tells you hey, man, there's a reason why they asked that question. I said, okay, god, I will answer the question. And the reason why I was sort of put off by the question is because the whole idea of denomination is anti-biblical, anti-christian even. But you say, well, tj, you got all these churches out here. They're Baptist and there's Lutheran and there's Episcopalian and there's Seventh-day Adventists and this and that, but they're all having that situation is anti-biblical. Why is that?
Speaker 1:Now, to understand why this is anti-biblical, let's deal with, if you've got, two real subjects. You've got to deal with historical travels of the church, the historical events of the church, and then you have to deal with the Bible. But you want to deal with the Bible first. What does this mean? Only one time does the Bible ever talk of more than one church. Every other time it talks about the church, it talks about it as a single body, A single body. One time it does talk about multiple churches. It's talking about it in the book of Revelation and it's talking about the spiritual condition of this church. So the church of Laodicea does not mean this church is a Christian.
Speaker 1:I've got nothing against any of these denominations that I'm talking about. They all have really good people on them, and I was some of them. So when you talk about revelation, let's talk about the spiritual condition in this church, but no other way, at no other point does it mention. When you talk about revelation, let's talk about the spiritual condition in these churches, but no other way, at no other point does it mention the establishment of different denominations. As a matter of fact, you look at where the actual church was created in the book of Acts. It tells you all that you need to know about what the church should be. So you say, well, jj, if that's the case, then where did all these denominations come from?
Speaker 1:First of all, let's look at the word denomination Now. A lot of times we use the word and we use it correctly, but we don't know why we're using it. So let's look at the word Now. D is a prefix, d-e is a prefix. It means to take away from. Nom means name and nation, or nomination means the name of. So if you're D, or like the track dessert, if you're doing that, you're taking something away, you're taking yourself away, you're taking away like if you're deserting, you're taking yourself away from someone or something that's in need. If you're detracting, which means you are taking content away, you're literally removing something. So when you go into denomination, you're literally removing the name from the church.
Speaker 1:This is why I say it's anti-Christian, because you don't just say, hey, I'm Christian, you say I'm Baptist, or I'm Seventh-day Adventist, or I'm Church of God in Christ, or I'm this or I'm that or I'm, and what happens is you end up getting into a whole sort of tribalism sort of thing that God never intended for the church, because, again, he only created one church. No matter where he went, they all became Christ's followers by doing one thing, well repentance, or three things One repentance, getting him things Well repentance, getting him baptized in Jesus' name and getting the Holy Ghost. That's all that happened. So then the question becomes where in the world these denominations came from. Let's look at what Jesus said about dividing the name, or this tribalism Luke, chapter 11. And that's going to be verse 17.
Speaker 1:But he, knowing their thoughts, said unto them Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation. Every kingdom, he didn't say everything in itself, but God's kingdom, because God's kingdom cannot be divided. So if he's saying that every kingdom is divided against itself and God's kingdom cannot be divided and you got yourself a problem there when we're talking about house denomination. But let's continue. And a house divided against a house To simplify that it means a house divided against a house fails To simplify that it means a house divided against itself cannot stand. And I believe it says this in one of the other doctrines If your quote-unquote denomination is different from another denomination, it teaches a different doctrine than the other denomination.
Speaker 1:One of those two doctrines, or both of those doctrines, are wrong. And, being that case, you end up teaching against the Bible. And you have to do it by taking some things out and leaving other things in the Bible alone, like you don't want to preach against it. So you say well, jj, how did this happen?
Speaker 1:Well, to kind of compress this down a little bit, this all started during the persecution of the original church. Remember every one of those disciples that when Jesus ascended into heaven, every one of them knew exactly what God told them to do and they all went out and did that. Even the new disciples or new apostles that were brought in afterwards, like Paul, knew exactly what he was supposed to preach, exactly what he was supposed to do, and he did just that. The what I call second generation apostles did exactly that. They went out, they talked to people, they preached the entire word of God, they baptized in Jesus' name and they got the Holy Ghost and they spoke another tongue. So tell us, then, where this whole thing started.
