Why Are There So Many Christian Denominations?

As a pastor, a common question I hear is some version of this one: if we all read the same Bible, why are there so many denominations? It’s a fair question. Depending on who’s counting, there are more than 45,000 Christian denominations worldwide, and the number keeps growing.

Why are there so many Christian denominations? The church is one, but its unity is spiritual, not institutional: God’s salvation applied to all who have turned to Christ in saving faith. On earth that one body is expressed in many denominations, partly because we must separate from false teaching, and partly because of nuance and pride.

If that sounds like a contradiction, hang with me. Some of that division is commanded by Scripture. Most of it isn’t. Let’s take them in order.

Cults and Counter-Religions

The first thing to recognize is that many groups mistaken for Christian denominations are not Christian at all. That shouldn’t surprise us. Jesus said plainly that people would lay claim to Him who never belonged to Him.

“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’” (Matthew 7:21–23)

Notice that the test is not what a person says about Jesus. It is whether he does the will of the Father. The same is true of groups. A name on the sign does not make a church Christian.

The test Jesus gives is obedience, and obedience has a recognizable shape. I’ve written about that shape in What Do Christians Do? The Fruit of Christians: discipline, corporate worship, sacrificial love, and the proclamation of Christ. Where that fruit is absent, the label doesn’t matter.

Paul was even more direct. When a “different gospel” showed up in Galatia, he didn’t call it a denomination. He called it a curse.

I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel; which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed! As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed! (Galatians 1:6–9, bold added)

So what is the gospel we received? That Jesus, the eternal Son of God, became a man, lived a sinless life, died on a Roman cross for our sins according to the Scriptures, was buried, and was raised on the third day. That He is now the exalted Lord of all, and that sinners everywhere must repent and turn to Him in faith to be saved from the wrath of God. I’ve laid this out in more detail in What Do Christians Believe? Christianity 101. The historic creeds, Nicene and Chalcedonian, are useful summaries. But the gospel itself is the line.

If that message is missing, or if “Jesus,” “faith,” and “salvation” have been redefined to mean something else, we are not looking at a Christian denomination. We are looking at another religion wearing Christian vocabulary. Some of the loudest voices claiming to be the one true Christianity are groups like this. They will even quote Matthew 7 and 1 Corinthians 1:10 to prove it. The verses are right. The application is not.

Subtract these groups and the 45,000 comes down. But it doesn’t come down to a handful. Let’s be honest about that. There are still a lot of denominations. So why?

Why Denominations Are Unavoidable

Let’s start with what the Bible actually says about the church. It says the church is one.

There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; 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)

I believe that. There is a unified church on earth right now. But that unity is spiritual, not institutional. The church is an organism, not an organization. Its unity is God’s salvation applied to everyone who has turned to Christ in saving faith, wherever they sit on Sunday morning. That one body is currently expressed on earth in a multitude of denominations.

Here is the part that surprises people: within that one body there is a staggering amount of confessional disagreement. Not just between denominations. Within them. Put two members of the same Baptist church in a room and ask about the end times, the gifts of the Spirit, or the role of women in ministry, and you may get three answers. This is true everywhere. There is always a gap between a system and its adherents. No group has 100% agreement among its own members. Not Rome. Not the Watchtower. Not us.

So the question is not why there is disagreement. There has always been disagreement. The question is when disagreement should become separation. Scripture answers that: when the teaching itself departs from the gospel.

Now I urge you, brethren, keep your eye on those who cause dissensions and hindrances contrary to the teaching which you learned, and turn away from them. (Romans 16:17)

“Turn away from them.” That is a command. Paul says it. John says it (2 John 9–11). Jesus says it (Matthew 7:15). When a church stops teaching the gospel, staying is not unity. It is disobedience.

This is why the Protestant Reformation was not a sin. I was raised and confirmed in the Roman Catholic Church, so this is not theoretical for me. At the Council of Trent, Rome pronounced anathema on anyone who says a sinner is justified by faith alone. Paul had already pronounced anathema on anyone who preaches a different gospel. Two anathemas, pointed in opposite directions. One of them is right. The Reformers had a choice: obey Romans 16:17 or obey Rome. They chose Scripture. I’ve written about those two great fractures in The Great Schism and The Protestant Reformation.

Rome’s standard reply is to point at us: “Look at all your denominations. You need an infallible interpreter.” But if we cannot understand God’s Word without an interpreter, how do we understand the interpreter without another one? God is either able to communicate with us or He is not. If He is, His Word does not need a mediator other than the one He gave us, Jesus Christ (1 Timothy 2:5). The existence of many denominations is not evidence that Scripture is unclear. It is evidence that we are. If we keep seeking God in humility, willing to repent and change our minds whenever His Word shows us we should, we can move toward greater unity in Christ.

