Churches, Teaching Differing Doctrines, Claim They Are Led of the Spirit

An incredible point in the middle of all the division among Christian believers is that so many churches claim the leading of the Holy Spirit. Look at some of these statements from church and denominational materials. Here are a Methodist statement:

We have, therefore expected that the Discipline would be administered, not, merely as legal document, but as a revelation of the Holy Spirit working in and through our people.ⁱ

The Methodist church makes the claim here that the holy spirit is leading them. Now, read that each minister follows Methodist teaching, and that this teaching has been given by God.:

Each year every Methodist minister must renew his vows to believe and preach our doctrines, as contained in 44 sermons of Wesley and his explanatory notes upon the New Testament. In the sermons and notes Wesley affirms what he takes to be the Catholic theological stream as represented by the creeds, the articles of religion of the Church of England, and of the book of common prayer. Yet he also affirms his belief that certain doctrines in this tradition, in particular the doctrine of sanctification, have received insufficient emphasis and clarification. He thus believed that God has given Methodism a responsibility to serve the church catholic by bringing these emphases into their right place in the total orbit of the Catholic faith. In British Methodism the church is still committed to Wesley’s general position. ⁱⁱ

As regards the gifts of the spirit the First Baptist Church in Newton NJ writes this in their statement of beliefs, “We are Confident that God gives spiritual gifts to all believers for the building up of the body of Christ; however, we believe that some gifts of the Spirit, such as tongues and healings, were evidently limited to the early church.” ⁱⁱⁱ

Baptists in general may deny the modern day existence of some of the gifts of the spirit, yet Baptists teach being led by the spirit in what they know and do. “God directs us through the Word, and through the Holy Spirit enables us to understand the Word and empowers us to obey the Word.” ^iv

Roman Catholics say they are led by the holy spirit, and that this leading is through scripture, tradition, and the magesterium, the teaching authority of their church, comprised of the pope and the bishops:

“Based on the promises of Jesus in the Gospels, the [Roman Catholic] Church believes that it is continually guided by the Holy Spirit and so protected infallibly from falling into doctrinal error. The Catholic Church teaches that the Holy Spirit reveals God’s truth through Sacred Scripture, Sacred Tradition and the Magisterium.” ^v

Of course, Pentecostal and Charismatic churches are based on the premise that they are following the workings of the Holy Spirit. “At the heart of the Pentecostal practice is an experience that often involves claims to direct guidance from the spirit for decisions and actions by Pentecostal believers.” This statement reflects the Pentecostal belief that Pentecostals are not only led in doctrinal matters, but in everyday practical matters as well.

There you have it. Methodists, Baptists, Catholics, Pentecostals all teach the leading of the Holy Spirit in their midst, yet they are clearly divided.

i. From the 1940 edition of the Methodist Discipline, quoted at http://home.att.net/~jackthompson/page187.htm
JOHN WESLEY’S THEOLOGY TODAY, Colin W Williams, Abingdon, Nashville, 1960, preface
ii. http://www.firstbaptistnewton.com/belief.htm
iii. http://thistletownbaptist.org/2008/10/28/led-by-the-spirit/
iv. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Catholic_Church#cite_ref-51
v. LED BY THE SPIRIT, Toward a Practical Theology of Pentecostal Discernment and Decision Making, Stephen E Parker, Continuum International Publishing Group, 1996, ISBN 1850757461, 9781850757467,p9

Original Christianity

This web is a look at primitive, original Christianity, how it developed over time into innumerable denominations and divisions and how original Christianity compares to current practices. It is a resource for looking systematically at the beliefs and practices in the original Christian church, numerous movements and churches since, the modern Christian church, with discussion about how all these changes happened and especially focusing on how well each of these compares to scripture.

Why?

"Jesus Christ is Lord" is the common belief of billions of Christians. But there are tens of thousands of denominations. While ancient denominations like the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox claim to be the original and consequently "true" church, innumerable churches and denominations have started citing error in these ancient bastions and/or the leading of the spirit to reform the church and restore the church.

There are numerous disputed issues. Cessation doctrine (prophecy and the gifts of the spirit ended with the apostles), infant baptism, the inerrancy of Scripture, the form of Church government, the role of women in the church, and currently, the acceptance of homosexuality are just some of the many disputed doctrines that cause the Christian body to be so divided.

The Reformation movement performed an invaluable service. But instead of simply reforming the church or simply working to create one more correct alternative church the Reformation movement worked to increase the number of disputes over scripture and consequently the number of splits has increased exponentially.

The problem with looking at all the denominations is that it can become confusing to just compare this church or denomination to that one. The complexity of looking at all the theological implications can become overwhelming. For many busy people that means just making the best, less than fully educated decision they can, and staying with the church of their heritage or finding a church where they feel they can grow. Just finding the information can be an overwhelming task. Putting it into some understandable framework is an even more complicated task.

This web site, rather than trying to just compare all the current positions on the differences goes back to the beginning (primitive, original Christianity) and evaluates Christianity starting at that point. This includes looking at the gospel accounts, but also includes looking at early church documents as well as other ancient documents, both secular and religious. (There is also a section on Philosophy because its profound impact on Christian theological development.) The articles have numerous references to works both in print and online.

Next the web site looks at the developments in Christianity from original Christianity forward to see how the church developed over time comparing each development with what we know about original Christianity. The goals are:

To trace the development of the church from start to now to see how the church at large wound up with all these competing churches/denominations today, and

To equip people with the knowledge of original Christianity to enable people to make an informed decision on what is the true faith and practice of the church Jesus Christ started.

For an overview of the articles by category, go to the Table of Contents Page.

This is a work in progress. My prayer is that sharing my journey is helpful to you and that together we can grow in the faith that Jesus Christ made available some two thousand years ago.

Also Please Pardon our Dust. There are hundreds of posts and some of them still have typos. If you find typos You can contact Mark at [email protected]. Please be so kind as to mention the name of the post as well as to copy and paste the section with errors. Thank you and God Bless You.

Churches, Teaching Differing Doctrines, Claim They Are Led of the Spirit

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