Making Sense out of Nonsense or “Wait Just a Minute—I Protest!”

 

Have you ever wondered why there so many different Protestant denominations and independent churches?   It really comes down to the differences in the doctrines that effect “how to do church”.  And these “secondary doctrines” will never be agreed upon by the different expressions of the Protestant Church on this side of Glory!

 This is nothing new.  This has been going on as early as the first several hundreds of years of “organized” Christianity.  In the earliest phases of Christianity, diverse theological viewpoints and diverse communities existed before the emergence of a more standardized framework for defining doctrine and identifying deviations from it.  And how were those standards established? 

 They were established by “church leaders”.  The leaders of the visible church of that time, came together and held counsels and developed the early Creeds which defined certain doctrines such as: The Trinity, The Person and Work of Christ, The Holy Spirit, The Church, Salvation, The Second Coming of Christ, and The Resurrection of the Dead.  As years went by Church leaders could not agree and split up and each division held their own counsels and developed their own confessions and creeds that further detailed and clarified their doctrines.

Then a group of men said, “Wait Just a Minute—I Protest!”

Now, if you are a Protestant (which I am), you are free to believe whatever you like as long as you hold to those “Essential Doctrines” that the “Early Church Fathers” and the “Protesting Church Leaders” determined that you must believe.  And, again, all of these “essentials” were determined as a result of Church Leaders coming together and wrestling with the scriptures on your behalf and on the behalf of all Christians.

In addition, in case you were not clear—the “Essential Doctrines” that were established by mere men; aka “Church Leaders”, have authority over all believers and if you do not hold to them, you will be considered a heretic—even by those who hold to the doctrine of “Sola Scriptura” or Scripture Alone.

I think at this point we are all in agreement.  Very Well – Let us continue!

Based on the above—Therefore; and, in conclusion, when it comes to secondary doctrines, like Baptism, Roles of Women in the Church, The Exercise of the Gifts of the Spirit, Covenant Children, Eschatology, and the like (you know, the doctrines that strongly influence how one does church and/or even influences ones interruption of scripture in general) the only solution on this side of Glory (for an individual who actually cares about and holds strong convictions regarding some of those doctrines) is to either set aside one’s own convictions and submit to the teaching authority of the local church that they happen to belong to or find a group of “like-minded” believers and stick with them until something happens to break up that happy family like: 1) the leaders change their views; or, 2) someone new comes along with their own opposing strong convictions and sways the congregation; or, 3) you actually change your own understanding of a particular doctrine and can no longer worship with a clear conscience; or, 4) you and your new views are no longer welcomed or even considered “safe to openly discuss”.

At that point, you have no other choice but to attempt to find a different “like-minded” community, while all the while, your former church is accusing you of "Consumer Driven Church Shopping" and counsels you that "You will never find a perfect church". Two years go by while you faithfully attend worship services prayerfully making every attempt to reach out and find a "like-minded" church where they "do church" in such a way that you will be able to use your gifts to serve them--and you simply cannot find such a church.

So, having done all that you are left with no other alternative.  You do what Protestants have been doing for over five-hundred years—you start a new Church!

And, folks, we really don't need any more churches.  We can't even fill the ones that already exist!

So Glad I was able to make sense out of all this!

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