A Quick Reply

Deuteronomy 6:4 ESV

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.

Definition is always crucial. As God was seeking his people and establishing the framework of their existence as something Holy and set apart, he begins with defining himself so that his people can know how they are to define themselves. This dominate statement is one that hangs on Jewish doorposts and is even used by Christ in defining the “Greatest commandment”. It is this verse that helps the church to understand the Trinity. In the absence of this verse there is no need for such a difficult doctrine as the trinity. In it we learn that even though God is simple he is infinitely more complex than we have hope of comprehending and fully mastering.

This last Saturday I was working with an older gentleman and we were talking. The conversation comes around to church and at this point I am taken aback. I often, foolishly, think others understand basic church history. Yet, this well thought, articulate, individual says “this is what I think, there is one God; why do we have so many churches?” My mind starts racing. How much of an answer does he want? Are we talking Christian churches verse Muslim, Christian denominations, Hindu Temples verse Jewish temples, Protestant vs Catholic? The question is so simple and yet answering it can quickly become unwieldy.

The simplest and most fundamental answer to this question is sin. Why do we not see God and worship him as we ought? Sin. Our depravity hides God from us and hinders us from obeying him. Cain does not worship God correctly because of sin and then in sin destroys the one who is worshiping correctly. In sin Peter separates from the Gentiles in Antioch and starts to form two churches one Jewish the other Gentile. Paul confronts him and in humility he publicly acknowledges his error (Galatians 2:11-12). This conquering of inborn personal sin is something that is required to maintain the unity of the church. When it doesn’t occur, new churches are formed. This refusal to repent of sin when you choose to depart from the way is how we come to the Arian controversy that divides the church in the fourth century. Much later we find it in the division of the Reformation as the powerful Catholic Church refused to do what Peter did and see how they had left the faith repenting of their error.

This answer is correct but it is not true all the time. For instance, why is there a “Tenth Presbyterian Church” in Philadelphia? A lot of people need a lot of churches. You can only get so big before you are no longer functional as a church and are actually functioning as a temple instead. Even in a small community of one thousand people, you must have a few churches simply to make sure people are growing and maturing in their faith, requires intimate interaction. “How’s it going?” I asked my sister, after answering she asked me how work was going. That has become a tough question for me. I responded by asking if she could give me a good way to measure the spiritual growth of an individual and then aggregate that over the whole. Left with metrics that really don’t correlate to the question, it is hard to answer.  To answer it well you have to be intimate with the congregation. To a point that you can know the struggles and errors that are being made.

Why are their so many churches in Lincoln, given that God is one? Sin and size. Mostly it is simply sin. Even when size would dictate a need for a new church it Sin, often, that functions as the impetus to dividing a church so it can better function as the family of God that it is. Even as family reunions may be fun, smaller intimate groups of family, function better to meet the needs of those in them.

How did I answer my friend? I would like to say it was with such a well thought, theologically astute answer. But well thought answers require much thinking not spur of the moment. I answered the best I could with such notice. And now that I have thought more, I get to send an email. Don’t be afraid to have theologically rich conversation and then think, so you can give a more reasoned reply. God is gracious and, if they really care, they will be also.

Coram Deo