As we know, when the Lord Jesus came to earth for His redemptive work, He personally selected the twelve apostles. The Holy Spirit also started working then, and was with the disciples of the Lord Jesus. At this time, a gathering of those on earth that accepted the work of the Lord Jesus was called a church. This is the source of the church. Around thirty years after the Lord Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascent into heaven, most of the twelve apostles had been martyred, and the church on earth was no longer shepherded by the apostles directly appointed by the Lord Jesus. So various kinds of religious groups started to form. As time went on, many different denominations began to emerge. People’s varying conceptions promoted a spirit of dissent within the church. Taken along with the influence of geography, history and culture, which caused each denomination to develop different interpretations of scripture, and the ruptures which occurred in the various schools of thought among believers, this led to the establishment of different doctrines among different denominations. This is the root cause of the emergence of so many varied denominations. Actually, in most cases, the emergence of so many new denominations was mostly due to people trying to split up existing churches in the pursuit of their own personal ambitions and desires. In some cases, new denominations also emerged when people developed new interpretations of scripture and had new ideas, leading them to split off from existing churches and start their own separate branch. This is the reason why Christianity as a whole is in such disarray and there is so much ceaseless infighting between various denominations.
Today, anyone with discernment and real understanding of the truth will have observed that most of the power and authority in the Christian church is in the hands of mere people. The leaders of the church claim that they are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, but behind the scenes they have their own plans. They teach believers according to their own flawed and erroneous understanding of scripture, as if what they were teaching was the Lord’s word itself. They even spread all kinds of ridiculous theories to deceive believers with the goal of controlling ever more people and ensnaring them in the domain of their authority. Concerning this aspect, the record of God’s work contains more than enough proof. In the Age of Law, when God used Moses directly to guide the Israelis, Moses established the order of priests. The priests were personally guided by God, and the Israelis obeyed and submitted to them. Whoever went against God’s will would have to face punishment or the fires of heaven. For instance, when 250 leaders resisted Moses, God caused them to be swallowed up by the earth. When Moses’ work had finished and there was no longer anyone on earth whom God used to guide the Israelis directly, the priests began being appointed by election. The Jewish religious world was often in upheaval due to wrongly selected priests and gradually became corrupt and degenerate. During the last stage of the Age of Law, none of the priests had God’s guidance, they committed atrocities with no discipline and so people formed groups and denominations and the temple became a hotbed of crime and illegality. In this way, many different denominations were formed. Again, in the Age of Grace, when the Lord Jesus incarnated in the flesh to reveal Himself and do work, He personally selected twelve apostles and the Holy Spirit worked profoundly within them. All those that followed the Lord were shepherded and guided by the apostles directly appointed by the Lord. No one dared act on selfish motives or personal considerations and all worshiped the Lord under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. As such, the true church was formed and there were no denominations to speak of. Over thirty years after the Lord Jesus’ resurrection and ascension into heaven, most of the apostles had already died in service and so the church on earth was bereft of the shepherding of God’s personally appointed apostles. Because people had many different interpretations of the Bible and because people were arrogant and conceited, always holding to their own views, all kinds of different denominations were formed and have continued developing all the way down to the present day. As such, there are already over two thousand denominations within Christianity.
At this point, perhaps you will ask: “Given that these various denominations do not submit to the rule of Christ or the Holy Spirit, why do so many people still follow them?” We should know that the leaders of every denomination are gifted and cultivated people. Most of them have been to divinity school, are adept at intellectual analysis, have knowledge of Bible research, can expound upon various profound and arcane theories, and excel at taking the scripture out of context to prove their points. Besides, they are all master deceivers. All this has caused many people to have been hoodwinked by their external good deeds and lofty orations. Unwittingly, these leaders take the place in believers’ hearts where God once resided. Whatever situations believers face in their lives, they always go to these leaders seeking resolution. These followers don’t have the truth and so they are incapable of discerning if these leaders have the work of the Holy Spirit, whether or not their sermons contain the enlightenment and illumination of the Holy Spirit and whether their works are corroborated by the Holy Spirit. They just blindly follow, worshiping the powerful and gifted and taking these leaders as their idols. As such they become people that claim to believe in God while following mere men. The Lord Jesus said: “[T]hey be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch” (Matthew 15:14). Thinking back to the Pharisees, they had a great command of legal knowledge, were well-versed in the Bible and had served God in the temple for generation upon generation. What’s more, the clothes they wore were inscribed with scripture, they intentionally stood in the corners of the streets performing long prayers, gave alms and charity in the teeming street markets so that all could see, and made themselves look particularly sad when they fasted so that all would know they were fasting—this is how they made themselves known to all. In this way, they led the Jewish people to believe that they were the most pious servants of Jehovah God. However, when the Lord Jesus came to do His work, these Pharisees could not recognize that His was the work of the Holy Spirit, didn’t accept the incarnate Christ, and didn’t believe that the truth came from Christ. Rather, in order to protect their authority and livelihoods, and to achieve their goal of possessing people for all time, they madly resisted and condemned the Lord Jesus, spreading false rumors to frame and blaspheme the Lord Jesus and finally conspiring with the Roman government to crucify the Lord Jesus, which offended God’s disposition and earned them God’s curses and punishment. As the Jewish people that followed the Pharisees lacked truth and worshiped power and status, they didn’t seek or investigate the Lord Jesus’ work and words, but rather blindly followed the Pharisees in resisting and condemning the Lord Jesus. For this, they lost God’s salvation and were cursed by God: They were slaughtered by the Romans, and their descendants were left to wander the world for nearly two thousand years. This was the grave consequence of their worshiping and following mere men!
However, we should see this fact clearly that no matter how many denominations there are in the world, they all must return under the dominion of God in the end. The Lord Jesus said: “And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear My voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd” (John 10:16). No matter how great the authority of any leader within these denominations is, or how many people they lead, they have no authority over the fates of men. Only God is the Creator and Ruler of mankind, and nothing in all the universe can escape the arrangements and orchestrations of the Creator. All men live under the dominion of the Creator. Finally, the believers of every denomination must follow the Creator, return under God’s dominion, and submit to and accept Christ’s guidance. This is the true Christian church. The denominations that man has created can only represent the thoughts of man and absolutely cannot lead man to his wonderful destination. They will all finally be suppressed and destroyed. God will ultimately see to this.
