Though the Bible made us to understand that before the last day when the trumpet would be sound, the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ would have been preached at every nook and cranny of the World
Perhaps, does this mean that there should be proliferation of churches leading to different doctrines?
Whether it is YES or NO, it is on this assertion that one of the African finest writers,Father Kelvin Ogwu writes on what he titles: ” The Proliferation Of Churches ”
Let us read Father Kelvin Ogwu’s thought:
“And so, the question that has been on my mind today is how we got to this point in our Christian faith in which we can no longer say for certain the number of Christian denominations that we have or even have a way of controlling upcoming ones.
I took the pains one Sunday morning to go round a particular street and I could not sincerely understand the reason behind the multiplicities of Churches. For me, these multiplicities do not come across as a sign of true Christianity.
How can a single street that is not up to a kilometer drive have more than 30 Churches? Some of the Churches are shops that were converted/rented for Sunday use since their owners don’t work on Sundays.
This made me to cast my mind back in history to ascertain how all these multiplicities began.
For a complete 1,500 years after the death of Christ, these divisions and multiplicities of Churches were not there.
This opening/founding of Churches started with Martin Luther in the 16th century. He was a Catholic priest working in Germany.
What actually was his reason?
He accused the Catholic Church of selling blessings (indulgence). He rejected the authority of the Pope. In fairness to him, there were some abuses that truly needed reform. And of course, the Catholic Church did take her time, but made lots of reforms on those areas.
So, when Luther founded Lutheran Church, one would have thought that there won’t be need for further breaking up since he won’t allow the “vices” he accused the Catholic Church of to be found in his.
But, it was not so. He had his own problems. He became to some extent what he was against. He translated the Bible and even added what was not originally there and removed some passages and book of the Bible to suit what he believed and his doctrine of justification by faith alone. To use the word loosely, he became his own “Pope” and never denied his hatred for the Jews.
Some of the reformers accused Luther of not fully reforming the church, so they broke away to form theirs. From Lutheran Church we got Calvinists, Presbyterian, Baptists.
Interestingly, today there are several Lutheran denominations. The three most prominent in the United States are the LCMS, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA), and the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS). They all differ in believe, in theology and practice.
The division and multiplications of churches will continue because the message from Martin Luther’s breaking out from the Catholic Church was that: THERE IS NO LEGITIMATE AND INFALLIBLE AUTHORITY IN ANY CHURCH OR LEADER OR ORGANIZATION IN THIS WORLD.
Before Luther, if there was any issue among Christians, the believe was to run to the church because, according to the Bible, God will not allow his church to fall into error. As such, the church had the final say. But Luther shattered that stand.
Luther needed to shatter that foundation so that people can see justification to him founding a new church. But what he did not know was that, after legitimizing the act of breaking away, Lutheranism could not condemn others for breaking away without cutting off the branch on which they were standing.
Everyone became an authority of their own. The motto soon became: The way you understand it, do it.
While in Germany, new churches were created, in England king Henry VIII was cutting off also from the Catholic Church because the Pope refused to grant him the permission to marry a second wife so that he could have a male child. It was from this basis that Anglican Church was born.
The king converted all the Catholic Churches/buildings in England to Anglican. They removed anything like statues or images and created their own doctrines.
One would have thought that those that did not like the fact that Catholic Churches have images will find Anglican as substitute so that there won’t be need to found more churches, but that was not true.
Today, even Anglican Church is divided. Some are for gay marriage, others are against gay marriage. And with the coming of the Pentecostal churches, everyone now has a vision or a “calling” to begin a church.
Christianity is the most divided religion. This is why two Christians can’t marry each other because one is Anglican and the other is Dunamis.
But there is something holding Christianity today. . .I am not saying this because I am a priest of the Catholic Church, but after analysing all data and documents and facts, I make bold to say that any day the Catholic Church will be divided or will cease to exist, the end to Christianity won’t be far. . . but we know that is not going to happen”.
