We all know if we plant corn in the garden we will get corn to harvest, not beans. Common sense and practice has taught us that. Yet some people have said that all denominations are just part of God’s plan, a part of His one church. However, this does not harmonize with the Word of God, or with common sense.
In John 15:5, Jesus spoke about the vine and the branches. He went on to tell us that He is the Vine and we are the branches. Since a single vine does not produce different fruits, the one true church built by Jesus (Matt. 16:18) cannot consist of different beliefs and practices.
This point is clearly seen by looking at the parable of the sower in Mark 4:3-20. When the seed, the word of God, is sown, it produces after its kind. It produces the church that Jesus built. This principle goes all the way back to Genesis 1:25. This principle clearly states that “Everything brings forth after its kind” (KJV).
If truth and only truth is sown, the resulting growth will be a New Testament Church that Jesus built and died for. If some truth and some error are sown, the resulting growth will not be a church that looks anything like what Jesus built. But when truth and human traditions are sown, the resulting growth will be denominations, like we have so many of today. When we interject our wisdom, our traditions, our man-made creeds into the mix, it ends up being nothing like what the Lord intended to build.
Now, consider this carefully, If the modern concept of denominationalism is right (This is the idea that God accepts all religious groups no matter what they teach and practice), why did Paul teach and write so strongly against divisions at Corinth (1 Cor. 1:2, 13)? If religious division is good, and that is their whole point, Paul would have been wrong to try to correct this. Instead, he should have commended them for their open mindedness, their diversity of opinions, and left them alone. However, Paul did not leave them alone, he worked hard in an attempt to correct the problems (consider 1 & 2 Corinthians).
Paul did not leave it alone and we cannot either. We must work diligently to build unity within the body and to reconcile others to the one true church. Truly there is only “One faith” (Eph. 4:5), and there is only “One body” (Eph. 4:4). When we obey the gospel of Jesus Christ we are added, by the Lord, to that one body (Acts 2:47). This is what it means to be a branch connected to the True Vine.
