Can Anyone Who Believes in Jesus

Let me add a point "C" to my previous conclusion from post #19:


Personal Observation:
a.) This kind of confusion and contradiction seldom comes from ordinary Christians.
b.) This kind of contradiction usually comes from people pretending to be Christians, who are poking around Christian forums to either troll, or to collect research data.
c.) This is even more suspect when one is posting short, curt, specific polls, which will yield not only specific data points, but actual mathematical numbers... and all of this instead of just chatting casually with other humans about what's on your mind.

Have a nice weekend everyone.
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The thesis of this thread, per the OP, isn't really about the efficacy or virtue of denominations, but just the matter of who has authority to create one.
It's a truly odd and specific question.

If you want to talk about denominations in a general sense, pls just pm, or start a new thread for that.
: )

My question stands as is.

I am very interested in these topics; discussing these topics is helping me make peace with God.

I would say no for at least 2 reasons:

1. Jesus didn't start a denomination/sect; He began a church. As a church we represent His body which connects all true believers. Why would He want to foster disunity in His own body?

2. As Christians we are sheep. We don't lead; we follow. If the Lord leads you to begin a local gathering of saints then you should. But that shouldn't be considered a denomination or sect but a local body of believers...a church.

There is only one name given under heaven by which we can be saved.

Church denominations have no power to save anyone.

There can be only one, true church, the body of Christ, two or more believers in a gathering. Is effectively the church.

When two or more Christians are gathered, then Jesus will be present, that is the church.

That can be in a park, in someone's house, in a designated building, in a large tent.

A church is not geographically defined, the body of Christ is a spiritual entity.

If there are other concepts to consider, then you open the door to a thousand denominations.

A simple faith in Jesus will remove all factional thinking.

1 Corinthians 12:13
For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.

The flesh loves and thrives in factions, politics is overflowing with factions.

One body, yes, but an eye and an ear are going to have different perspectives despite being part of the same body.

There are degrees of freedom in some subtopics but the core principles are the same. 1000 denominations might not actually mean that there would be a wide gap between those denominations. Many Christian denominations recognize each other's baptisms, confirmations, etc. They just happen to have some different opinions about doctrines or what may be considered inspired material beyond the Bible. You might have thousands of specialized cells in your body doing different things, but they still belong to the same body and are holistically in harmony even if the appear to be in opposition to one-another.

We are encouraged to honour father and mother and sometimes that includes traditions, rituals, etc. that have been passed down. Of course we are going to see differences between congregations. I don't think uniformity in every aspect would be the goal of the body of Christ. Ears and eyes. But the moral of the story with Paul vs. Peter is that there are limits placed on customs and culture. If a custom conflicts with the law of Christ, we throw it out.

Why?

I don't want to offend God.

Are you planning to start a sect? Perhaps "The First Church of the Optional Poll"?

That is a catchy name...I might check it out.

The main way would be not to understand the Bible completely and having a doctrine which does not coinicide with the teachings of all the others.

Otherwise you will need to be satisfied with theWord, that is, Jesus Yeshua Who makes us all descendants of Abraham, The Father of Nations.

What a great idea for a church.

Tickle my ears some more.