These types of scenarios remind me of the people in the early church who would proclaim "I am of Paul" or "I am of Appollos" (Heard a great message this week pertaining to this same idea).
On one hand I find nothing wrong with creating new organizations, on the other, it is a shame that they are usually formed out of dissension and strife between
opposing parties. When one organization is restricted in fellowship with another, the body of Christ seems to be less compacted, less fitly joined together. A split in opinion is one thing, a split in fellowship is another. (I am sure that there are examples of organizational splits that were for the good, such as one organization held a belief that was found to contradict
plainly stated scripture and refused to change, and making that change was a salvation issue as clearly depicted, word for word in the bible.)
If I had three hands, I would also say, on the other, other hand
, I don't like the idea of organizations at all. But as I can come up with no better way to keep things going without organizations, I must tolerate them. (In my opinion, organizations are inherently doomed to failure, or more precisely, erosion of effectiveness. )
Since I have time, I might as well spend some of it on an explanation. I'll keep it short and simple. All organizations start out with a person or persons with good intentions and some degree of new found truth (or in some cases new found error, but we won't go there today). When that person or persons pass on, the organization is handed over to the next generation who may not hold all of the original intentions of the founder(s). Eventually the organization becomes a symbol of what it was once intended to be. The leaders erect "walls" around their founder's beliefs to ensure no other outside "incorrect" doctrines pollute their original founders standard. Having erected these "walls", further truth revealed by God to a new generation has a much harder time being brought to light in said organization because of said organization's pre-erected "walls". When a further truth is discovered, dissension in the name of preserving the founder's beliefs arise, inevitably causing division/splits. This is the pattern.
If we do not know God fully, in every aspect, seeing as we "see through a glass darkly", how can we profess to be the end all to be all? How can we say, "what this organization established years ago is what we believe, here are our articles, there is nothing more"? God will always reveal new truths, or at least new to us, for we have no idea how much we may have lost since the early church under the original 12 apostles. (We have God's preserved word, but we may not have all of the understanding that the early church had concerning God's preserved word. If we did have such understanding preserved, there would not be Oneness vs. Trinity today.)
As I said earlier, I have no better alternative to organizations, so I tolerate them. But I do expect splits once in a while, since that is the pattern. But, knowing that these splits are going to happen is kind of like legal spiritual "inside trading", lol. Since we know they are going to happen, and that they are most likely happening because of 1) a new truth has been revealed, or 2) a new deceit is on the loose, just knowing that one of these two options are taking place gives us a wake up call to pay close attention and TRULY consider both sides of the argument, comparing both to scripture, not just follow inbred loyalties. Some people just stick where they are because they like tradition, others leave where they are due to spite, but some of us see what is happening and take this opportunity to either dodge a false doctrine or gain a new revelation!
So, to make a long story longer, I may not exactly
like organizations, but lacking a better alternative, I can adapt to them and use their weaknesses to my advantage, as can all of us who truly seek God and not seek to uphold tradition for tradition's sake.
(On another side, side, side note [lol], I usually don't give
this type of opinion, since it really doesn't focus on the word of God, but you have all been most kind so far, I feel I might survive giving out an off the cuff thought
)
God Bless
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