Uh, Pre-denominational?

Written By Christopher Mentzer

This year for our family vacation we visited many places here in Arizona. One such place was the Goldfield Ghost Town. I checked their website to see if any changes were made since our last visit about six years ago. One of the big changes was the addition of a church building named Church at The Mount. I clicked on the church website and found the following statement:

We are a Pre-denominational, New Testament Christian Church, Baptist in practice. Bringing "Old Time Religion" to an "Old Time" setting.

I e-mailed the preacher a couple times to engage him in an exchange but although I got a brief response, nothing has come out of it. The preacher’s name is Tim Jones and this was his message to me:

my secretary said you wanted to converse with me. on what disapline are we conversing? will it be based on your knowledge of theology,Christian administration, Biblical philosify or contemporary religion. these are the only areas i hold degrees and could be of any real benifete to you. i no longer build Christian schools or colleges if this is why you are interested in contacting me. Dr. Moore may help you but i'm not sure if he is still working either.i can locate him if you need help in this area. 

                                                                                          let me know

                                                                                          Dr. Jones.

Quite a list of degrees! Not sure if he mentioned these to intimidate me or to brag about his knowledge of religion. I didn’t see anything, though, that would suggest he knows the bible. Anyway let’s look at the statement from the website.

Pre-denominational is quite an inventive phrase though you won’t find it in the bible. I understand they are trying to convey a New Testament church practice but the term “Undenominational” would be better. In Jesus’ time they had divisions but they were not listed as denominations. The church in Corinth had such divisions (1 Cor. 1: 11-13). But they did not split into factions or denominations. Paul encouraged them to ‘speak the same thing’ and not have divisions (vs. 10).

“Baptist in practice” is a phrase, which nullifies both being a New Testament church and the pre-denominational concept. Baptist IS a denomination and would suggest “Faith Only” and “Once Saved, Always Saved” doctrines. Being a church in an Old West Town, ‘Baptist’ would make sense because of the debauchery of saloons and bordellos. You wouldn’t find the preacher making a firm stance against these fleshly pleasures, but more of a general comment from the pulpit to the group as a whole.

Finally, as is tradition in the denominational churches, the preacher holds the title of Reverend. The word ‘reverend’ is used only one time in the scriptures and it refers to God, “He sent redemption unto his people: he hath commanded his covenant for ever: holy and reverend is his name.” (Ps. 111: 9 KJV) Jesus condemned the use of titles in Matt. 23: 1-12. None of the other apostles or disciples used a title so why should we?

To truly know what the New Testament church really is one must turn to the bible for the pattern. I suggest reading the book the Acts. Anything not found in the scriptures are teachings of men (Matt. 15: 9).