Jackie Kaulitz
Puritan Board Freshman
After reading about how the church government structure contributed to the Congregational Calvinists falling away and completely losing their Calvinism, I've begun to wonder even more than before about the dangers of Non-Denominationalism. Is this one-pastor show (elders are often rendered useless in a corrupt church) very similar to a Congregational government structure? I'm very lay in church government but would love to hear about similarities/dissimilarities.
I've also noticed ALL Word Faith cult teachers on tv (who got kicked out of the Assemblies of God denomination) have all gone "non-denominational". It's as if no denomination would accept their false teachings, so now they claim the title "non-denominational", which really means "so false that no one would accept their teachings." People like this use the "Non-Denominational" title to claim "We teach the Bible and aren't corrupt like those denominations" "We reject all labels" and these terms have become "cool" in our society today. But really it's a label used to slip in private and false teachings.
Is Non-Denominational almost a pointless title? Doesn't it mean "this pastor doesn't want to be held accoutable and wants to teach HIS OWN PERSONAL interpretation of the Bible?" I see similarities between this and the Congregationalists. I also noticed that almost no one is truly non-denominational. Almost all Non-Denominational churches I know are either Sovereign Grace Baptists (in their theology) or Dispenational Arminian Baptists (in their theology). Yet they hide under this "I reject labels" title because it gives them the freedom to accept Christians of ALL denominations (Arminian and Calvinistic), which actually leads to church splits. From my limited experience with two of these Calvinistic Non-D churches, they were both closet Calvinists and ended up watering down their teachings and actually teaching mostly Arminianism plus the 5 points. How can a Calvinistic church hide its Calvinism without losing all its Calvinism in the end/down the road? Or is it practically inevitable that they'll all go down the path of the Congregationalist Calvinists and be swallowed up in Arminianism?
If there are ANY good reasons for non-denominationalism, I am eager to learn.
From what I've gathered, non-denominationalism is counter to our Reformed Confessions. Should a Reformed believer continue in such a church? How important is this?
I've also noticed ALL Word Faith cult teachers on tv (who got kicked out of the Assemblies of God denomination) have all gone "non-denominational". It's as if no denomination would accept their false teachings, so now they claim the title "non-denominational", which really means "so false that no one would accept their teachings." People like this use the "Non-Denominational" title to claim "We teach the Bible and aren't corrupt like those denominations" "We reject all labels" and these terms have become "cool" in our society today. But really it's a label used to slip in private and false teachings.
Is Non-Denominational almost a pointless title? Doesn't it mean "this pastor doesn't want to be held accoutable and wants to teach HIS OWN PERSONAL interpretation of the Bible?" I see similarities between this and the Congregationalists. I also noticed that almost no one is truly non-denominational. Almost all Non-Denominational churches I know are either Sovereign Grace Baptists (in their theology) or Dispenational Arminian Baptists (in their theology). Yet they hide under this "I reject labels" title because it gives them the freedom to accept Christians of ALL denominations (Arminian and Calvinistic), which actually leads to church splits. From my limited experience with two of these Calvinistic Non-D churches, they were both closet Calvinists and ended up watering down their teachings and actually teaching mostly Arminianism plus the 5 points. How can a Calvinistic church hide its Calvinism without losing all its Calvinism in the end/down the road? Or is it practically inevitable that they'll all go down the path of the Congregationalist Calvinists and be swallowed up in Arminianism?
If there are ANY good reasons for non-denominationalism, I am eager to learn.
From what I've gathered, non-denominationalism is counter to our Reformed Confessions. Should a Reformed believer continue in such a church? How important is this?
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