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It is said that there are 43,000 or so denominations of Christianity and every one of them is engaged in the promotion of their particular denominational teachings through the philosophy of their foundational spiritual leader, or spiritual concept, placing that leader or concept before the Messiah (Christ). This article will encourage believers to become independent of denominationalism, to identify themselves through declared faith in Yeshua Messiah (Jesus Christ), and to worship God in spirit and truth.

EXODUS 20:2-3; DEUTERONOMY 5:7 (NKJV):
I am YHWH (the Lord) your God … You shall have no other gods before Me.

When believers declare themselves hyphenated-Christians, they are putting their messenger or concept before God. They are having their ‘god’ before God.

Many would object to the notion that they are having their spiritual leader, or concept, as ‘a god’ before God in violation of the First Commandment.

PSALM 82:6 (NKJV):
I said, “You are gods, and all of you are children of the Most High.”

JOHN 10:34 (NKJV):
Yeshua (Jesus) answered them, “Is it not written in your law, ‘I said, “You are gods?”’

We are made in the image and likeness of God (Genesis 1:26). Yeshua (Jesus) said that we are gods. We are not all-powerful, almighty Gods; we are God’s children, created gods who share certain likenesses with God. Yeshua (Jesus) refers to mankind, His creation made in His likeness and image, as gods. There are no other supernatural gods besides God and man-made idols are not gods. Denominational hyphenated-Christians, who declare their Christian faith through their spiritual leader or concept before Messiah (Christ), are breaking the First Commandment by having another god before God. Even if believers think that they are placing their messenger or concept before God, and not necessarily ‘a god’ before God, they are still putting a man or an idea before God. Gay-Christians, for example, declare, honor, and prioritize their sin before God, placing their sin before the Messiah (Christ).

JOHN 3:30 (NKJV):
“He must increase, but I must decrease.”
– John the Baptist

John the Baptist has increased with some before Yeshua (Jesus). Believers who are Baptist-Christians, who refer to themselves as ‘Baptists,’ are disobeying John the Baptist’s testimony that Messiah (Christ) must increase and he (John the Baptist) must decrease. Baptists are declaring faith in the messenger crying in the wilderness, placing him before the Messiah (Christ).

JOSHUA 24:15 (NKJV):
As for me and my house, we will serve YHWH (the Lord).

Believers who refer to themselves as Calvinists, Lutherans, Mennonites, Wesleyans, or any other denominational faith named after a spiritual leader, are honoring their messenger before the Messiah (Christ). Is faith in John Calvin, Martin Luther, Menno Simmons, and John Wesley to be declared before, or in place of, pronounced faith in Yeshua Messiah (Jesus Christ)?

Believers who refer to themselves as Anglicans, Catholics, Episcopalians, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Methodists, Mormons, Pentecostals, Presbyterians, Protestants, or any other denominational faith named after a concept or tradition, are honoring their concept or tradition before the Messiah (Christ). Is faith in the Anglican Church of England, the Universal Catholic Church, the Episcopalian American Protestant-Catholic Church, the witnesses of Jehovah (instead of Jehovah), Methodism, Mormonism, Pentecostalism, Presbyterianism, and Protestantism (protesting Catholics) to be declared before, or in place of, pronounced faith in Yeshua Messiah (Jesus Christ)? Pentecost is the festival celebrating the descent of the Holy Spirit on the disciples of Yeshua (Jesus) after His Ascension. Pentecostals have placed a festival of God, which celebrates an event, before God.

WHAT SHOULD BELIEVERS CALL THEMSELVES?

If it were to be suggested that believers who agree with the teachings and writings of George Lujack should henceforth proclaim themselves to be ‘Lujackarians,’ this would rightly be criticized and rejected as giving undue honor, praise, and worship to a messenger of God in place of the Messiah (Christ). Yet many people do exactly that with other messengers when they declare themselves to be Baptists, Calvinists, Lutherans, Mennonites, and Wesleyans, giving undue honor, praise, and worship to these messengers of God in place of Messiah (Christ).

ACTS 11:26 (NKJV):
And the disciples were first called Messianics (Christians) in Antioch.

ACTS 26:28 (NKJV):
Then Agrippa said to Paul, “You almost persuade me to become a Messianic (Christian).”

1 PETER 4:16 (NKJV):
Yet if anyone suffers as a Messianic (Christian), let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in this matter.

There are no hyphenated-Christians in Scripture. Believers in Yeshua Messiah (Jesus Christ) should simply declare themselves to be Messianics or Christians. If pressed to be more specific, believers should claim to be non-denominational, Scripture-believing Messianics or Christians. Believers should not place a messenger, concept, festival, or tradition as a hyphenated declared faith before the Messiah (Christ).

1 CORINTHIANS 1:11-15 (NKJV):
For it has been declared to me concerning you, my brethren, by those of Chloe’s household, that there are contentions among you. Now I say this, that each of you says, “I am of Paul,” or “I am of Apollos,” or “I am of Cephas,” or “I am of Messiah (Christ).” Is Messiah (Christ) divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?
I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, lest anyone should say that I had baptized in my own name.

The Apostle Paul rebuked sharply those who called themselves by his name. He made it perfectly clear that he didn’t want to have anyone saying that they were ‘of Paul,’ but instead that they were ‘of Messiah (Christ).’

1 CORINTHIANS 1:17 (NKJV):
For Messiah (Christ) did not send me to baptize, BUT TO PREACH THE GOSPEL, NOT WITH WISDOM OF WORDS, lest the cross of Messiah (Christ) should be made of no effect.

Paul emphasized that it was not his wisdom of words that should be praised, but rather Messiah (Christ) should be praised who sent him to preach the gospel.

JOHN 4:25 (NKJV):
The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ).

Believers in Yeshua Messiah (Jesus Christ) were first called by the Hebraic term ‘Messianics’ and later on by the Greek Hellenized term ‘Christians,’ as the Gentiles separated and distinguished themselves from the Jews who rejected Messiah.

EXODUS 34:14 (NKJV):
For you shall worship no other god, for YHWH (the Lord), whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.

DENOMINATIONALISM: VARIOUS WINDS OF DOCTRINE

denomination:
A recognized autonomous branch of the Christian Church.[1]

denomination synonyms:
sect, church, cult, faith community, body, persuasion, religious persuasion.

EPHESIANS 4:14-15 (NKJV):
We should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head -Messiah- (-Christ-).

Believers must worship God in spirit and in truth (John 4:24), not in groupthink lockstep through the unscriptural denominational teachings of any messenger. Believers in Yeshua Messiah (Jesus Christ) must call themselves by His name, not by the name of His messengers, His festivals, concepts, or traditions.

Do not put anything or any person before God. God is a jealous God and one of His names is Jealous. Do not make God jealous!

1. ‘Denomination,’Oxford Dictionaries, © Oxford University Press, 2016,<http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/denomination>.