In his “High Priestly Prayer” in John 17, Jesus asked the Father that His believers would “be one.” And Paul was impatient with church quarrels between those who said, “I follow Paul . . . Apollos . . . Cephas . . .or . . . Christ. He asked them rhetorically, in 1 Corinthians 1:12-13, “Is Christ divided?” So we might ask, “Are denominational divisions biblical?” Well, yes and no. No, in the sense that they fall short of the ideal of full agreement and fellowship among believers. Yes, in the sense that they are perfectly understandable, even unavoidable, in a fallen world. After all, the unity Jesus prayed for in John 17:21 was the same he enjoyed with the Father – the highest possible unity. Yet, on earth, “we see in a mirror dimly” (1 Cor. 13:12) and, so, are prone to confusion and disagreement on any number of matters.
Even in the Early Church, there were some critical doctrinal divisions. For instance, in 2 John 10, John told his readers to not receive travelling teachers from other churches if they did not uphold the “teaching of Christ.” And he rebuked the church at Pergamum for tolerating false teaching and immorality (Rev. 2:14-15). Similarly, Paul wrote a letter to the Galatians, attacking the “circumcision party.” In other words, truth matters.
Of course, some issues are more pressing than others. For instance, Southern Baptists have decided not to take a denominational position on the millennium (Rev. 20:6), whether or not it is a literal thousand year reign of Christ on earth, and when it has occurred, is occurring, or will occur. On the other hand, they insist that baptism is for those professing faith in Christ. Presbyterians differ with them on this latter point, but agree with them that Sunday is the Lord’s Day, a view which puts them at odds with Seventh Day Adventists, who worship on Saturday, their Sabbath. All three distance themselves from churches claiming Christ, but twisting or denying the gospel – cults, if you will.
The key to sorting things out is the watchword penned by German Lutheran theologian, Rupertus Meldenius, in the 17th century: “In essentials unity, in non-essentials liberty, in all things charity.” The challenge is figuring out which are the essentials and which are not. And it won’t do to simply tell people to drop their convictions and take up the others’ viewpoints, for belief is not so malleable as that. A Catholic can no more just will to ignore the Pope than a Mennonite can will to submit to his leadership. You don’t flip convictions like a light switch. And coercion is not an option; we work by persuasion (1 Cor. 5:11). This takes time, so divisions of opinion persist, even as believers do their best to reason with each other from Scripture. (And thank God for the freedom to assemble in groups according to our various shades of conviction, and to discuss our differences in the public square.)
Some divisions are more a matter of style or emphasis than doctrine. When Paul and Barnabas disagreed over John Mark’s usefulness to mission trips (Acts 15:36-41), Paul chose Silas for his next journey, and all four of them continued in fruitful ministry. Today, the Salvation Army focuses on the urban poor, while the “parachurch” Cru centers on campus evangelism. Furthermore, joint effort rather than division is often the hallmark of denominations, for churches of like conviction have been working together from the beginning, such as when they answered Paul’s call for relief funds in 2 Corinthians 8 and 9. So yes, divisions can be frustrating, but they need not be crippling, as long as true believers keep talking with one another in light of Scripture and keep coming together on great projects of biblical import, such as the defense of marriage, religious liberty, and the sanctity of human life, created in the image of God.
Once, when I heard a theologian discussing the end times, a respondent said that a great, departed pastor disagreed with him, in that he was not pre-millennial. The theologian, quickly replied, “He is now” – meaning that he’d come to the truth once he’d become “present with the Lord” (2 Cor. 5:8). Well, yes, a day will come when a lot of our differences will be sorted out on high, but, in the meantime, we’ll live with a measure of division, contending for truth and doing ministry as best we can, while granting that the Church, “the redeemed of all the ages,” is larger than our own denomination.