This summer, Katy and I are traveling quite a bit visiting friends and family. This past week, we drove through a small town in Kansas. Like most small towns, every Church had a big sign for everybody to see as you came into town. One for the Baptists, the Catholics, the Methodists, the Presbyterians, and whatever other flavors there were. Seeing all of those signs made me think to myself, how in the world did we get to this point? Why do I see so many churches? This isn’t what I see in the Bible.
If you’re like me, seeing all of these different churches turns you off to Christianity. Before becoming a Christian, I saw all of these churches teaching things that contradicted each other. One teaches “say this prayer, and you’ll be saved.” One teaches “speak in tongues and that’s how you know you’re saved.” Another teaches “be baptized and you’ll be saved.” Another teaches “just believe and you’ll be saved.” But what’s the truth? If one of these is right, then all of the others would be wrong. They can’t all be right if they contradict each other. I remember asking myself, “If there is one God and one Bible, how can there be so many churches?” It never made sense to me how everybody could claim to follow the same God and the same Bible, but still be divided about everything they teach. It was hard to see the truth of something when everybody had their own ‘truth.’
These are the kind of thoughts that ran through my head when I was growing up and seeing all of the different ‘flavors’ of Christianity around me. And these are the same thoughts that made me despise ‘church.’ Maybe you’re like me, and you have these same questions. If these kind of things have bothered you, you’re in luck, because the Church in the Bible does not look like this. I want to share with you a hard truth that nobody likes to talk about. All of these churches can’t be right. If one is right about being saved, then all the others would be wrong about it. It is logically impossible for every one of them to be right.
Not only is it logically impossible, but it’s also biblically impossible. Did you know that the word ‘denomination’ is never found in the Bible? I always heard growing up that “God is the tree and all of the denominations are the branches.” I always heard, “All of the denominations are going to heaven, they’re just taking different roads to get there.” But the problem is, none of these teachings are found in the Bible. In fact when the Bible talks about divisions, it’s always in a negative way. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 1:10, “Now I exhort you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you ALL AGREE and that there be NO DIVISIONS among you, but that you be made complete in the SAME MIND and in the SAME JUDGEMENT.” Does this sound like the ‘Christian’ world of denominations we see today? NOT AT ALL! We have to start by recognizing that being divided is not what God wants. It’s obvious from this passage that God wants us to all be united in what we teach. This means we can’t have different, contradicting teachings on how to be saved. Somebody, somewhere missed this memo, and now we have hundreds of teachings out there. THIS IS NOT WHAT GOD WANTS.
In Matthew 7:13-14 Jesus taught that there was ONE road to heaven, and it was a narrow road that few people would find. “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.” This teaching from Jesus doesn’t match the idea that we see in the world today of all denominations taking different roads to get to heaven. That doesn’t sound very narrow to me.
In fact, Jesus makes a tough statement just a few verses later. In Matthew 7:21-23, Jesus says, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’“ What these verses teach us is that not everybody who claims Jesus as their Lord is going to go to heaven. These verses point out the hard truth that is taught by Jesus himself. These verses say that there will be people who claim that Jesus is their Lord, and they will claim to do many good works in Jesus’ name, and Jesus will tell them “I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.”
When I first read these verses, it was a tough pill to swallow. If what Jesus said is true, that means there will be people in this world who are claiming to follow Jesus, but will still not make it heaven. I believe this shows us just how narrow the road to heaven really is, and that should be a scary thought for us. The truth is, there are not many roads that are going to heaven. The truth is, there is only one road that will go to heaven. That road is the road we read about in the Bible, and it can still be followed today. The sad truth is, not many people are willing to put the time and effort into Bible study to find out what that one road in the Bible really looks like.
The question I asked in the title, “why do I see so many churches?” can be answered with another passage from the Bible. 2 Timothy 4:3-4, “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.”
The reason we see so many different churches is because people have gotten off of the narrow road found in the Bible. People have decided to follow teachers who will tell them what they want to hear. People turn away from the truth in the Bible to find things that sound good to them. Really, what we are seeing is that people see the wide road and decide to follow the crowd to destruction in hell, rather than seeing the narrow road in the Bible and following it to life in heaven. And people are doing that because it’s the easy way. It’s the way that “tickles their ears.” It’s the way that doesn’t challenge them to change. It’s the way that teaches, “come as you are, and stay as you are.” The narrow road in the Bible teaches a life changing message, and it’s hard; and that’s why most people will not find it.
We have to ask the question, if Jesus didn’t establish these ‘denominations’ then who did? The answer is found in these verses we just read. People who want to hear things that please them instead of listening to what Jesus taught. Jesus only established ONE church found in Acts 2:36-47. So why do I see so many churches? Because people have not followed the Bible’s teaching, but they have followed teachers who will teach them what they want to hear.
My encouragement for you is to ask questions in whatever church you’re a part of. Don’t rely on a preacher, teacher, or parent to tell you what to do, but study in the Bible and see if your church looks like the one you read about. Read Acts 2:36-47 and ask yourself, “is this the same Church that I became a part of.” If you becoming a Christian doesn’t look the same as them becoming Christians in the Bible, I would argue that you are not a part of the Church that Jesus established.
To answer the question “why do I see so many churches”, we have to recognize that there are people teaching something different than what is found in the Bible. The Bible is a book that teaches about this ONE road to heaven. The question is, are you willing to work to find that ONE narrow road? Are you willing to dig into the Bible and find out what it is that God really wants from you? Remember Jesus words, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter.” Being a Christian on this narrow road is more than just believing that Jesus is Lord, its doing the will of the Father in heaven. Are you. willing to find out what God wants from you?
If you’re reading this and have questions about this, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me. This is a hard truth to swallow. If you want to learn more about this but have no idea where to start feel free to call, text, Facebook message or email me. I am glad to share what I have studied in the Bible with anyone who is looking for the truth. God wants you to be a part of the one Church He established. Will you search for it?
Remember that I love you, and God loves you.
-KB
(409)291-1682; koltonballance@gmail.com
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