It’s astonishing! More than 40,000 separate schisms call themselves “Christian”. A few are several hundred years old. Most began within the past hundred years. Some began yesterday. Other, last week. More began in the past month. Where do they come from?
Many associate pastors want their own churches. They are on the lookout for opportunities to form their own congregations. Many dream of going national, the way the old, Mainline Protestant franchises did.
Others fantasize about having their own Mega-Church. Having hundreds of volunteers, ten acre parking lots, big screen amphitheaters, thousands involved in “Outreach Ministries”, and vast cash flows drive such dreams.
Some build up cash flows in their schisms by separating Hispanics from The Catholic Church. They use the same marketing approaches that earlier schismatic marketers used to draw Italian, Polish, and other Catholic Europeans into their own denominations.
Inventing a schism begins with identifying a group with cash. “There are no Christian Vegetarian Churches.”, some bright, young assistant pastor might notice. “I have heard the call. I will begin The Christian Vegetarian Church. We will treat our animal brothers and sisters as God intended.”
If successful, he will soon have franchise operations in large cities. An ambitious assistant pastors will notice: “There is a hole in our marketing plan. We do not address the concerns of those who will not wear shoes or belts of leather. My own marketing studies have shown that there is room for The Pure Christian Vegetarian Church. I have heard the call.”
Amazingly, when schismatic ministers describe making more money with “I have heard the call.”, no one snickers.
The inventors of all schisms fail twice. First, they do fail to have Jesus appear to them, saying “Thou art _______ and on this rock I build My Church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”
Those who invent schisms fail twice. The second failure? They are never put to death by those who hate love and truth. In fact, the world encourages their efforts because the world does not want love and truth concentrated in one denomination that might interfere with satisfying their own great vanities.
Those who associate themselves with such schisms do not seem to notice that God does not maintain schisms. They change basic teachings to follow social fads. Why do people join and stay in such transient “churches”?
Those in schisms do not understand a most unpleasant fact. The Garden is self-weeding.
