The Fallacy of Denominational Division

The Fallacy of Denominational Division (Catholicism)

Protestants and Catholics all started out centered on God's love and sewing God as the ultimate object of their faith. Thus, it is based on a serious fallacy that Protestants and Catholics have split up, each of them having further divided into many denominations and factions. Their divisions are based on differences in how they see faith, life, and the universe in light of the words of Jesus. However, do they not all serve the one and only God, and do their fundamental views not affirm, rather than deny, the existence of God?

From God's point of view, our talk of Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Protestantism, Presbyterianism, Baptism, etc. is simply silly. This division between religious denominations is outrageous to God, as He sees all humanity identically as His children. Here, I would like to introduce the opinion of another priest. He researched the reality of sectarian division, and raised many theological questions on many levels about this problem.

Besides Protestantism and Catholicism, there are myriads of other religions. Are the Gods they serve different from one another, or do they all represent one and the same God? Why do human beings seek God and yearn for and wonder about the other world? What is the nature of God and the original human nature, and how do these natures differ? He anguished over these issues for long time.

Every country has an array of different religions, and yet they all ultimately pursue goodness and the formation of one human community. This suggests that religion is essential and indispensable for human life, and we can never make light of the impact it has on our life. Then, where does religious desire come from, and why is it that we never manage to leave our religiosity behind? Where does human religiosity come from? Why do we yearn for and seek to lean on God? If people do not rely on absolute God, they still try to rely on some being: bowing down, for instance, before the sea, a river, or a tree and try to lay the burdens of their lives at the foot of some god. Where does this kind of nature come from?

Notwithstanding our constant desire to be perfect, why is it that we cannot but live as an imperfect creature? Why is it that we cannot determine the matters concerning our life and death? And why do most people live each day in anxiety and insecurity about an uncertain tomorrow?

These were the questions that troubled this priest. According to him, he took the path of religion because he felt that he could not live normally and have a family while anguishing over these questions. Even throughout his lifelong religious life, however, he still could not find a fundamental solution to the problems of human reality. "How can we say that God exists, when we cannot even see Him or talk to Him comfortably?" he asked. Although he had many doubts about life during his religious pursuit, he could not abandon religion. This was his life on earth.

Although he concluded his earthly life through religion and came to the spiritual world, his doubts still lingered. What he has realized clearly here, however, is that in the spiritual world, the different religions may serve their own founder, but the Gods they used to serve on earth are nowhere to be seen - their only object of faith is the one God.

One day, someone was giving a lecture to a large crowd. The lecturer spoke passionately, saying, "There is no God for us, but only we ourselves." All of a sudden, however, the whole area turned dark, and thunder and lightning struck, together with a whirlwind. After a while, the darkness left, and a brilliant light appeared and a thundering voice could be heard, which said, "I, Jehovah, am the Creator of all humankind. With no beginning or end, there is only one Jehovah." All the people there were trembling, and the impassioned lecturer had already disappeared.

What he realized through this experience was that, although there are many different religions and denominations, their only differences are in their method of serving God, and there is for all of us only one God, Jehovah, the God of all people. There, finally, he could completely put behind him the doubts he had had all his life and start concentrating only on sewing God. He said that he wanted to confidently convey to all the religious seekers wondering and agonizing like him that there is only one ultimate object of our faith. He claimed that the denominational divisions on earth have sprung from wrong human thinking, and that if all humanity served the one God only, sectarian schisms would not occur. In conclusion, he stressed that God can rest easy only when the multifarious religions become unified, and that the peace of humankind will be realized only when we serve no one but the one God.

May 11, 2000