Denominations Serve Caesar!

An exhortation about Unity in the Body of Christ

We are ONE body in CHRIST JESUS! Denominations are NOT God’s ideas!

If only those who preach from the pulpit were as faithful to the Lord’s commands as they are to a misapplication of one of Paul’s admonishments, we would have less strife and more unity between brothers and sisters in Christ.

One of the definitions of denomination speaks volumes to this issue! de·nom·i·na·tion/diˌnäməˈnāSHən/   Noun: 1) A recognized autonomous branch of the Christian Church.

If a church feels it is autonomous – operating separately and self-contained – then it automatically defaults to the split-church setting.

How can this be defended when Jesus said He wanted us to love each other and be in unity? What I’m referring to is this portion of Paul’s letter to the Hebrews:

“And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching”. (Hebrews 10:24-25)

The 25th verse is used to pound into the heads of the congregation the idea that if they don’t go to a particular church, they are “forsaking the assembly” of the brethren.

But that is not what Paul was saying. Certainly, Paul knew Jesus’ words and he would know that Jesus said:

“Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.” (Matthew 18:19-20)

Two or three! In fact, if Jesus said to us that He would never leave us or forsake us, then we know that He is present even when we seem to be alone!

The reason this is important is that most of the Corporate American Churches teach that they are the ones with the real truth, and the congregation should attend and share their time, talents, and treasure with their local congregation. This is confusing to non-believers, and I say this to our shame! If all say they are the only true church, then someone is lying.

We are forsaking the assembly of the brethren if we don’t go to church, they say. But a building is just a building, and truly WE are the Church! How do we “go” to ourselves?

Surely there is an underlying goal the individual denominations and churches have when they point to their buildings as “the church”. This is more important than mere semantics.

Most “churches” in the United States of America have gone the way of the tax exemption: they agreed to allow Caesar to refund a bit of “that which is Caesar’s” in order to give back to their donors a bit of “that which is God’s”! In exchange, they have allowed their hands to be tied in such a way that they cannot speak from the pulpit about wrongdoing and sin in our communities and our government for fear of being accused of telling people how they should vote and losing their meal ticket! The church is losing its voice in matters of sin, righteousness, and judgment because we fear making a politically incorrect decision and losing our tax-exempt status!

The church corporations have made this mess for themselves, and now they are reaping the consequences. They have taught the world that if they give money to the church, they can get money back at tax time, so the money that is given is often given by unbelievers for the support of works they may personally abhor (as evinced by their conduct and speech). But on the day the IRS decides to rescind the tax-exempt status for all churches, the mega-churches will be the first to fall, followed by the smaller congregations. The church is contributing to its own demise as a corporation, and I believe that before twenty years have passed, not only will their tax-exempt status be a thing of the past, but many “corporation churches” will close down and their people will melt into the landscape.

Furthermore, because of this sinful stance of allowing the IRS to dictate the rules about who may be on the board of a CHURCH, we now see that simply reading portions of the Bible in these churches is considered to be a HATE crime! We have no one but ourselves to blame for this debacle; the tree is grown, the buds are on the branches, and soon the fruit of this action will be seen in all its poisonous aspects.

Many have brought harm and shame to the name of Jesus Christ by treating the church as a money-making enterprise. No WONDER the world looks on with disgust and will not follow Christ! There is ONE CHURCH, ONE BODY in CHRIST! It was NOT meant to be rich, it was NOT meant to be powerful in the ways of the world, it was NOT meant to be a social club with great entertainment and perks for attending!

WARNING: I believe that in the near future, the American church (that which doesn’t splinter off or fall to apostasy when things get bad) will be pushed underground and she will be purified by fire.

Jesus is the Head of HIS Church, and He knows His own sheep! UNITY is the aim of the Holy Spirit! God will share His glory with those He chooses, not those who put on the best spiritual programming or shout the loudest in tongues! There is too much at stake for any of us to allow ourselves to be fooled any longer! We must no longer wink and play along!

When we accepted Christ, we didn’t get our tickets punched to start building a kingdom for ourselves, becoming Christian superstars! We didn’t enter into competition for the title or the belt that the world offers. We entered into a relationship with the only One who can save us, and it is a SIN against HIM to divide ourselves purposely.

Time is getting short, and we had better get our houses in order. We need to be talking about these things and tossing the baby food in the garbage. We need to be wise, grown up in Christ, and ready for what is coming down the pike. Or else soon we will be like the Pharisees who denounced Jesus (Yeshua) to Pilate, saying: “We have no king but Caesar” (John 19:15).

Pastora Cate Covert