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There is something more important than assent to a set of doctrinal positions

Earlier this week, I recorded a video for my other channel (Understand the Bible) about denominations. It goes into a brief history of the church and the origins of denominations, with the case study of the Methodists. You can watch it here if you’d like:

All this week I’ve continued thinking about denominations. The more I think about them — and especially the way they are practised today — the more I disagree with the concept. Today, the mainstream denominations are virtually indistinguishable apart from the institutional structures. Most Christians today tend to be ‘church hoppers’ — that is, they’ll go to wherever they feel comfortable, irrespective of denomination, and the church culture is largely the same throughout.

Note: Obviously this only really applies to your typical, informal / low-church services. We are seeing a resurgence in people who want more formal, liturgical worship, which tends to be more specific to particular denominations (e.g. high-church Anglican). Either way, it’s not significant for the purposes of this article.

How have we got to this situation? I think it’s another example of those things which we’ve been conditioned into believing from a young age: there are simply different denominations, we’ve never known any different and we simply accept it as normal. We don’t go back to the Bible and question whether what’s happening is biblical and right.

In my video, I try to explain how what was initially one church fractured into lots of different denominations. What I’d like to do in this post is develop the thought a bit further, and question whether Satan has actually used denominations as a distraction from what’s more important.

What divides us?

I believe you can group denominational differences under three headings:

Firstly, disagreements over church polity. When I say ‘polity’, I mean how the church should be ordered administratively. For example, whether you should have the traditional Catholic order of bishops, priests, and deacons, whether you should have presbyteries, or whether every church should be independent. Many people have studied the Bible through the centuries and come up with different answers to these questions: it’s not possible to come up with a definitive answer and say this is ‘The’ Biblical way of ordering a church. This is why we have Anglicans / Episcopalians / Catholics, Presbyterians, Congregationalists and so on.

Secondly, disagreements over points of theology. This is related to the first category but different enough to warrant counting it separately. There have been many disagreements over the years, some more important than others. Possibly the best-known example would be baptism: some churches believe that it’s right to baptise infants (‘paedobaptists’); other churches believe it’s only right to baptise those who are old enough to declare their faith in Christ publicly (‘credobaptists’).

Thirdly, movements which have become institutions. The example I gave in the video was the Methodists, who I think are the best example in this category. (Perhaps you could include some Pentecostal denominations under this category as well.) What happens is, God does an extraordinary work and brings many people to faith. These people then form into a human institution which remains even when the memory of God’s great work has faded.

The key point I want to make about all these differences is that none of them are critical to salvation. Nobody today from within Baptist circles who would believe that somebody who was baptised as an infant wouldn’t be saved. We are living now with the benefit of 2000 years of church history behind us, and I think most Christians today can recognise that there are churches who do things differently and are still seeking to obey God.

I do appreciate that this is not entirely a positive thing: part of the problem here is the dumbing down which has occurred across society. It strikes me that most Christians today couldn’t articulate the differences between paedobaptism and credobaptism, let alone defend them from the Bible. A lot of Christians seem to be allergic to thinking theologically, maybe because they think it’s ‘divisive’. This is hardly true Christian unity!

Nonetheless, I think many Christians do intuitively sense something true when it comes to other churches: if they have faith and are seeking to obey God, and we have faith and are seeking to obey God, then we should be united. Unity is something which isn’t created by dogmatic allegiance to a set of doctrinal points, but is something created by a living faith in the one true God. That leads me neatly on to the next point.

What unites us?

A couple of years ago, I wrote a piece on my blog called What is a ‘salvation issue’? There, I said that the way most people think about matters of salvation is a question of belief:

In a nutshell, this [beginning of the Athanasian Creed] is saying that you are not saved unless you hold to the whole of the Christian faith, including the doctrine of the Trinity (as explained in the rest of the Athanasian Creed). In my opinion, this is not far from how a lot of people think about salvation issues: you must subscribe to a certain set of beliefs, otherwise you are out.

This would also apply to the differences between denominations: it’s over interpretations of the Bible on secondary issues, rather than being about first-order salvation issues. As I said a moment ago, because denominations rub shoulders with each other so much today it’s undeniable that Christians in other denominations who may have different perspectives on some issues are nonetheless seeking him and pursuing the path of holiness.

The key thing that I want to get across is that we are not saved by intellectual assent to a set of doctrinal statements. We are saved through faith in Christ Jesus. The operative word being, “faith”. Faith in Jesus is more than simply assenting to an intellectual idea, but coming to submit to him as Lord in everything.

This is where we often come unstuck. The way some churches speak about faith, you could be forgiven for thinking that it was only about accepting a certain set of ideas. Alternatively, some churches speak about faith as if it need make no difference in your life. Both of these are not the biblical understanding of faith.

