By Adekanmi Jonathan

I have spoken to people who genuinely wonder why many Christians believe different things even though they read the same Bible. Some Christians have tried justifying this trend, but are they correct? Let’s find out from the Bible.

A look at the early church

In the book of Acts, we read of the birth of the Church on the day of Pentecost where as many as 3,000 believed the gospel after Peter preached to them. You can find this story in Acts 2 and enjoy the reading for yourself.

After their salvation, the Bible tells us something profound about these first set of believers.

Act 2:42 And they continued stedfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.

All the new believers all continued in the doctrine of the Apostles. Don’t let the word doctrine freak you out; it simply means teaching.
Now, I tell people that when you study the Bible, make sure you pay close attention to the details. It is possible to read the Bible absentmindedly and miss out what a text really says.

The verse above says they continued in the Apostles doctrine. You remember that after Judas fell, the apostles elected an apostle, Mathias, to take his place. (Acts 1:15-21)

So the apostles were 12 in number, yet the Bible doesn’t use word plural of the word “doctrine” which would be “doctrines.” It’s singular and not plural.

In other words, all the twelve apostles had only one teaching for the church. They taught the same things and the new believers heard the same thing irrespective of which of the apostles was doing the talking per time.

The question now is “how were they able to all say the same thing?”

You will recall that the apostles walked with Jesus for 3 years before his crucifixion during which they learned many things from the Lord. This is why John, the beloved, could declare in his epistle.

1Jn 1:1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life;
1Jn 1:2 (For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us
1Jn 1:3 That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.

You see it now? They had been with the Lord and walked with him. Now , this agrees with what he had said earlier in his gospel, John 1:14.
In addition, after his resurrection, the Lord spent 40 days teaching his apostles the things of the Kingdom.

Act 1:3 To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God:

So, they had the same teaching because they received it from the Lord. They simply gave to the new believers what they had received from the Lord. There was no addition nor subtraction.

How Christians started believing the different things
Now that we have established that the early church didn’t have the practice of believing different things, how then did we have believers divided into different doctrinal camps today?

The problem started when people were told that every minister of the gospel must have the message they are sent to preach. Such assertions came with statements like “every prophet must have his message” and all that stuff.

That was how we got people who said the focus of their message is wealth. Others sprang up and said theirs was holiness, discipleship, deliverance, healing and all those themes.

Soon, their members increased and focused only what they their leaders told them was their “message.” Yet, we understand that this is an aberration from what Christ intended.

There is only one message and one doctrine. This division that now exists is not of God and we see can see it clearly from the Bible.

Continued below

So, what is our message? Let's find out the answer to this question from the early church.

Act 5:42 And daily in the temple, and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ.

Act 8:5 Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria, and preached Christ unto them.

Act 8:35 Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus.

Act 9:20 And straightway he preached Christ in the synagogues, that he is the Son of God.

Act 11:20 And some of them were men of Cyprus and Cyrene, which, when they were come to Antioch, spake unto the Grecians, preaching the Lord Jesus.

Act 17:13 But when the Jews of Thessalonica had knowledge that the word of God was preached of Paul at Berea, they came thither also, and stirred up the people.

Act 17:18 Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans, and of the Stoicks, encountered him. And some said, What will this babbler say? other some, He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods: because he preached unto them Jesus, and the resurrection.

Did you notice something similar in all these verses?

They clearly confirm that the early church didn’t preach a concept. They didn’t preach an idea. They didn’t preach a philosophy or theme. They all had one message which was Christ Jesus.

That said, what was the focus of their doctrine (teaching)?

Act 2:42 And they continued stedfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.

The writer of Acts called it the apostles’ doctrine because that was what all the apostles taught. But the epistles give a clear idea of us the focus of their teaching.

2Jn 1:9 Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son.

Heb 6:1 Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God,

Did you also notice the word doctrine is singular again? There’s only one right teaching. Just one. And it is the teaching of Christ.

In all, the idea of believing different things is against the standard set by the early church.

There is nothing like “in our church, we preach deliverance, prosperity, holiness, wisdom or all of those.” Christ remains only our focus.
Why Christ? Because all these things we try to focus on individually are all in Christ.

Col 1:17 And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.
Col 1:18 And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.
Col 1:19 For it pleased the Father [u]that in him should all fulness dwell[/b];

All these things we try to take on singularly are all in Christ Jesus. We will discuss more about this some other time.

In summary, we must begin to put our focus solely on Jesus again. God is restoring the focus of it all back to Jesus. All we individually try to claim is in Christ Jesus. All the fullness of God is in him.

Martin Luther puts it succinctly when he said “sola Christos” meaning Christ alone.

There is only one message and only one doctrine. When we make it only about Jesus, all our seeming differences of beliefs will vanish.
We will all believe the same thing again; just like it was in the early church. And it will only be about Jesus and nothing else.

This is the will of God: that in all things, Christ should have pre-eminence. Col 1:18

May this truth grow in the Nigerian church in our day. Amen.

My brother, why are you complaining for God ? If God is not complaining ; then why should you ? Why not focus on working out your own salvation; after all, it is not you who people will give account to .