DENOMINATIONS, being splintered by slight shades of truth, are not pleasing to God, but rather grieve Him, though like a precious diamond we can see something good in every denomination.404 There is always some truth that one specific denomination knows, believes and preaches that is noteworthy and admirable for us to learn from. Yet overall it is not God’s perfect will for His body to be divided.
In the Book of Corinthians we find that God calls division in the Church, “carnality.”405 Carnality has its root in pride which is in opposition to God and His ways.406 One brother said on this topic: “We must never forget that we are Christians, believers, brethren, disciples and saints—and so are all who have been redeemed by the precious blood of Christ. To deny this by any form of sectarianism, denominationalism or exclusivism is to deny the truth of the Bible and to be guilty of carnality and pride.”407
If we are honest with this situation we can see that there is truly only one Church—the body of Christ, believers who are in-dwelt by the Holy Spirit of God and declare Jesus Christ to be the risen Son of God. If we were to strip away most of these extra doctrines, ideas and explanations of how one is to be identified as a Christian we would find in the most basic principle that either men have Christ or they do not have Christ.408 If we were to gather all the leaders of Christianity in one room and put away all of these in many cases extra-biblical doctrines, we would find many to be in unity and agreement.
“No assembly, no church, no movement, no testimony, no fellowship, is justified in its existence from God’s standpoint except insofar as Christ is expressed by it.”409
The house Church movement in China has some separations into different networks. Yet this underground Church is unified. They all agree with each other and declare there are no denominations or sects in China but one faith, one Baptism and one Lord.410 Of course there is the activity of some cults and even some denominations yet surprisingly there is a great unity in the body of Christ there, just like we find in the Book of Acts. At times we feel the prayer of Jesus for the unity of the body of Christ411 rarely sees fulfillment, but not so in China!
Yet as persecution—even worldwide persecution—ensues against the Church there will be unity that will come, which will only be explainable as a miracle. There are such carnal strong walls that men have built up against each other in the body of Christ that for all those walls to crumble requires the power of God Himself.412 This will happen as God unifies and gathers the body of Christ in local areas for a last days testimony413 of His grace and love to a lost world. May those who are gathering under the Headship of Jesus Christ seek to find unity with any true believer no matter what sect they are involved in or church they still attend.