One caution before we move on. The church began at Pentecost, not at the Reformation. Many Protestants have reacted to Rome by throwing out fifteen centuries of faithful brothers and sisters. That is its own error, and it feeds division too.

Now, about that 45,000. The number comes from the Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell, and it counts every national body separately. The Baptists of Nigeria and the Baptists of Georgia are two denominations in that tally. So the number is real, but it inflates the sense of chaos. Here is what it hides: virtually all Protestant denominations agree with each other more than any of them agrees with Rome or the Orthodox. On the substance, the things I laid out in Christianity 101, the agreement is far more pervasive than the number suggests. The particulars may look different from church to church. The heart of the thing is the same.

And that is exactly why the rest of our divisions are so hard to defend.

Has Christ Been Divided?

None of this is new. Division was the first problem Paul addressed when he wrote to the church in Corinth. Not immorality, not lawsuits, not the Lord’s Supper. Those come later. He tackled disunity first.

Now I exhort you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all agree and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be made complete in the same mind and in the same judgment. For I have been informed concerning you, my brethren, by Chloe’s people, that there are quarrels among you. Now I mean this, that each one of you is saying, “I am of Paul,” and “I of Apollos,” and “I of Cephas,” and “I of Christ.” Has Christ been divided? Paul was not crucified for you, was he? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? (1 Corinthians 1:10–13, bold added)

Some in Corinth claimed they were “of Paul.” Others lined up behind Apollos, the eloquent teacher who ministered in Corinth after Paul. Others were in Peter’s corner. And apparently, on equal footing with the rest, some had made “I am of Christ” into a party slogan.

This may sound like a long-ago disagreement with nothing to say to us. So let’s change the names a little.

“Now I mean this, that each one of you is saying, ‘I am a Baptist,’ and ‘I am a Presbyterian,’ and ‘I am a Lutheran,’ and ‘I am non-denominational.’ Has Christ been divided?”

Or this:

“Now I mean this, that each one of you is saying, ‘I am a Calvinist,’ and ‘I am an Arminian.’ Has Christ been divided?”

Or this:

“Now I mean this, that each one of you is saying, ‘I am a Dispensationalist,’ and ‘I am an Amillennialist,’ and ‘I am a Postmillennialist,’ and ‘I am a Preterist.’ Has Christ been divided?”

If some of those terms are lost on you, consider yourself blessed. Every one of them is a line over which Christians have separated from other Christians. Not over the gospel. Over nuance. We have made the same error as Corinth. We have just changed the names.

John Calvin was not crucified for you. You were not baptized in the name of Jacobus Arminius. If you were, you should repent. I’ve written about this at length in Sabotaging Unity, because the root of it is not our Bibles. It is the presuppositions we bring to them.

A word about that last label in the first list. “Non-denominational” is a denomination. The label pretends to be a non-label, but it communicates plenty. In my experience most churches that wear it are of the megachurch variety, with a particular model of worship, leadership, and growth. The issue isn’t size. It’s the model. And that model is as distinct from a small, Bible-teaching local congregation as Presbyterian is from Baptist. There is nothing wrong with saying so. But let’s not pretend that dropping the label means we’ve dropped the division.

Notice, too, that the Corinthians were not dividing over a false gospel. Paul is not telling them to turn away from anyone. He is telling them that quarreling over which teacher to follow is carnal (1 Corinthians 3:3–4). That is the kind of division this article is really about: brothers who share the gospel and cannot share a pew.

What Actually Divides Us

We’ve seen that some separation is commanded. We’ve also seen that most of it isn’t. So why do brothers who share the gospel keep dividing? Scripture doesn’t leave us guessing. Three passages tell us what produces unity. It’s reasonable to conclude that the absence of these things produces the opposite.

Knowledge That Leads to Maturity

And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. (Ephesians 4:11–13, bold added)

Unity of the faith and knowledge of the Son of God go together. Notice the mechanism. Christ gave leaders to equip every member for the work, not to perform for an audience. A congregation of spectators will never attain to a mature man, because “spectator” is not a spiritual gift. That’s the argument of The Scandal of Passive Christianity, and it’s the same problem from another angle.

We cannot be mature Christians without knowing Christ and what He has revealed. This is a head problem before it is a heart problem. If I don’t know what God’s Word actually says, how can I be unified with those who do?

In practice, this lack of knowledge rarely looks like ignorance. It looks like fierce devotion to a theological camp, with no willingness to listen to anyone outside it. A friend and fellow church leader once told me, in the middle of a disagreement, that he had seriously considered the other side of the argument. When I asked how, he said his college professor had told him what they believed. His professor did not hold that view. That is not considering the other side. That is being inoculated against it. If we are that entrenched, we will never find unity. We won’t even find each other.

