When I accepted Christ back

into my life and came back into the Church five years ago, I often wondered

what made a person go to one church over another. Why do some go to the

Presbyterian Church down the road, while others go to the Baptist, while

still others go to the Methodist? Why such division among Christians?

I started asking myself some

tough questions and found some tough questions and found some tough answers.

I wanted to know how the first Apostles worshiped and how those who studied

under them worshiped before the Bible was even compiled. I figured there

cannot be a better way to find a church than to study the earliest of

Christians, ones who walked with Jesus and those who followed his resurrection.

I don't think Jesus intended

for there to be over 30,000 different denominations (a figure I have heard

quoted several times) which increasingly divides Christians across the

world. The problem as I see it [is] we have so many self-proclaimed Christians

in the modern world seeking to find a church to fit their own beliefs,

instead of a church where through self-sacrifice and faith we have to

conform to the teachings established by Christ himself.

I researched a few churches

mentioned by the Rev. Epps wondering when they were formed and why. The

original Presbyterian Church originated between 1534 and 1560, but the

Presbyterian Church in America came into existence in 1974 while the Presbyterian

Church (USA) established itself in 1983. Why? The different splits are

much more complicated, but often centered on liberal versus conservative

issues. I found myself asking, "Is this the way John Calvin envisioned

the growth of his Presbyterian Church?"

I found the Pentecostal Free-Will

Baptist Church which came into existence in 1959, while the International

Pentecostal Church of Christ was established in 1976. Then we have the

International Pentecostal Holiness Church which was founded many years

earlier in 1898. Again, the subtle differences in worship and theological

beliefs keeps the division growing. Still I ask why?

It is evident to me Christ

made it abundantly clear through scripture the establishment of one Church,

established by Him.