What Is a Denomination

Hear in Real Audio format

Download free Real Player G2
Or right click History17.rm and select "save link as" to direct download the file ( 4,568 KB).
You will then need to open it in Real Player.

---

For an institution that has been among us for so long (roughly five hundred years), surprisingly few have reflected on just what a modern denomination is. Few Christians of today have stopped to analyze exactly what it is.

A Denomination Is Not Just Something "Named"
Webster defines a denomination as "The name of a class of things; a class or kind (especially of units) having a specific name or value." Thus, we speak of currency consisting of several denominations: five dollar bills, tens, etc. Each denomination of money consists of a category of bills. However, a denomination is more than something named. I have four children, all of whom I have named, but I am not the father of four denominations.

A Denomination Is an Organizational Concept
Donald G. Tinder, in the Evangelical Dictionary of Theology gives the following definition of a denomination in the religious sense:

Denominations are associations of congregations -- though sometimes it might be said that congregations are localized subdivisions of denominations -- that have a common heritage. Moreover, a true denomination does not claim to be the only legitimate expression of the church. (Donald G. Tinder, Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, Ed. Walter A. Elwell, Grand Rapids: Baker Publishing House, 1984, p. 310.)

Even though denominations within Protestantism have come to be the largest expression of organized Christianity beyond the level of the congregation, there has never been much theological reflection on denominationalism. A look at theological textbooks or church creeds confirms this. Probably the simplest explanation for this omission is the Bible in no way envisages the organization of the church into denominations. It instead assumed the opposite, that all Christians -- except those being disciplined -- will be in full fellowship with all others. Any tendencies to the contrary were roundly denounced (I Corinthians 1:10-13). Paul could write a letter to the Christians meeting in various places in Rome or Galatia with every assurance that all would receive the message. Today, for any city or country, he would have to place the letter as an advertisement in the secular media and hope. (Ibid., p.310.)

History of the Denominational Concept
In view of such widespread lack of understanding about the origin and rise of the denominational idea, we now want to notice its origin. It is intimate with the rise of Roman Catholicism.

Local Churches
In the New Testament, Christians joined themselves to local congregations that were self-ruling and independent (Acts 14:24, I Peter 5:1-2). No idea existed of allegiance to another congregation, a collection of congregations, or a denomination. The New Testament speaks of the church in only two senses: (1) the universal sense, where one enjoys fellowship with all who share fellowship with God, and (2) the local church, where one shares fellowship with other Christians in a specific locale. No idea of fellowship (a working relationship) existed larger than a local congregation.

Metropolitans
However, as the simplicity of organization of New Testament Christians deteriorated, local leaders began to exercise authority over other local congregations. As religious historian George Park Fisher said:

After we cross the limit of the first century we find that with each board of elders there is a person to whom the name "bishop" is especially applied. (George Park Fisher, History of the Christian Church, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1827, p.51.)

The bishop of the chief city of each province was called the metropolitan. (Ibid., p.104.)

Regional Church Councils
In the second century, an inexorable movement began toward organizing the universal church. Phillip Schaff, in his celebrated History of the Christian Church, showed how early believers wanted some type of church government:

A form of government (as the superiority of the bishop) so ancient and so widely adopted, can be satisfactorily accounted for only on the supposition of religious needs, namely, the need of a tangible outward representation and centralization, to illustrate and embody to the people their relation to Christ and to God, and the visible unity of the church. (Phillip Schaff, History of the Christian Church, II, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1887, p.133.)

These councils -- of which no vestige appears before the middle of this (2nd) century -- changed nearly the whole form of the church. (John Lawrence Mosheim, Ecclesiastical History, I, Rosemead, CA: Old Paths Book Club, 1959, pp.116- 117.)

Universal Church Councils
The first "universal" (Ecumenical) Council was held at the order of the Roman Emperor Constantine in Nicea in A.D. 325. This Council of Nicea produced the Nicene Creed. Mark it well, the Apostles of Christ and first century Christians never attended a conference of congregations, nor ever laid eyes on such a creed.

By the fourth century, the metropolitans of the four leading cities of the Roman empire, Rome, Constantinople, Antioch, and Alexandria competed for oversight of the universal collection of congregations. At the end of the sixth century, Gregory the Great, Bishop of Rome, denounced John the Faster (Patriarch of Constantinople) for his assumed title of "Universal Patriarch." In A.D. 606, Boniface III was proclaimed "Universal Bishop" over all the churches.

In only five centuries, men completed the transition from the simple organization of the autonomous local church to the universal coalition of local churches now seen in Roman Catholicism. Rather than the body of Christ that consists of Christians, the concept now was the body of Christ that consisted of churches, which themselves consisted of Christians. This is the essence of denominationalism.

The European Reformation Movement
In the reformation movement of the sixteenth century and beyond, this denominational concept extended into Protestantism. Leaders like Luther, Wesley, and Calvin, while they courageously fought many of the excesses of Roman Catholicism, unfortunately retained many other doctrines and ideas of Catholicism. While they rejected the Pope as the visible head of a universal collection of congregations, they kept the concept of the universal church composed of congregations. Thus, the denominations that resulted from the work of these men and their followers simply added more collections of churches!

Denominationalism in America (1776-2000)
The reason there are so many denominations in America is because of the freedom of expression and religion guaranteed the citizens of the United States. In ancient and medieval history, the only religion you could participate in was the one which the government officially sanctioned. Today, in America, if you enter into a disagreement with those around you in church, then you simply start a new church, give it a new "name" and a new denomination begins. In America there are hundreds of different denominations and the premier book on the differences between denominations is entitled "Handbook of Denominations" by Frank S. Mead and revised by Samuel S. Hill. This book is available at your favorite local bookstore.