Intent on One Purpose

Therefore if there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion, make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose. Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves. (Philippians 2:1–3, bold added)

Nothing divides a group faster than not sharing a purpose. That doesn’t mean everyone does the same thing the same way. “For the body is not one member, but many” (1 Corinthians 12:14). A hand isn’t a foot. Neither is more important. But hand and foot serve one body, and the body has one purpose: to glorify God by building up the saints and proclaiming Christ to the lost. I’ve written about this in We Are the Body: The Church and Spiritual Gifts. The church is a body, not a business. If we were actually intent on that one purpose, would we be as divided as we are? No. When we are intent on one purpose, our appetite for division starves.

Humility, Not Selfishness

Paul goes on: “Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit.” Here is the root. When I presuppose that I am correct, and you presuppose that you are correct, we are not reading the Bible together. We are each defending a system built on a foundation we’ve never examined. Each side has its proof texts. Each side is sure the other is sloppy, dishonest, or devoid of the Spirit. And while we prepare for battle, the presuppositions stay hidden. I think the answer can be summarized in one word. Pride.

Fake humility won’t cut it either. Paul says to “regard one another as more important than yourselves.” If you are not actually committed to that, every other effort at unity will be sabotaged.

Love and Thankfulness

Beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful. (Colossians 3:14–15, bold added)

If I had to name the two most decisive causes of our divisions, I would name a lack of love and a lack of thankfulness. When love for God and gratitude for all His blessings, including our brothers and sisters, is absent, why would we expect unity?

There is a line often attributed to Donald Grey Barnhouse: “Love is the key. Joy is love singing. Peace is love resting. Long-suffering is love enduring. Kindness is love’s touch. Goodness is love’s character. Faithfulness is love’s habit. Gentleness is love’s self-forgetfulness. Self-control is love holding the reins.”

And Peter: “Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8).

Love covers. It makes up for shortcomings, ours and theirs. Where love and thankfulness are operating, unity is not hard to keep. Where they aren’t, no amount of doctrinal precision will hold us together.

A Way Forward

I don’t want to end with a diagnosis. Jesus didn’t. The night before He died, He prayed for us.

“I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even 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 sent Me.” (John 17:20–21, bold added)

The unity of believers is tied to the world believing that the Father sent the Son. That’s why this matters. Our divisions aren’t just embarrassing. They obscure the gospel.

So where do we go from here? My suggestion is simple. Let’s put down our presuppositions and pick up our Bibles. Read it in big chunks. Whole books in one sitting. Stop trying to fit every passage into a system, and start letting the passages correct the system. Good systematic theology is built on good biblical theology. We’ve put the cart before the horse.

And read it together. The Bible was not given to be read alone. I can make mistakes. So can you. Gather with others who are doing the same work, discuss what you’re reading, and patiently listen to one another. Some unity will come quickly. Some will take a long time. The pursuit is worth it, if we pursue it the right way: prayerfully, humbly, lovingly, with open Bibles and open ears.

In fact, we’d love for you to join us in that very pursuit. Our biblical theology podcast, One Accord, is exactly this: brothers with open Bibles, discussing what we’re reading and patiently listening to one another. Listen in. Better yet, join the conversation in the comments. YouTube is the best place for that.

One warning. Unity cannot be faked. Unity for the sake of unity is superficiality, and pretending we don’t disagree when we do is not unity. It is a lie, and the world isn’t fooled. Genuine unity is never found by lowering the standard of truth. It is found by all of us submitting to it.

Divisions have plagued the church from the beginning. That won’t change until we who are the church change, or until Jesus returns. Until then, we can be the kind of Christians who are growing in the knowledge of the Son of God, intent on one purpose, walking humbly with each other, and operating every day from love and thankfulness. That’s how the one body starts to look like one body.

Christ is worthy of more than our divisions. Read and believe.

Related Questions

Is it a sin to belong to a denomination?
No. Belonging to a denomination is not a sin, and separating from false teaching is commanded (Romans 16:17). Denominational membership becomes sinful when it is rooted in pride, party loyalty, or contempt for other believers who hold the same gospel (1 Corinthians 1:10–13; 3:3–4).

How do I know if a group is a cult or a Christian denomination?
Test the gospel, not the name. A Christian denomination affirms that Jesus is the eternal Son of God who died for sins and rose again, and that sinners are saved by grace through faith in Him. A group that redefines Jesus, adds conditions to salvation, or claims to be the only true church fails.

Are non-denominational churches really non-denominational?
No. Non-denominational churches share no formal affiliation, but they typically share a recognizable model of worship, leadership, and growth. That model is itself a tradition. The label communicates a great deal; it simply avoids saying so.