How can Christians say they know the truth about God when their theology and beliefs are fractured in so many ways? How can any one group be sure of themselves, that they got it right? The same way anyone else becomes sure: engage the mind and examine the knowledge for oneself. Normal life is like a supermarket, with an abundance of things and ideas to choose from.
Society and culture is fractured from top and bottom. How can you get involved in politics when there are so many opinions and parties? How do we choose whom to vote for public office when there are so many people with differing viewpoints? How do we choose what to watch on TV when there are so many choices available?
There are so many cars and trucks to choose from … should we give up and just ride a bike or take the bus? There seem to be so many nice guys around; how does a girl choose which one to go out with? With so many diet claims, how can we know which one really works and will last? Scientists, medical personell, dieticians, and philosophers all engage in debates within their sphere of knowledge.
None of those choices prevent us from making decisions. We don’t just roll over and die. We choose and move on; we alter our opinions as we learn more, and adjust. We discard old ideas and take up new ones along the way. In a church, we will learn who has a depth of knowledge and who knows less yet is more encouraging, and they often won’t be the same person. Every denomination contains people who are a work in progress; nothing stands still. No one group has all the answers, but many groups have a core that is common to all.
Politicians, doctors, lawyers, atheists, Christians, etc., have settled on truths they believe in while acknowledging disagreement. As disagreement hasn’t stopped you from engaging in things and ideas for this life, you don’t need to let disagreements in eternal matters hold you back from participating in the things of God.
The perfect expression of worship is to serve Jesus with a whole heart. Denominations, at best, represent man trying to read his interpretations or ideas into the church or into belief. Calvinism was really Johannes Calvin reading his own faulty theological conclusions into Christianity, which appealed to his sensibilities and the prejudices no doubt of many people who agreed with him at that time. There are all shades of prejudices in different strands of Christianity and they don’t reflect God, they reflect the mores and interests of the people who wish to use faith or belief as a vehicle for their own almost always selfish ends. Being a Christian is not doing your will and calling it God’s will, being a Christian is doing God’s will and making it your own.
Do we negate all denominations, all differing views, all disagreements? Of course not, how could we, and who are we to oppose millions of people. However, we have to understand that no human has a full grasp on all truth, and when anyone proclaims they do, they are deluding themselves or trying to delude others. A Christian will learn to agree to disagree, and disagreeing needn’t mean being disagreeable, because I can bet your bottom dollar on this, we are all to some degree in some form of error, even if only what we believe, or some of what we believe.