What Is A Religious Denomination?

     Many  people  believe  that  every  religious  group,  society,  or  institution is a
denomination. Such is not the case and we intend to allow the facts to serve as proof
of our thesis.

     The word denomination is defined as, "a religious group, usually including local
churches, often  larger  than  a  sect." (Webster's  Encyclopedic  Unabridged 
Dictionary of the English Language,  page  386,  Copyright  1989.) Stated
another way, a denomination is " a religious organization uniting in a single legal and
administrative body a number of local congregations." (Webster's Ninth Collegiate
Dictionary, page 339, Copyright 1989)

     Based on the preceding definitions, a denomination is a religious organization,
consisting  of  local  congregations,  with said  organization being the legal and/or
administrative body of those local congregations. By extension, a denomination
also has a distinct name, organization, doctrine, practice, and worship that are not
authorized by the New Testament.

     No denomination is found in, authorized by, or given any credence in the New
Testament. The congregation of Christ is found in, authorized by, and given credence
in the New Testament, but it is not a denomination. The word that is generally used
in the New Testament to identify the people of God is ekklesia (which means
assembly, congregation, or group), though it is translated "church" in most English
versions of the scriptures.

     Ekklesia in its singular and/or plural forms is used to identify:

     (1) The universal body of Christ consisting of those who have obeyed the gospel
whether living or dead. It  has  no organized structure  through  which  each  person
functions,  nor   is  it  comprised  of  local  congregations. The  universal  body  or
congregation of Christ consists of people who have been saved  from  sin,  whose
head   is  Christ,  and   whose  law  is  the  gospel.  It   is  a  "brotherhood"  not  a
"church-hood."  (Mat. 16:18-19;  Eph. 1:22-23;  Col. 1:18; 1 Pet. 2:17)

     (2) The local congregation which consists of those who have obeyed
the gospel and live and meet in a specific geographical area in order to carry out
its mission under common oversight. For example, there were congregations of Christ
in Jerusalem, Ephesus and Philippi. They were "organized" with overseers. (Acts 15;
Acts 20:17,28; Phil. 1:1) There was no "religious organization uniting them in a
legal and administrative body." They were independent and autonomous groups.They
had their own organization, work, worship, and mission.

     (3) A congregation of the Lord's people who live and work in a region. Acts 9:31
tells  us, "So  the  church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria enjoyed peace,
being built up; and going on in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit,
it continued to increase." (NASB-77) They did not constitute a "region wide" organization,
nor was any such organization "over" them dictating their course of action, work, worship,
etc. The concept of denominationalism that is so prevalent in today's religious world
is foreign to the New Testament! The following admission is found on page 22 of  The
Standard Manual For Baptist Churches, editor, Edward T. Hiscox, D.D., "It is most
likely that in the Apostolic age when there was but 'one Lord, one faith, and one baptism,'
and no differing denominations existed, the baptism of a convert by that very act
constituted him a member of the church..." It is indeed true that in the apostolic age, no
differing denominations existed!
                                                                                                       R. Daly

Copyright 2011
   
   

"Too Hard"

     Have you ever heard people say that some preaching is too hard? What was your
response to the statement? Did you pass it off as a harmless opinion? If you did, you
shouldn't have. It is not a harmless opinion. It portrays a spirit that says, "Yeah, it's
okay to preach the truth, but don't hurt feelings." One problem is, some folks will take
offense at the simplest Bible truths! Atheists take offense when we preach on God's
existence. (Gen. 1:1; Heb. 11:6) Methodists take offense when we preach about
the falsity of substituting sprinkling and pouring for the act of immersion. (Rom. 6:
3-4; Col. 2:12) Baptists take offense when we preach on the fact that a person
cannot be a Baptist and a Christian at the same time. (Acts 11:26; 1 Pet. 4:16)
Seventh Day Adventist take offense when we preach that the observance of the
sabbath day was under the old law, and is no longer binding. So, must we soften
the impact of truth in order to appease those who embrace religious error? No!
We must do exactly what Jesus and his apostles did; we must preach the truth and
accept the consequences.

     During Jesus' earthly ministry, some of his disciples said, "This is a hard saying;
who can listen to it?" (Jno. 6:60-62; ESV-2011) People often reject the plain truth
because they have grown accustomed to being fed a diet of refined sugar, and
they  think  any  scriptural  truth  is  "too hard."  How  can  a  man  preach too
hard if what he is preaching and teaching is the word of God?

     We are not making an appeal for preaching that is mean-spirited, unnecessarily
harsh, and belligerent. But, we are saying that the world needs men who are strong
enough to preach the truth; all the truth, and nothing but the truth, anytime, anywhere,
and before anybody! Too many people believe that congregations grow when the
teaching program is "sweet," "soft," and "non-combative." It won't happen. A
congregation may "swell" from soft preaching, because it is prone to draw tolerant
disciples from other congregations, but soft preaching is not a catalyst for true
growth.

     Some people have their roots in congregations that tickled their ears, scratched
their backs, and manicured their feet, instead of telling them what God wants them to
know. A child that has lived on a diet of junk food will expect junk food every time
he eats. A congregation is not a university for lecturing. It is a group of God's people
and they need bold preaching. God says so! (1 Tim. 4:11-16; 2 Tim. 4:1-5) God's
people have the responsibility to rise up and question any preacher and teacher
when any error is taught. Many people are worried about hurting someone's feelings,
making people angry, and driving people away. But, the same people do not seem
to be concerned about making God angry and causing God's Spirit  to grieve by their
silence and tolerance of wrongdoing. (Eph. 4:30; 1 Jno. 4:1) May God bless all
preachers and teachers of the gospel to be as hard as scripture teaches that they
should be in order to accomplish the most spiritual good.
                                                                                                         R. Daly
Copyright 2011