Transcription
Is there one denomination that you find to be the most correct, the most true? Um, if there is, which one is it? And if there isn't, why do you believe denominations are not correct?
I don't uh associate with any specific denomination. This is Nicholas Bowling. He's a non-denominational Protestant pastor. Non-denominational Protestants mostly hold to Baptist theology and don't like to get tied down by confessional standards, church councils, or institutional conformity. And this creates a catastrophic problem when it comes to Christian unity. In this video, he will have a discussion with a young Catholic student. Let's see how that goes.
Uh, just a Christian.
First off, we don't see any of those denominational names. We don't see Catholic or Baptist or Methodist or Episcopal. We just see disciples of Christ or then in Antioch, the disciples were first called Christians. We do see in the scriptures, Paul comes in, he's speaking to one of the churches and he says, "Some of you say you're of Paul, some of you say you're of Apollos." Now notice, St. Paul is talking to other members of the church he is in. The issue they are dealing with is boasting over who they received baptism from. They're all part of the same church and that church is throughout all, meaning universal or Catholic, as seen in Acts chapter 9 verse 31. But is Christ divided? He said, "No, we're all of Christ."
There are no divisions in the body of Christ and often times what denominations do, if you look into the word, it's almost division or like sects, s e c t s. We've got the Pharisees, we've got Sadducees, those were Jewish sects. And now there's a lot of Christian sects that are out there. Uh, but ultimately, I think they just create division and I think often times they can create pride.
Now think about this. Every non-denominational Protestant congregation creates division, especially due to the fact that they have little to no formal agreements with each other. Any random person could start his own non-denominational sect by going on social media and making himself a pastor. Then, when his followers disagree with him on theology or discipline, another non-denominational sect can be born. This is similar to what happens in charismatic congregations in South Africa, and it's what I like to call the final stages of Protestantism. No confessional standards needed. No church councils, just feelings combined with personal interpretation of scripture, and often a pseudo-celebrity pastor. Saying non-denominational doesn't solve any problems here. It only creates more. Because people say, "Oh, I'm this." or "I'm that." and then I'm not willing to let go of any of our doctrine, of any of our core beliefs because I'm this or I'm that. And therefore, people don't open up to the truth, they don't humble themselves, and where some people are wrong, they don't receive the correction that they need even from the Lord and from the Holy Spirit. If there's division or disagreement within the church, you ought to submit to the authorities within that institution.
The issue Nicholas Bowling brings up here, the division he's concerned about, happens constantly in non-denominational congregations. In America alone, there are over 20 million non-denominational Protestants separated into over 40,000 separate congregations. They are the fastest dividing Protestant sect in the world today. To where they can just come in the unity and really follow Christ. You said there's no denominations within the scriptures. Can I ask you, where did the scriptures initially come from then? Where did the initial the scriptures come from? When were the scriptures united? I get that there are writers and authors and stuff, but when and where were these scriptures officially united into the Holy Bible?
I love when Catholics bring up this question because objectively speaking, it was the Catholic Church that compiled and canonized the Bible. Even the list of books floating around were primarily circulating among Catholic bishops. That's a great question. There was a time where the canonization of the scriptures, where they came up with the canon of the Bible. But ultimately, the Bible reveals to us that prophecies of scripture were given by inspiration of God. People who are moved by God, moved by the Holy Spirit, they actually wrote the scriptures. And there are many different authors of the many different books.
Notice, Nicholas Bowling is avoiding the question. The best question to ask him right now, in my opinion, would be that if we believe the church that canonized and compiled the Bible was guided by the Holy Spirit. But let's see what happens.
that we have. When did that happen? As far as them being compiled, or people coming together, and I believe under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, everything has to go back to is God in this? Is God leading this? Is this wisdom from God? The Bible says God alone is wise. And if any man lacks wisdom, let him ask. So, God can give wisdom to men on exactly the books that he wants his children to have. This is fantastic. Nicholas seems to believe that the early Catholic Church was in fact guided by the Holy Spirit. And that's why you can trust the Bible.
even on this earth, even in modern day times, God can lead us to the exact scriptures that were inspired by him, that he desires for us to have.
Now, I believe God could do that. But the fact is he already did, and only with the Catholic Church. Nicholas isn't relying on the witness of non-denominational congregations here. He's relying on the witness of the Holy Catholic Church. You didn't actually answer the question. The Holy Spirit is the one who united the scriptures, but I was asking specifically when and where were the scriptures united. The The Holy Scriptures were written by the influence of the Holy Spirit, all the way from Genesis to Revelation. The Holy Scriptures were created and united to help and benefit Christianity. But as you can see, even in the Bible, there is never a set scripture to follow. Wool is 100% right here to call him out. Nicholas avoided giving a direct answer and went on a tangent.