Dear Conrad -- What good are denominations? Shouldn't we just believe the Bible?

Here’s a quote I’ve heard millions of times, "I don’t believe in denominations, I just believe the Bible."

On the surface nothing seems wrong with this thinking. Of course we should believe the Bible. But this quote is entirely dangerous.

This statement assumes that when we read the Bible we can come to a completely accurate reading of the Bible, as a mathematics book. There is no interpretation in 2+2=4. But what happens when you’re talking about a passage like, "women should remain silent in the churches" (1 Cor 14:35)?

If we can read a passage like this objectively, then why do we and other reasonable Christians have such huge differences of interpretation of what that verse means and how it’s applied?

It’s because we as sinful human beings are not God. We don’t read these passages as God does, from an all-knowing, righteous standpoint. We read it from a sinful, ignorant standpoint.

Therefore when we read a passage, we merely come up with our own interpretation. And if we say "I don’t believe in denominations, I just believe the Bible", we are actually saying, "I don’t believe in subjective interpretations, I just believe in my objective interpretation of the Bible." And since we are not God and cannot have an objective interpretation of the Bible - we can further restate this sentence to say, "I don’t believe in subjective interpretations, I just believe in my subjective interpretation of the Bible."

We have just made our interpretation of the Bible on the same level as the Bible. We have just elevated our own sinful, incomplete interpretation up to a God-like level. And that prideful stance is one I don’t think any of us want to be in.

What should we then do?

We should understand that our sinful nature prevents us from having a completely objective view of the Bible. This leads us to a stance of humility - where we realize that we know very little of the grandness of God and his Word.

This leads us to study the Bible more so that our interpretation of the Bible is as close to being correct as possible.

This should also cause us to take more seriously other people’s interpretations such as historical church fathers, pastors and teachers, for they most likely have studied the Scriptures more than we (who barely even read our Bibles).

While we don’t make our minds empty bowls waiting to be filled by whatever comes along - we prayerfully and carefully take these views and line it up with the Bible with help from the Holy Spirit.

We must also realize that even with the help of the Holy Spirit, our sinful nature clouds our hearts hindering us from understand the Bible as God does.

Let us not be prideful of our knowledge, but humble in our lack of knowledge. Let us study the Bible so that our interpretation, and application, of God’s Word is as Biblical possible.

"Be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will… Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you." (Rom 12:2-3).