CHURCH DENOMINATIONS (part 4)

In part 3 I listed a couple quotes from Dr Halley describing two entirely different organizations that both carry the title of church. Because they are so opposite in constitution and character, I have chosen to call one of them the "True Church", and the other the "false church". Of course the true church is the Church that Jesus said He would build (Matt 16:18), and has been in the process of building in the world for some 2000 years. What I have chosen to call the false church is the one we see in (Rev 17:1-18) that will be a worldwide religious and political power at that time. This false church had it's beginning in Rome shortly after Constantine united the church to the then powerful Roman Empire. This merging of the church of the day with the political system of Rome, might have brought to an end the persecution of the church at large, but began a time of persecution of the True Church by this church of Rome that lasted for many years.

There is some uncertainty as to who was the first Pope. Some claim Peter was, but there is no evidence that Peter was ever involved in the church at Rome. It would seem most people believe that Bishop Gregory I (590-604) was really the first Pope. He was a godly man and did a good job of leading the church, but there were many wicked ungodly men that held this position during the 1000 years know as the "dark ages". Some of these men chose to call themselves by titles such as "Vicar of Christ", "Vicar of God", and one even referred to himself as "Supreme Ruler over the Church and the World".

We know there have been ongoing discussions between various denominations in the past few years, known as the "Ecumenical Movement", which they believe will fulfill the scripture that we should all be one. Even some non-Christian religions have been included in these discussions. The "Charismatic Movement" of the 60's and 70's awakened believers in all denominations to the reality of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. This experience changed the lives of many people, but had little or no effect on the denomination they were part of. Denominations have served to highlight certain doctrines, but on the whole have been used to divide the body of Christ into separate groups. True Ecumenicism must be birthed by the Spirit of God in His True Church, and this attempt to form one large powerful world wide Ecumenical Church can only lead to the end time "false church" of Rev 17 in my opinion!

There have been several moves of God over the years that have not resulted in forming a new denomination. One such move that I'm aware of happened in North Battleford Sask in 1948. Although several false teachings,came out of this move, the remnant core of people who were involved in the original move have remained true to what God revealed to them at the time. I have been able to make contact with this group, and had the opportunity of meeting some of their leaders last year. The teaching the Lord revealed to them about church structure, and gifts of the Spirit, seem to line up very closely with what we read in the book of Acts.

Another bright light on the present church scene is the forming of networks of "house churches", similar to the original churches we see in the book of Acts. Some of these networks use terms like "Simple Church", or "Organic Church" etc. to describe the way they "do church" differently from the regular structured churches. This House Church Movement has been operating for years in countries like China, where believers are forced to meet secretly because of persecution from their government, but is becoming a big thing in Western countries in the past few years. Just the cost of maintaining large old church buildings these days for a place to meet once or twice a week, is one factor which favors regular weekly gatherings be held in homes. Then periodically they rent some suitable public building for a larger celebration meeting of several home groups. This type of church structure seems to come closer to the original one we see in the book of Acts, and has proven to be effective in places like China to cause the church to grow in an amazing way. Nobody likes change, we all enjoy what we have been familiar with, but our God is a Creator and is always revealing new things to us. He does not change as far as His basic character goes but He is not static as to His methods of dealing with His children. In our case it could be simply leading us back to the original plan of how He desires us to worship Him. True Church was never meant to become a man made "Religion", but has always been meant to be a "Relationship" with our "Creator God", as I see it!

Sincerely submitted.

Gramp