To see how far many churches have fallen, simply look at what Cranmer had to say about faith in the first Book of Homilies:

For the very sure and lively Christian faith is not only to believe all things of God which are contained in holy Scripture, but also is an earnest trust and confidence in God, that he doth regard us, and that he is careful over us, as the father is over the child whom he doth love, and that he will be merciful unto us for his only Son’s sake; and that we have our Saviour Christ our perpetual Advocate and Priest; in whose only merits, oblation, and suffering we do trust that our offences be continually washed and purged, whensoever we, repenting truly, do return to him with our whole heart, steadfastly determining with ourselves, through his grace, to obey and serve him in keeping his commandments, and never to turn back again to sin. Such is the true faith that the Scripture doth so much commend: the which, when it seeth and considereth what God hath done for us, is also moved, through continual assistance of the Spirit of God, to serve and please him, to keep his favour, to fear his displeasure, to continue his obedient children, shewing thankfulness again by observing (or keeping) his commandments; and that freely, for true love chiefly, and not for dread of punishment or love of temporal reward, considering how clearly without our deservings we have received his mercy and pardon freely.

I apologise that this is a rather lengthy quotation, but I think it’s worth quoting at length because it’s so good. Faith means not only believing the things we contain in Scripture, but believing in God’s promises, trusting in Jesus for salvation, loving God as a good Father, living in obedience to him, and so on. Someone who has true faith in Christ should look totally different to someone who has no faith.

If you want more teaching about what faith is and how we live by faith, you might be interested in this session about faith on Understand the Bible.

And it is by faith that we are brought together in unity. If you and I both have true faith in God, then we should be united — whether or not we are part of the same human institution. When I say ‘should’, I don’t mean that we should try and make an effort to be united, as if our unity depends on hard work. Rather, we should discover that we are united to others as we both have faith in the same God.

Note: I appreciate that the New Testament does make calls on people to live in unity and to agree. Disagreements do happen and are often a sign of spiritual immaturity — we live in an imperfect world! Sometimes those who are spiritually immature need to intentionally avoid being quarrelsome. But it’s not just those who are immature – even Paul and Barnabas disagreed and went their separate ways. Disunity is a sad reality in this sinful world, but I believe the answer is for everyone to seek the Lord and draw closer to him.

This doesn’t mean that theological issues are unimportant, but rather they should be seen in proper perspective. The biggest theological issue in the Bible, the one which we cannot compromise over, is the issue of sin and salvation. We cannot paper over the fact that we are sinners in need of salvation, and that salvation is found in Christ alone. We cannot be united to people who seek to undermine or relativise the importance of sin and salvation. Sadly, there are many churches in the world who are doing just that — in fact, I believe the UK church has a massive problem with this issue. (I spoke about this issue in a previous piece here). Those who don’t recognise the seriousness of sin cannot properly know Christ. This is exactly what John is warning about in his first letter.

The problem with being united by faith in Christ, rather than being united by assent to a particular set of doctrinal statements, is that it’s not the kind of thing which can be determined on paper. Faith is not something which can be held by an institution; it can only be held on an individual level. The true church is made up of all those who have faith in Christ — which is why it does not correspond to any human institution.

I suspect the difficulty of determining who has true faith and who doesn’t is the one of the reason denominations exist and have persisted: it’s easier to distinguish people by what they claim to believe on paper, rather than on an individual level by their faith. Denominations have served a practical or pragmatic purpose rather than a spiritual one. However, that doesn’t make them a good thing! What covid revealed was that many churches had faith only on paper. Their belief was written down but not practised. What’s the point in having denominational distinctives if the faith which should be common to all Christians is missing?

The way forward?

I think we do have reason for hope that God is bringing about the kind of change we want to see, to bring about a new Christian unity which is not based on human institutions but on genuine fellowship in faith.

Over the last few years, as I’ve been writing about these issues, many people have written to me. One of the most common things people tell me is that they no longer attend a church. In fact, I’d go as far as to say that more people have got in touch with me recently who don’t go to a mainstream church than who do.

Rather than being a negative thing, I think this is actually a positive: it means that people are longing for reality and substance, and are beginning to see through the facade of the institutional church. One of the problems with traditional churches is that, by bringing people together under one roof and within the confines of one institution, it gives the appearance of unity. But, as we saw, that unity is not real — it’s a forgery.

People are starting to realise the forgery for what it is. My hope is that people look outside the traditional structures of denominations and churches, and start to simply form networks of other believers — those who have true faith in Christ. Find other people in your area, those who have faith, and get together with them. Commit yourself to obeying Christ, commit yourself to the Scriptures, commit yourself to prayer and the power of the Holy Spirit, and you can’t go too far wrong.

A few weeks ago I did a podcast about ‘freedom cells’: