Reflections Upon The United Church

In my early years with regret, I removed myself from fellowship with the Methodist Church, being the church in which I had catechism, membership and even marriage. Why? It "united" and became the United Methodist Denomination. Even at a youthful age (1968), I had discernment.

Scripture calls for "the church" to be united, so what's wrong with churches uniting? Let's first look at scripture:

Philippians 2:2 (ESV) "Complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind."

This verse is profound! Unity is God's desire. The "church" is to be of the same mind, have the same type of love, be in full agreement and are to be unified in doctrine! That's the call of "the church"! It would appear that denominations are not the will of God, and in truth, I believe denominationalism is not God's will!

 1 Corinthians 1:10 (ESV) "I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment."

Paul said, in Jesus's name, that we are to be unified. Why? There is only one gospel!

 Ephesians 4:4  (ESV) "There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all."

Since there is one and only one "doctrine": one church (body), one Holy Spirit, one promise (hope), one Lord (Jesus), one God (Father) for ALL, why then do we have different denominations? Let's take an easy one first! This passage mentions the Holy Spirit, Jesus (Lord), and the Father, yet some denominations fail to believe in the Trinity:  the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. False belief must not be a doctrine of the true church, so that those with doctrine outside the gospel are heretical, thus a new denomination gets created to fit the wrongness of the believers! It's not that people understand wrongly on purpose, but because Satan roams freely deceiving even the elect (the Christian body):

Matthew 24:24 (ESV) "For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect."

It's easy here to see that false doctrines are taught be false prophets. "Doctrines" are statements of understandings of scripture. Hence, those who fail to believe in the Holy Trinity are in apostasy, and are heretical. As such, the true Christian church must never be in communion with them because that doctrine is crucial to salvation! (More on that at a later date).

1 Corinthians 14: 37 (ESV) "If anyone thinks that he is a prophet, or spiritual, he should acknowledge that the things I am writing to you are a command of the Lord. 38 If anyone does not recognize this, he is not recognized."

For an orderly church, there must be order. When scripture teaches the Father, Jesus and the Holy Ghost; those who fail to believe that must not be recognized. This directive is for one reason: such that "the Church" remains true to gospel. It's to keep heresy out of the church for the church to be based on God's truth.  In modern history those who take a different stand on doctrine simply comply with non-recognition and form a new denomination.

In some cases "the church" deviated from the gospel so profoundly that those who remained true to the faith, left "the church". At one time the universal (catholic) church was "the church", but over time there became denominations, the main one being the Roman Catholic Church. As a result of different doctrines some catholics, believing themselves to be the universal or catholic church, left the fold and hence, The Reformation. With that movement those who believed themselves to be "the defenders of the faith" became Lutherans, Calvinists and eventually Congregationalist and Presbyterians. Eventually, others who held onto their version of perceived truth split from those and eventually Moravians, Anglicans and others arose. Finally, Baptists, Methodists and others split off, with the noble thought of all "keeping the faith"!

Some of these denominations "kept the faith" better than others. Some of these denominations are more right than others! Most of us endeavor to attend denominations which agree with our individual belief system in scripture. Most of the time there are areas of doctrine where individuals disagree with some doctrine of their own church. Hence, in effect there are millions of individual "denominations" and the world is pretty far removed from unity. It would appear that we do need to unify... but on what? It must be truth!

The Church of Christ and Disciples of Christ attempted to return to the apostolic faith and formed "non-denominational" (sic) denominations back in the 1830s. However, they too have doctrine, although they fail to call it that. Their beliefs concerning  the gospel is no more valid than the beliefs of any other church. Everyone believes that their own is the truth! What is truth? It's strict adherence to the words of Jesus and the teachings of apostolic canonical scripture. Others, besides Restoration Movement churches, believe their own to be teachers of truth. Which version of the truth does each segment teach? Their own!

Denominations can be either obstructive or beneficial. It depends mostly on how close to the "true" truth each are! It's wise to be protectors of the truth, but damning to teach false doctrine. The latter is the doctrine of the apocalyptic (end of time) church. Those denominations and those self-proclaimed Christians (sic) will be those who espouse the doctrines of the anti-Christ who will be the devil's emissary here on earth.

2 Timothy 3:1-5 (ESV) "But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people."

"Such people" may be persons or organizations. Many churches will be "such people" to avoid. All these sins: self-lovers, etc., will be the doctrine of the apostate churches. They all will have "the appearance of godliness", but deny the will and commands of God! Most will use Jesus'  name freely, and there will be an appearance that they honor God, all the while siding with Satan! It may or may not be done purposely, but because they will be deceived by the Deceiver. It won't happen over night because the sincere would never accept it. It will be by incremental change such that the deceived will become acclimated to the deception. The deceived churches will follow the false doctrines of the world (flesh) and it will take precedence over God's commands and teachings. We are to avoid such churches!

Now back to "United Methodist" or "United Whatever Church". With some doctrines denominations disagreed. That's why they became denominations! With differences in doctrine, one is right and one is wrong, or both are wrong and neither right. With "unity" these two (or more) churches agree to ignore, live with or accept the others wrong doctrine. There's a 50/50 chance of that! (I ignored two churches with "no doctrinal differences because that seems improbable!)

When two denominations unite it's likely that one of the sects or the other, or both, compromise doctrine! That's my argument against "United Churches of Anything"!

Now let's move on to modernistic compromises, not to unify denominations, but those churches which have unity with the world. They follow the tenets of secularism, science and psychology. The sin which is in vogue this instant is homosexuality. Since the world embraces it, churches follow suit. That's worse than compromise with other Christian bodies; that's compromise with sin!

Right now my old alma matre, the United Methodist Church, has been attacked by the deception of wily demons. As it stands, their doctrine is where it should be, but that their practice has drifted devilishly. Here is the United Methodist Church's position on homosexuality:

According to The United Methodist Book of Discipline (set by General Conference every four years), the Church "affirm[s] that all persons are individuals of sacred worth, created in the image of God" and encourages United Methodists to be in ministry with and for all people.

"'In accordance with its view of Scripture, the Church officially considers, "the practice of homosexuality (to be) incompatible with Christian teaching." It states that "self-avowed practicing homosexuals" cannot be ordained as ministers, and supports '…laws in civil society that define marriage as the union of one man and one woman.' In addition, the United Methodist Church prohibits the celebration of same-sex unions." (Wikipedia)

It's clear that their doctrine is right on, but we always ask ourselves "Do they practice what they 'believe", or is the statement of belief" placebos to pacify those who are firmly founded? I submit that hypocrisy on the part of church leaders and members is "creeping whoredom" into the church! Let's look at what was just written:

Melvin G. Talbert, a United Methodist Minister, had performed a same-sex wedding.  The charges against the preacher were dropped and Bishop Elaine J.W. Stanovsky, president of the church’s Western Jurisdiction College of Bishops, called the vindication "a just resolution"! It's by a stretch of the imagination that a Bishop who violates his/her own churches doctrine, as well as diminish the sanctity of marriage ordained by God, would be issued a "just resolution"! Some of the other explanations are quite troublesome:

• Talbert had said  about homosexuality “is wrong and evil. … It no longer calls for our obedience.”. 
• "Official Methodist teaching doesn't allow same-sex marriages, and there's been discussion of splitting the denomination over disagreements about whether the position should be amended as society changes." ("Methodists end case against bishop who performed gay wedding", Associated Press By Jay Reeves,January 6, 2015). (italics mine).
• "Colorado-based Bishop Elaine J. W. Stanovsky, who handled the complaint against Talbert, said the settlement showed Methodists can work together on the issue." (ibid, Italics mine)
• "'The Just Resolution Agreement ... is a reminder that United Methodists don't have to be divided by their differences,' Stanovsky said in a statement."  (ibid, italics mine)
• "Wallace-Padgett said she hoped the resolution 'will be helpful to the church at large.'" (ibid, italics mine)
•  "United Methodists are among the religious denominations struggling with how to balance biblical teachings and same-sex marriage." (ibid, italics mine)

Within the universal church the teaching on homosexuality is very clear:

Romans 1:27  (KJV) "And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet. 28a And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient (the will of God) ..."

Is this so hard to understand? Is this difficult for the bishops to believe? Why did the United Methodist Church turn their collective heads to their own doctrine and to scripture? It's because they "united" themselves with the world!  All bishops who fail to teach divinely inspired scripture should be expelled and rebuked! Rather, the United Methodist Church chose to continue to be yoked with unbelievers (Bishop Talbert)! That's why "united" churches are the most corrupt and why I chose to dismiss myself from their membership! They also allow those in favor of and proponents of abortion to remain active members and ministers in their United Church:

"...we support the legal option of abortion under proper medical procedures." As such, two official bodies of the United Methodist Church are part of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice's governing coalition, The General Board of Church and Society, and the United Methodist Women. The church therefor generally opposes any legal restriction on abortion..." (Wikipedia)

To many of us the destruction of God's creation is as unjust as the gassing by Nazis of the Hebrew people! It's pitiful that a body which calls itself "Church" is so heathen! Such churches are in a race with principalities to appease the flesh. Unknowingly, they are deceived by the same serpent which Eve believed, and having women bishops are part of the deception!

There are many Godly local United Methodist Churches. My ancestors belonged to one and I've been there many times. However, they are stuck in a national denomination whose cohorts are most evil! Why don't they leave? Could it be because the national denomination owns their buildings and provides their ministers?

United with the world is the "whore church" of Revelation!  Being united under Christ is what scripture calls for, and in between, all those churches are disobedient to some degree and their leaders will be held accountable on judgment day! I hope that my true Methodist friends aren't angry with what I believe because it is truth. My intent is not to anger, but to make people question, not their faith, but their doctrine and practices.  I did and I left that denomination! I learned later that I was misled, as a member, that I was even a Christian!

As a fourteen year-old I took the Methodist catechism class and got an "A". The following Sunday, I was taken into membership without even being asked, because I was now a Christian (sic)! There was one problem: I had never accepted Jesus as my savior because I had never been taught that was necessary! I was merely a sinner in an assembly hall and hell was my destiny. Now, through scripture, I have learned what it takes to be a Christian and am born-again! Does your church teach that? Perhaps, if not, one should reflect "Am I going to hell because of false church teachings?" It may be time to change, not only for the individual, but for the "United Churches"!