The sheep and the goats

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I often wonder about this thing called denomination. And I guess most of my regular readers or friends would know that I have a certain objection over the use of Catholics vs Christians, as it is my belief that Catholicism is a denomination within Christianity. At core, we are bound by the Apostle Creed and the Nicene Creed. In practice, we are separated by confessionals. However, this just makes me wonder if this is an adequate way for us to describe ourselves as Christ believers and followers? Talking even with the people in my church has made me realised that people have certain perceptions of certain denominations and therefore they create themselves a false dichotomy that may not be coherent with actual practice and reality. It is a bit like policy makers making policies without considering implementation process.

I was just reminded of what Jesus said in Matthew 7:21:
"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord', will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven."
Considering this, I would see Christians as three types, instead of the many denominations that we are identifying ourselves today. The first category is what I call authentic Christians, Christ followers who do the will of God and bear the good fruits. These are the Christians who live out their faith in God, regardless of which denomination they belong to and which church they attend. They believe that Jesus is the Son of God, that He died on the Cross and resurrected three days later to save us from sins. These are the ones who live believing that they are accountable to God one day and Jesus really lives. These are the people whom we see the grace of God working in their respective lives. This means I can have a Catholic, Methodist, Charismatic, etc but they live as such and believe as such.

The second type is what I call nominal Christians. These are the ones who profess faith in Christianity but only go to church on Christmas and Easter. Or they may go to church every week. But in the end, these people are the ones who live as if God does not exist despite the fact that they profess His existence every week. We recognise this group of Christians when we see them doing things they should not be doing and yet do not feel any guilt or responsibility. These are the Christians whom the grace of God is clearly absent in their lives. Perhaps they may even resemble the pharisees.

The third type is what I call corrupted Christianity. This is an easy group to identify. They claim themselves to be authentic Christianity, but just by their creed and confessionals, you will know that they do not practice the Christianity that most of us profess. In fact, some of their beliefs and doctrines contradict the bible. Groups such as Mormon and Jehovah's Witness tend to belong to this category. Another group would be those who may profess Christianity or Catholicism but they syncretise pagan worship or idol worship into their practices.

In conclusion, my principle is never to look at the denomination but to look deeper beyond the surface to dig out the core beliefs and faith underneath the proclamation. If even within the Christ followers, we are able to do so, we will probably stop discriminating certain denominations and start seeing what God is doing in their lives.

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