The preaching of Sam Jones in our gospel meeting has stirred our hearts and made us think soberly about how we are serving our God. As I listened to him talk about what this world would be like if we only had the Bible as our guide, I was filled with joy and despair. Despair, because of the tragedy of religious division in our land. Imagine trying to find God in this religious maze of denominationalism, with almost every question having different answers from different groups. On the other hand, there is joy because of the realization that God has given us a guide and the promise that if we follow that guide we will find Him!
This division has not always been here. When it all started, every church was like every other church. Think of the implication of phrases like, “ . . . as I teach everywhere in every church” (1 Cor. 4:17) and “ . . . as in all the churches of the saints” (1 Cor. 7:17). Who has not heard of those words about adding to the Bible or subtracting from it (Rev. 22:18-19)? This maze of confusion did not come from God, but from men altering what He said.
If you limited yourself to the Bible, think of the doctrines you could not discuss. The words used to describe those doctrines simply are not in the Bible. If you limited yourself to the Bible and its language, you could not speak of the rapture, premillennialism, confessional, extreme unction, conventions, arch-bishops, choirs, sprinkling, synods, councils, creeds, ordination, “Fathers” and “Reverends,” slain in the spirit, seed offerings, and a host of other words to describe doctrines which originated hundreds of years after the church began.
You would not read of Christians wearing religious names to distinguish them from other Christians. When it began there were no Catholics, Anglicans, Lutherans, Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, Mormons, Jehovah Witnesses, Reformed, Unitarians, Universalists, Pentecostal, Community, Episcopals, AME, SDA, LDS, Holiness, Evangelicals, Fundamentalists, Apostolics, Armenian, Baha’i, Orthodox, Dunkers, Quakers, First/Second/Third/etc., Freewill, Primitive, Greek, Roman, African, Danish, Dutch, Russian, Seventh Day, International, Mennonite, Southern, Worldwide, Wesleyan, Zionists, Progressive, Sabbatarians, Friends, St. Paul/St. John/St. Luke or any St., Amish, Four Square or any of the thousands of names which separate men today.
If you only had a Bible, what would you be? If you did not add or subtract from the Bible, what would you be? Think about how the world would change if we only had the Bible!