In the last days, before Christ’s second coming, will he unite his people who are divided into many church denominations into one body of his bride?<\/p>\n\t
There is no passage in the New Testament that states Jesus has ever accepted the concept of denominations. Instead, Jesus’ prayer was, “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me<\/em>” (John 17:20-21).<\/p>\n When the Corinthians began dividing among themselves, Paul scolded them. “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?<\/em>” (I Corinthians 1:10-13). There have never been multiple beliefs or multiple churches. Only one has ever existed. “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). Either a person is a part of that one body or he is not.<\/p>\n When Jesus’ return, it announces the end of the world. There is no other age beyond this one. “But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ’s at His coming. Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet<\/em>” (I Corinthians 15:23-25). The Bible does not teach that Christ will be reigning but that he is reigning and will continue to reign until death is conquered. At Jesus’ return, all rule, authority, and power come to an end. The very world will end. “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up<\/em>” (II Peter 3:10).<\/p>\n Therefore, no Jesus isn’t coming to unite his people. He gave the command that they are to remain united and when he returns it will be to bring judgment on those who failed to follow his commands. That is why Jesus warned, “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it<\/em>” (Matthew 7:13-14).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Question: In the last days, before Christ’s second coming, will he unite his people who are divided into many church denominations into one body of his bride? Answer: There is no passage in the New Testament that states Jesus has ever accepted the concept of denominations. Instead, Jesus’ prayer was, “I do not pray for…<\/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,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[300,339],"class_list":["post-19764","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-denominations","tag-second-coming"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":42577,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/isnt-it-divisive-to-claim-all-denominations-are-wrong\/","url_meta":{"origin":19764,"position":0},"title":"Isn’t it divisive to claim all denominations are wrong?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 17, 2001","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I just read the article about why you left the Nazarene denomination. On the latter point of baptism, I will not comment now, but I think your first listed reason is a rational mistake. You said, \"yet the Nazarene Church exists, as does any denomination, because man disregards the\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":1234,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-are-there-different-denominations\/","url_meta":{"origin":19764,"position":1},"title":"Why are there different denominations?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 2, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Why are there different denominations between Christians? Answer: A denomination is a division and, yes, among those calling themselves \"Christian\" there are a great many divisions. Even among a particular denomination, there are divisions as evidenced by the Episcopals' arguments over their homosexual bishop, the United Methodists' arguments 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":87294,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/are-all-denominations-false\/","url_meta":{"origin":19764,"position":2},"title":"Are all denominations false?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 28, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Are all denominations false? Did Jesus ever command anyone to create denominations? To me, it seems that denominations are man-made religions, not something the Lord initiated. I don't believe God leads people to follow a particular denomination or to find their identity in one. Many people proudly call themselves\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":29965,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/god-is-not-the-author-of-confusion\/","url_meta":{"origin":19764,"position":3},"title":"God Is NOT the Author of Confusion","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 10, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jefferson David Tant To authenticate the title, consider its source. Paul wrote in I Corinthians 14:33: \"for God is not a God of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints.\" There are two significant points made. God is not the author of the confusion\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"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":19764,"position":4},"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":45045,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/everyone-worships-differently-but-does-it-matter-if-we-are-all-worshiping-christ\/","url_meta":{"origin":19764,"position":5},"title":"Everyone worships differently, but does it matter if we are all worshiping Christ?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 8, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have one question that concerns me: There are many Christian denominations or groups such as Orthodox, Protestantism, Catholic, Baptist, etc. Each one of those denominations or churches has its own practices and symbols. Ones who have the cross without Jesus, ones who have the cross with Jesus, ones\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\/19764","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=19764"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19764\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}