19 Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, 22 in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit. (Ephesians 2:19–22, NKJV)
Zealously justifying division into hundreds and hundreds of different churches with opposing doctrines, worship practices and polity, Protestant denominationalism says the church is comprised of many churches (denominations). Today’s passage shows the Scriptural futility and error of this rationale. The household of God (the church) is the “whole building” that is “fitted together” to form “a holy temple of the Lord” (v. 19-21). God has one temple, one church. God’s temple is not a collection of many temples (different denominations), it is built of “living stones” (Christians, 1 Peter 2:5). Christians, not denominations, constitute the temple in which God dwells. Instead of defending unity in moral and doctrinal diversity (which is the essence of denominationalism), we urge our religious friends to choose the divine wisdom of unity in truth (John 17:20-21). Just as God has one temple, even so there is one church that belongs to Christ to which the saved are added (Matthew 16:18; Acts 2:47). Additional churches are of men, not of God.
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