Just one a day - 10 January 2010 |
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‘If Christianity is right,’ said the Muslim, ‘why there are so many different denominations? If you can’t agree among yourselves, why should I take you seriously?’
OK, so as an argument against the truth of the gospel it doesn’t really work. But when you stop to think, it’s not such a bad question. And it turns out that the denominational statistics are quite disturbing.
(Obviously figures for such things are always going to vary depending on who does the sums, but bear with me here. These figures are in line with, for example, the Christianity Today headline stats – indeed, if anything they’re on the conservative side.)
In 1902, there were around 1900 Christian denominations. So, on average one new denomination had been formed roughly every year since Jesus’ resurrection.
By 2002, this figure had increased to approximately 35,500. That’s an 18-fold increase in just 100 years. Or to put it another way, roughly one new denomination per day for the last century.
Of course, not every new denomination is a bad idea. Sometimes conscientious disagreements arise, and churches decide (rightly) that it’s better to go their separate ways (for a time?) while retaining friendly relationships with one another. Or perhaps geographical separation between like-minded churches prevents effective cooperation, and leads to the multiplication of denominations. There are sometimes good reasons for the formation of new denominations.
But are there really 35,500 good reasons? Is it not more likely that many new denominations are formed because of personality clashes, political rivalries and theological disagreements that should have been handled in some other way than by splitting off to have another crack at forming The One True Church?
Perhaps we need to meditate a little on these three words from Hebrews 12:14: ‘Strive for peace with everyone.’
Posted by Steve Jeffery · Topics: Minister's Blog