Speaker 1:It started when Romans began to persecute the church. Now, that happened somewhere around 38, 39 AD. We call it Common Era now, because we don't want to say you know, we don't want to acknowledge Christ, I'm just going to say AD. So it was like 37, 38 when this whole thing started. However, the persecution of the church did not take hold until after the original set of apostles were born. So this had to be somewhere around, I would say, 79, maybe 80 AD. And when the Romans did, they introduced something called the Jesuit priests, and the Jesuit priests, their entire, the Jesuit movement, their entire existence was about finding these churches which had gone underground and rooting them out and exposing them to be persecuted and the Christians to be killed. From that movement, from that Jesuit movement, which we later called the Jesuit movement, we had a new organization spring up. That organization is the Catholic Church.
Speaker 1:Now everybody's getting mad at me because it sounds like I'm bashing the Catholic Church. I am not. This is all historical fact, even though now they're trying to rewrite history. But the Catholic Church kind of got started around 120, 125 AD and what the Catholic Church ends up doing was importing all of these paganistic beliefs like polytheism and things like that, and symbolism and things of that nature and things like that and symbolisms and things of that nature. This was, and they started talking about how, you know, things were relics. They took the idea of the Ark of the Covenant and started saying things were relics, like this cup is a relic. We see it now like we see we watch Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom or Indiana Jones, and they see this cup and it's like, oh my God, this is a cup that Jesus drank out of. And oh, wow, okay, and this cup is now a special thing. Now I'm getting off into the weeds here, but I'm trying to draw a picture here.
Speaker 1:Constantine really, really set the Catholic Church in motion and that really established and solidified the Catholic Church and all of the things that had already incorporated into it. The Catholic Church then took their persecution of the real church global. They went into hyperdrive. You and I call it now the Spanish Inquisition. This was really the Catholic church after it had split up, trying to force conversion onto everyone else. And from that you get the Protestant church, because some people kind of figured out, god spoke to somebody and they began to get some sort of revelation that the Catholic church wasn't right. So if the Catholic church wasn't right, then what was right? And the Protestant church was born, or reborn, as it were. And if you look through church history you'll see a lot of these rebirths, this sort of rebirth and ascension and then descension, and then sort of a quiet period where the Protestant church or the Christian church sort of went away and then it kind of sprang forth again. You'll see this a lot and we're going to go somewhere with this.
Speaker 1:So during that time we ended up with the Protestant church and then people began to split off from the Protestant church. You had Luther splitting off because he saw something that the Protestant church wasn't preaching or didn't like something the Protestant church was preaching. And then you had the Episcopalians, and then you had the Baptists, and then you had the Episcopalians and then you had the Baptists and then you had the Southern Baptists and you had this, and all of it just sort of started splitting off. And then all of a sudden Azusa Street happened Now don't have time to go into Azusa Street, but research Azusa Street A-Z-U-S-A Azusa Street and a revival happened that was almost mirror image of what happened in the book of Acts. People were like, oh my gosh, we have been doing this wrong the whole time. So they went to this new movement, which we would call the Pentecostal movement, and of course, now the rest is history. But the problem is that people were still invested in this tribalism and in 2 Timothy it sort of talks about that, 2 Timothy 3, where it talks about 3 and 4.
Speaker 1:Traitors, high-minded, loves the pleasure more than loves the God. Here's the important part Having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof From such turn away. These people in some of these organizations weren't getting the Holy Ghost, so they were literally began to deny that the Holy Ghost was being given out. They were literally denying the fact that people were actually getting saved, and the Bible tells us to turn away from that. So all that being said is that we have to be very careful.
Speaker 1:I don't I if this was any sort of if you get anything out of this answer, the answer is that if anybody ever asks you what denomination you are, you are a Christian. I am Christian. But since we have some brands of Christianity that are closer to biblical teaching than others and I'm not and I have to keep it real here Since we have some quote-unquote strains of Christianity that are closer to the Bible than others, and I have to identify, then I have to identify, then I have to identify apostolic. Am I perfect? Absolutely not. The apostles wasn't perfect. Look at Peter. But Peter, the church built on Peter. Look at all the stuff that Paul did.
