If you are a member of a Denominational church, you will have agreed with everything stated up to this point, but this is a very important part of the overall definition. If you admit that you are a slave of Christ, purchased and owned by Him, bound by His law, and committed to His discipleship for life, then you must admit that if Jesus forbids you from being Denominational then you cannot be a faithful Christian and a member of a denomination at the same time. Jesus prayed in John 17 that His followers would be ONE as He and the Father were ONE. Denominations do not act or believe as ONE, but as MANY. In some cities you may have 15 churches within 5 minutes of each other, but they don’t want to have anything to do with each other. In Polk City, there are 5 Baptist churches within 10 minutes of one other, all very small, but they are not ONE even though they all claim the same denominational name! Paul forbade denominationalism in 1 Cor. 1:10-13 and called it "carnal" in 1 Cor. 4:1-3. In verse 6 he gave the cure—do not go beyond what is written!!!! If everyone followed the same standard and chose to not go beyond what is written, you couldn’t have differences that would divide! Becoming a member of a denomination is going beyond what is written. What can you do?

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