LIFE LESSON: It is not the will of God to have differing church denominations

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A few weeks ago I attended a funeral and the person who was  being laid to rest was a member of a church that is distinguished by their uniform and a badge. So naturally the funeral service was led by his church. Whilst we were at the graveyard another funeral procession came to bury their loved one not very far from where we were.

This funeral service was also led by a church which wore uniforms but their uniform was different from the one I was attending. They had isgubhu (drum) which they used as part of their worship. The one thing two churches had in common was that they were both quoting scriptures from the bible.


This scene triggered a question that I have been struggling to get an answer to for a long time: What does this say about Christianity and God? Two churches who clearly believe in God as revealed through the bible but they clearly have different interpretations of what the bible says given their differing uniforms and differing ways in which they worship.


I also could not help but wonder what this says to a non believer or someone who is trying to figure out which of the many church denominations available is a true representation of God ? It must be discouraging and confusing at the same time.

This is more about us and less about God

The truth is that the message of the bible is about heaven invading earth i.e.the Kingdom of God. This is the consistent message of the bible from the beginning to the end i.e.Genesis to Revelation.


Jesus told a parable of a farmer, the soil and the seed (Matthew 13:3-23) to give us an explanation of why we have varying church denominations. He put Christian churches in 4 categories according to how they understand and apply the true message of the bible 


  1. Churches whose understanding is not consistent with the truth - They do not have the truth because they did not understand the message and instead of digging further to seek the truth they created religious rituals and in other instances they mix religous rituals with cultural traditional rituals. 

  2. Churches who have partial understanding of the truth - they understood the message but the truth did not sink into their hearts instead of seeking the truth they added their human perspective to the bible message as a result they never fully understood the truth.

  3. Churches who had the truth and then lost it - these are the churches who understood the message it went deep into their hearts but they were too preoccupied with efforts to alter the message to make it comply with the world system. This preoccupation suffocated the truth and they lost it.

  4. Churches who fully understood the truth - these are the churches who heard and fully embraced the message of the Kingdom of God as it is without any additions or alterations

This is not a call on whether members of the first 3 churches will see heaven or not after their life on this earth comes to an end (eternal destinies), because only God can make that call . This is about whether they will experience heaven while walking on this earth (earthly destiny)

It is clear then that varying church denominations is a reflection of our innate human character to make God fit into our level of understanding instead of us fitting and complying with him.


The goal for me and my family is to have personal experience of heaven in this lifetime and that is the reason I have joined a church that fully embraces the message of the bible as it is without altering it or adding to it.

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