A Few Thoughts

[HomeTeamFamily]

i was thinking today (yes i know, it scares me too) and i was wondering the following (directed more toward non catholics)

if Christ instituted ONE church to carry out His teaching on Earth, how can you account for the numerous protestant denominations....not to mention the subdivisons of the denominations (see baptistboard.com for what im talking about)

im sure this has probably been done before but im just curious

peace pham

adam

[Dave]

Simply put, Martin Luther came on the scene and had an agenda to push. He decided to do thing his way, and it set in motion a slippery slope.

It's man's doing, not God's.

[Justified Saint]

This is always the big question but in my experience Protestants don't really have an adequate answer for it. I have heard many try to answer it and they usually always have the same answer so they have that going for them. I have heard James White address this question a lot too because it is kind of a big thing for him. The general answer though is going to be that if you don't hold to a particular set of beliefs than you just aren't sincere enough in your search for truth, you aren't honest enough. You consciously or subconsciously read your church's traditions into the text - something like that. In other words, the admission is that the presence of so many Protestant denominations is bad, it goes exactly against God to have so many versions of the truth and it is not a good thing. That is why sola Scriptura has to be used correctly - but us Catholics can see that that is exactly the problem. Every Bible alone Christian pratically has a different understanding of sola Scriptura and what it means and how to use it. No wonder there is so much division - not everybody thinks alike and that is what sola Scriptura is demanding. If you are using sola Scriptura and you don't come up with the same intrepretation as the person right next to you reading the same book then again you are dishonest and are intentionally trying to distort the Bible.

Edited April 20, 2004 by Justified Saint

[HomeTeamFamily]

bttt for more opinions

[ilovechrist]

like the saying goes,
there's another denomination opening it's doors every week... they want to pick and choose what they want, for they don't understand that they have to follow certain rules...

[willguy]

The line of thought among many Protestants tends to be that the "oneness" of the Church refers not to uniformity in belief but unity in purpose and agreement on the "foundational beliefs," though they often have trouble deciding which beliefs are foundational and which aren't.

[master_alterserver]

that is a very valid question. you start to get me a thinking (that's scary too!) :headbang:

[Jake Huether]

It's just a natural reaction. I was thinking about the same thing (almost) yesterday.

Look at the family: it has a leader - the Father, then you have the leadership of the mother and father combined, then you have the children.

Look at most functional countries: They have leaders - the President / king, then you have the leadership of the Subcommittees (like Judicial branch, Legislative, executive), you then have more subcommittees, etc. Then you have the people (the Children if you will).


Look at most funcional buisnesses: Same structure.

And I'm not talking about recent times. This has worked since the begining! Look at Israel and how God structured her?


Why would God, who has set this structure of leadership and guidance up, who has established a working function for UNITY, all of a sudden change His Mind when establishing His Church?

If God wanted the Church to be united, why would He all of a sudden up and leave His Perfect Plan, manifest in the design of the family?


Look at Protestantism: Where is the leader (okay sure... God - we'll go with that, although that is what the Catholic Church claims too, mind you). But other than God, where is the Authority? The Bible - okay, heres the first major break from God's normal Unity structure. We go from Leader to subcommittee to children(all previously HUMAN), and now all of a sudden its from leader to inanimate object to children.

You can't even rearange things to make any one denomination or even Protestantism as a whole mirror the perfect unity function, the family.

Look at Catholicism: Where's the leader? God has established an earthly leader (so we have God as the Ultimate leader - and an earthly Vicar/representative) the Pope. We have subcommittees, the Bishops, the Priests, Religious Orders, then we have the layity - the People. Scripture MUST be interpreted by the Leadership, so there is no inanimate object that is set up as a leader or even subcommittee. The Church mirrors the original perfect unity function, the FAMILY, very closely - Father, God, the leader, Mother and Father (the Church and God) the subcommittie, and the children, us.

Catholicism has been ONE for 2000 years.

It would be hard to even record how long even one Protestant denomination holds to the same beliefs. Do they even have a system of documentation established to make sure the next generation knows what they believed. Not the Bible, because that very obviously doesn't produce Unity as a leader. But do Protestants at the very least record their interpretation of the Bible so as to pass down their united beliefs.

Without structure, families and businesses fall appart. Countries are destroyed without structure. Unity is lost without the simple structure of the family.

God is the same as He's always been. He is unchanging. He created the Family, knowing that this would UNITE them. And He established His Church the same way, knowing that this would UNITE them always.

[cmotherofpirl]

I have been asking that question for years!!

Has anybody ever worked for an organization run by a committee?

Somebody has to be in charge- with the authority and the responsibility to say yes and no.

[Norseman82]

Everyone wants to be his/her own Pope.

[willguy]

Good points Jake!