Christian Unity and Denominations

Does Jesus approve of the fact that there are so many Christian denominations, full of his followers who claim theirs is the correct way of following Him? One thing is for sure, Jesus did not create denominations. In fact, he probably really wanted to avoid the splintering of his future disciples into so many different groups. There are over 40,000 Christian denominations today! That could not have been the way Jesus wanted his bride to be split up. If you read his amazing prayer to the Holy Father in John 17, you will notice that Jesus thought that our "complete unity" as followers of Jesus will be an important witness to the world that Jesus was really sent by God. In fact, if you read the passage closely, Jesus seems to already know that there will be many different denominations of his followers in the future. That's why he says, "may they (those believe in the future) be brought to complete unity."

John 17:11,20-23
"Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name—the name you gave me—so that they may be one as we are one. ... "My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

You should really read the whole chapter 17 in John. It is very deep and powerful:

English - http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=john%2017&version=31
Russian - http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=john%2017;&version=13;
New Russian - http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=john%2017;&version=39;

Apostle Paul also very much wanted to avoid the natural human splitting inside of churches because church members prefer the teaching of one Christian teacher or another. Apostle Paul specifically said, "Do not say I am Paul's or I am

While I think that the rise of many denominations was often a healthy development in history, it is not the ideal that Jesus is looking for. The trouble with us humans is that once we form a particular church or a denomination, over the period of decades and centuries we also form lots and lots of human traditions that have very little or nothing to do with the Bible or Jesus. And if this process is not kept in check by constant reformation and return back to the Bible, these traditions will keep growing and growing until they become more important than the Bible itself. (You can even see this in Baptist churches.) For example, in the doctrine of the Catholic Church, the Tradition of the Church is considered just as important as the Bible. They say you cannot consider the Bible without the huge tradition they have built up over many centuries, in fact making human tradition more important than the Word of God. (Which is exactly what Jesus warned against many times!) So, what Martin Luther, Jan Hus, John Calvin, and many others did in the Reformation, was a very healthy development. They tried to bring the Church back to the Bible as a true source of our faith and Jesus as the true Head of the Church, not the Pope.

So, the Reformation was a very positive development. But the trouble with the Reformation is that the people who followed these leaders decided to form their own denominations and these denominations were even called by the names of these leaders. So, you have the Lutheran denominations that started from followers of Luther. (Even though Luther explicitly asked them to reform the existing church instead of starting their own denomination.) You have the Jan Hus denomination that was started by his followers in Bohemia (Czech Republic today). You have an entire Calvinist movement consisting of many denominations (Reformed, Presbyterian, etc.) that was started by John Calvin. So, the reality is that many denominations were started by one single man and are sustained by his name and his teaching. And while the teaching of these leaders may have been much better than the heresies that the Catholic Church offered, it is still not the real thing, which we should seek only in the Bible. The same thing goes for many contemporary charismatic churches that were founded by one man and are sometimes even called by his name. Our Church can only be called the Church of Jesus, not the Church of Luther, the Church of Calvin, or the Church of any other human leader, because the church cannot be anybody's property. It belongs only to Jesus the Messiah.