Because people split up what Jesus built. He promised one church, and the New Testament shows one body with Christ as its only head (Matthew 16:18; Ephesians 4:4-6). The long row of names you see in any town came later, out of creeds and labels people added over the centuries. It's confusing. But there's a way through it, and that way is older than every name on every sign.
One Builder, One Church
Nobody listening to Jesus would've thought He was starting a list of options. He told Peter, "And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it" (Matthew 16:18). Look at the word. Church, singular.
A note on the Greek: "I will build my church" is oikodomēsō mou tēn ekklēsian. Jesus is the builder, and the church is His. Ekklēsia was the ordinary word for an assembly of people called together. Jesus uses it in the singular, with one owner and one builder.
The apostles never talked any differently. Paul wrote, "There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call—one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all" (Ephesians 4:4-6). Of Christ he said, "And he is the head of the body, the church" (Colossians 1:18). One body, one head.
When the New Testament does use the plural, it means that same church meeting in different towns, like the church of God in Corinth or the churches of Galatia (1 Corinthians 1:2; Galatians 1:2). Paul could write, "All the churches of Christ greet you" (Romans 16:16), and mean every congregation that belonged to Christ. They weren't competing brands. They were one church with a lot of addresses.
And nobody shopped for one. Luke tells us how people came into it: "And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved" (Acts 2:47). The Lord did the adding. Nobody was picking a church off a list.
The Prayer Jesus Prayed for Us
On the night He was betrayed, Jesus prayed for people who'd come to faith long after the apostles, and that includes you and us: "I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me" (John 17:20-21).
Did you pick up on why He wanted it? Their unity was supposed to help the world believe. So if you've driven down one road past five different churches and wondered whether any of it is real, we get it. Division does the very damage Jesus prayed against. We'd much rather say so out loud than act as if the confusion were your fault.
Paul told Christians to be "eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace" (Ephesians 4:3). Today the Center for the Study of Global Christianity estimates there are about 47,000 Christian denominations in the world. In 1900 there were about 2,000. Their count lists a group separately in every country it's in, so the number runs high. Even so, nobody reading Jesus' prayer could call that the ‘unity’ that Jesus asked for.
Where All the Division Came From
It didn't happen overnight. It did start early, though. Within a single generation, Christians in Corinth were picking sides behind the names of their favorite preachers, or the one who baptized them. Paul pleaded with them: "I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment" (1 Corinthians 1:10). Then he asked them plainly, "Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?" (1 Corinthians 1:13). He'd already warned the elders from Ephesus that men would rise up from their own ranks and pull disciples away to follow them (Acts 20:29-30).
A note on the Greek: "Divisions" is schismata, from a verb meaning "to tear." Jesus used the same word for the tear in an old garment patched with new cloth (Matthew 9:16). "United" is katērtismenoi, from katartizō, the word Matthew uses for James and John "mending their nets" (Matthew 4:21). Paul pictures division as a rip in the fabric, and unity as the mending.
Paul didn't treat this as a small thing. In his list of the works of the flesh, right beside idolatry and fits of anger, he puts "rivalries, dissensions, divisions" (Galatians 5:19-20).
A note on the Greek: "Divisions" in Galatians 5:20 is haireseis, from haireomai, "to choose." It means parties formed when people choose a side and draw a line. Our word "heresy" comes from it.
The centuries after that kept repeating the pattern. Councils drafted creeds. Traditions hardened into rules. In 1054 the church in the East and the church in the West excommunicated each other. In 1517 Martin Luther set out to reform the Roman church, and the movement that followed split again and again. Groups began naming themselves after a founder or a favorite practice. Luther himself pleaded against it in 1522. He asked people not to use his name, and to call themselves Christians, not Lutherans. But men did exactly that anyway — go figure.
Long before any of it, Jesus had put His finger on the root when He answered the religious leaders of His own day: "in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men" (Matthew 15:9).
A note on the Hebrew: Jesus was quoting Isaiah 29:13, where God says of Judah, "their fear of me is a commandment taught by men." The Hebrew is miṣwat ʾănāšîm məlummādāh, literally "a commandment of men, learned." Their worship had been learned from people instead of received from God. It's an old problem, and it always divides.
We don't doubt that plenty of denominations started with somebody sincerely trying to correct a real wrong. Still, every new creed and every new name drew another line through the one body.
What About All the Sincere People?
Lots of them are sincere, and we mean that. You probably know people in other churches who pray every day and treat their neighbors with real kindness. We're nobody's judge. Jesus said His own word would do that job: "The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge; the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day" (John 12:48).
Sincerity can't settle the question for that very reason. Sincere believers disagree about baptism and worship, and even about how a person is saved. They can't all be right. The measure has to stand outside every one of us, and God has put it in Scripture (2 Timothy 3:16-17).
Finding Your Way Through the Confusion
Start here: don't let the mess push you away from Jesus. A confusing landscape is a reason to look harder. It's not a reason to quit.
Then go back past the divisions, to a time before any of them existed. God gave Israel that same advice when they'd wandered: "Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls" (Jeremiah 6:16).
A note on the Hebrew: "The ancient paths" is nətîbôt ʿôlām, the paths of long ago, the old, well-worn ways. God's answer to a nation with too many new roads was to go back to the oldest one.
"And in Antioch the disciples were first called Christians" (Acts 11:26). They were disciples of Christ and nothing more. They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching (Acts 2:42), and Paul urged Timothy to follow the pattern of sound words he'd heard (2 Timothy 1:13).
That pattern still works. Jesus said, "The seed is the word of God" (Luke 8:11). Seed produces after its own kind. The same seed planted in Honesdale today will grow the same thing it grew in Jerusalem and Antioch: Christians, and nothing added. Here at Christians In Honesdale, that's the ground we've tried to stand on. We're simply Christians, and we've got no denominational name to add to the pile. Unity won't come from merging denominations, and it won't come from launching one more. It comes when people go back to the same Book and do what it says.
Read it the way the Bereans did: "Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so" (Acts 17:11). And feel free to ask any church a few plain questions. Who's your head? What's your only authority? What name do you wear? What do you tell a person to do to be saved? Ask us too. Then open the book of Acts and hold every answer up against it.
We Don't Get a Pass Either
We'll be straight about ourselves. Even people who set out to be nothing but Christians have split from each other over the years, and congregations that sound alike on paper don't always teach alike. We're one independent congregation. No headquarters sits over us and no denomination stands behind us, so we can only answer for what's taught here. None of that changes the answer above. It just means the same Bible measures us.
When You're Tired of the Whole Thing
If the sheer number of churches has worn you out or made you cynical, you aren't the only one, and you aren't wrong to be bothered. Jesus was bothered first. Take your time. Read the New Testament for yourself, and look for a church that's trying to be only what He built.
Let's Open Acts Together
If you'd like company for that reading, we'd enjoy sitting down with you, at your pace and with your questions setting the agenda. Bring whatever Bible you already own. If you don’t have a Bible, request a free one here. You can ask for a free Bible study, read about who we are, or drop us a line before you visit.
When we meet:
Our space is Suite D at 416 Main Street, Honesdale, PA 18431. You'll park at the rear of the building, and our entrance is back there too, so drive around behind when you arrive.