Cled E. Wallace
According to the Adult Leader, an intelligent Episcopalian and a Baptist were discussing denominationalism The report of their conclusion is interesting. “We finally agreed that we are where we belong; our particular denomination suits us better than any other.” The article logically omits any reference to the New Testament. The standard in this case seems to be what “suits us better.” The modern hodge-podge in religion cannot be justified or defended by the New Testament so it is fitting that this inspired source of wisdom be ignored. It suits some “better” to be unbelievers. Christian Scientists, Mormons, Theosophists, pagans of various schools, and sundry sorts of sectarians after an “orthodox” order. Is it all right to be anything that “suits” you for no greater reason than that?
These modern churchmen reached the conclusion in their confab that “a perfectly unified church is unthinkable” and that division “will result in our being better Methodists and Presbyterians, and Episcopalians, and Baptists.” There are no “Methodists and Presbyterians, and Episcopalians, and Baptists” in the New Testament “better” or otherwise. If this is doubted, bring up the text that mentions them. Why, should there be any now? Is modern denominationalism an improvement on the church of the New Testament? Hardly!
If “a perfectly unified church is unthinkable” why did Christ pray for it and why did Paul preach it? “Now I beseech you, brethren, through the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you ; but that ye be perfected together in the same mind and in the same judgment” (1 Cor. 1:10). These men who pass judgment on what Jesus prayed for and Paul taught as “unthinkable” think that we ought to take what they think is thinkable instead of what the New Testament teaches. They think that the “several religious types represented by the several larger divisions of Christendom ought to be maintained. These “larger divisions” as well as numerous smaller ones are younger than the New Testament and represent perversions of New Testament teaching.
A return to plain New Testament teaching and a complete restoration of the body of Christ as found in the New Testament would destroy every one of them. To maintain them is to fight against God. There can be no compromise here. They think that it is terrible for anybody to try to “standardize us into a single sect.” Well, suppose we leave the “sect” business all out of it, become Christians according to the teaching of the New Testament and let God place the members in the body just as it pleases him.
