Why Are There so Many Denominations?

In spite of the many Christians who talk about “unity” and “fellowship” in the church, by some estimates, there are more than 20,000 different Christian denominations in the world today. How could it be that the same church Jesus came to establish with “one faith, one Lord, one baptism” (Eph. 4:5) has instead become something with more than 20,000 divisions? There are at least two answers to this question:

1. God honors our freedom to choose. Freedom of choice is holy to God. God wishes us to choose to follow Him, freely. “Come now, and let us reason together” (Isa. 1:18) is Christ’s invitation to us. What marvelous love! But that same love for freedom means that people can just as freely choose not to follow Christ—even by starting another church or denomination that God never intended.
2. God reveals new truths, leading to new churches. New truths often lead to new missions for God’s people, and often that means a new church is in order. The first example of this is the original first-century Christian church. In the 1500s, Martin Luther learned new truths from the Bible and took on the new mission of helping people interact with God directly, founding the Lutheran Church. In the 1700s, John Wesley learned new truths and took on the new mission of helping people commit to personal obedience to Christ. The result was the Methodist Church.

The Bible gives three clear characteristics of God’s last-day church:

1. They seek to keep all ten of God’s commandments, including the command to keep the seventh-day Sabbath holy (Rev. 12:17; Exod. 20:8-11; Rev. 14:7).
2. They have the gift of prophecy and take Bible prophecy seriously (Rev. 12:17; 19:10).
3. They are a global movement that preaches the end-time gospel found in the Three Angels’ Messages (Rev. 14:6-12).