Hi!<\/p>\n
I\u2019m also Christian (Pentecostal). I\u2019m just wondering what type of Christian are you? If you don\u2019t mind me asking, because I\u2019m aware of all of the different Christianity out there, like Methodist, Liberal, Baptist, etc.<\/p>\n
By the way, I like your website.<\/p>\n\t
The Bible only speaks of one church, the one founded by Christ (Matthews 16:18) and it speaks of only one faith. “There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all<\/em>” (Ephesians 4:4-6). In order for there to be a “type” of Christian, something beyond the Bible must define the “type.” If everyone stayed solely with the Bible, there would only be Christians. This is why you find various denominations issuing “statements of faith” and “creeds.” These documents define what that particular denomination believes and attempts to distinguish it from other denominations.<\/p>\n But no matter how you look at it, a statement of faith is always going to hold, at best, a short summary of what the Bible teaches. In other words, every statement of faith and every creed contains less than what the Bible contains. Yet God warned Israel, “Whatever I command you, be careful to observe it; you shall not add to it nor take away from it<\/em>” (Deuteronomy 12:32). And John warned Christians, “For I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book; and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the Book of Life, from the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book<\/em>” (Revelation 22:18-19).<\/p>\n God knew exactly what He was doing when He had the Bible written. It contains exactly what He wanted His people to know. That is why there are harsh words regarding any modification to it. “I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel, which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed. For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ<\/em>” (Galatians 1:6-10).<\/p>\n You don’t find early Christians calling themselves Pentecostals, Methodists, Lutherans, Catholics, Baptist, Anglican, or any of the thousands of other descriptors people have attached to the name Christian. In fact, it was specifically condemned. “Now I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. For it has been declared to me concerning you, my brethren, by those of Chloe’s household, that there are contentions among you. Now I say this, that each of you says, “I am of Paul,” or “I am of Apollos,” or “I am of Cephas,” or “I am of Christ.” Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?<\/em>” (I Corinthians 1:10-13).<\/p>\n Since it is wrong to divide Christ and His church, we refuse to do so ourselves. We only refer to ourselves as Christians. Our only statement of faith is the Bible.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Question: Hi! I\u2019m also Christian (Pentecostal). I\u2019m just wondering what type of Christian are you? If you don\u2019t mind me asking, because I\u2019m aware of all of the different Christianity out there, like Methodist, Liberal, Baptist, etc. By the way, I like your website. Answer: The Bible only speaks of one church, the one founded…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[300],"class_list":["post-10887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-denominations"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":27246,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-about-the-fellowship-of-christian-athletes\/","url_meta":{"origin":10887,"position":0},"title":"What about the Fellowship of Christian Athletes?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 15, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I was wondering if you could write something on the FCA?\u00a0 Fellowship of Christian Athletes. To me, this is an organization similar to the Promise Keepers. Both of my sons have turned down offers of membership for scriptural reasons.\u00a0 First and foremost it's a fellowship of denominations. I've looked\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":28186,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-do-you-list-cults-among-the-denominations\/","url_meta":{"origin":10887,"position":1},"title":"Why do you list cults among the denominations?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 26, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have just viewed your web site, and once again have seen cults included in a listing of Christian denominations.\u00a0 I fail to understand why church of Christ folk do this.\u00a0 I have emailed a few different ones, asking for an answer, but no one seems to want to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":24961,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/have-you-heard-of-the-christian-and-missionary-alliance\/","url_meta":{"origin":10887,"position":2},"title":"Have you heard of the Christian and Missionary Alliance?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 11, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I respect and appreciate your spiritual and professional opinions and thank you all very much for your hard work. Have you ever heard of the C&MA -- Christian and Missionary Alliance? Answer: The Christian and Missionary Alliance started in the late 1800s as two societies dedicated to spreading Christianity.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":36100,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/your-article-on-christian-liberty-was-very-good\/","url_meta":{"origin":10887,"position":3},"title":"Your article on Christian liberty was very good","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 12, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Dear Brother Hamilton, Thank you for your article on \"Finding Liberty in Silence.\"\u00a0 It was very good. I have been searching for articles and lessons on the topic of Christian liberty because recently I have encountered a few brethren who have commented to me that \"we have Christian liberty\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":36815,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-there-any-certain-prayer-of-forgiveness-for-fornication\/","url_meta":{"origin":10887,"position":4},"title":"Is there any certain prayer of forgiveness for fornication?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 28, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi, I'm a Catholic. I'm in need of advice! I've committed fornication with a girl I'm in a relationship with! I prayed to God for forgiveness! Is there any certain prayer of forgiveness to pray for the sinful acts I've done? I don't want to turn my back on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":18421,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-a-christian-serve-as-a-military-chaplain\/","url_meta":{"origin":10887,"position":5},"title":"Can a Christian serve as a military chaplain?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 16, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I am really curious about your thoughts on one being a military chaplain.\u00a0Can one morally make that decision? There is a lot of pluralism in the military. I'm wondering if you are aware of the conflicts of people in the past. Answer: I don't know of the conflicts in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10887"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10887\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}