Speaker 1:Paul was part of the people. Who was first in the church. He's the one that was standing there and ordered the death of Stephen. But God used him to become a powerful apostle, to preach his word, to spread his word. He became one of the most, the most powerful and well known Apostle in the Bible After being one of the main driving forces to persecute the church. As a matter of fact, when you read in the book of Acts where Paul went, when he was transformed from Saul into Paul, people still knew him and saw and was freaking out whenever he came to town. Even when you know, the Christians brought him and said, hey, this guy is now named Paul and he's going to help us. They literally freaked out. There's no way this guy, this guy, he's seen he's caused the death of too many people, but yet God chose him and brought him out of that. There's too many people, but, yes, god chose him and brought him out of that.
Speaker 1:And at no point, at no point in any of where in the book of Acts, you see somebody saying, okay, I'm baptized. Okay, now you're going to say, and you're probably sitting there saying I seem like I remember the Baptist guy. Oh, that's right, john the Baptist. So, and here's the thing. And I was in that road because when I was younger, you know, hey, I'm a Baptist, and I was like, when I was as a kid, of a Baptist, so I must have my church, must have came out of John the Baptist. But what did John the Baptist say? I baptize you unto repentance, but leave unto one who comes after me, for to baptize you fully goes to the fire. And he then even said to Jesus saying are you the Christ or should we wait for another? So now, all that being said is that the Baptist church did not start with God, and I'll tell you why. Because we go in a lot of Baptist churches and again, I love each and every one of y'all. Please understand, I'm not here to knock. I'm only here with this podcast because God said to answer this question.
Speaker 1:But listen, if you go to a Baptist church, how are they baptizing you? Are they baptizing you in the Holy Ghost? Are they baptizing you in the words of titles or are they baptizing you in Jesus' name? To that extent, walkers, the denomination should not matter. If you have a Baptist church and they're preaching repentance of sin, baptism of the Holy Ghost, speaking the tongues as the Spirit gives the utterance, and you see people doing this and you see baptism in Jesus' name, repentance of the baptism in Jesus' name and the Holy Ghost, you see that in the Baptist name. Repentance in Jesus' name and infill in the Holy Ghost. You see that in the Baptist church, you are fine, right there. You see that in the Lutheran church, you are fine, right there. You see that in the Methodist church, you are fine, right there.
Speaker 1:It's not about the name of the denomination, and I don't like using that word. My brain literally freezes and buffers when it comes time to use that word in a sentence. But it's not about what's on the door, ladies and gentlemen. It is not what's on the door. It is what is the spirit inside the church. Are you in the church?
Speaker 1:If the church is, and so the nomination really doesn't matter to you, because you're all one body. The Bible says one body, not 16,000. Not 248. Not 19. Not even three One body. So that's what is very important, and I trust me.
Speaker 1:I went to a Baptist church where they literally did baptize in Jesus' name and they had repentance, they had baptism in Jesus' name, they had influence of the Holy Ghost and they had holy living. So I'm not saying that just because you're Baptist, you're not going to heaven, or you're Lutheran you're not going to heaven. That's not what I'm saying at all. I am not the judge. The only thing I can do is read what's in the Bible. The Bible does not say that we can split ourselves along some tribal line Because this method of going to church is more comfortable than the other method. As a matter of fact, it would seem that we should be uncomfortable sometimes when we're in church. Be uncomfortable sometimes when we're in church. It just seems like we should be stirred up every now and again. We don't want that layer to see us.
Speaker 1:So, that being said, I hope I answered your question. If you have any comments, questions, feel free to send them to walkwithmebiblestudy at gmail. That was a mouthful, but yes, I have to say. To answer your question simply, I am at the stop, which is a little bit different from Pentecostal, but I'm not trying to split hairs today. I'm just trying to give you a general answer and it took me 24 minutes to give you all a general answer to that question and the reason why I don't like answering the question. Alright, like I said, I do love teaching every one of you. If you see somebody out there, tell them you love them, tell them God loves them and tell them that there is a way to get their life changed Just give their heart to Jesus, repent of their sins, get baptized in Jesus' name and get the Holy Spirit All right. Love each and every one of you. God bless you. See you on the next one.