[ebb tide]

Isn't it odd how that our teaching authority is the bible and yet with all of our own (accused) millions of interpretations, we still agree with each other???

If you all agree with each other, why do you have so many tribes and why is everybody tribe-hopping?

[Iscool]

If you all agree with each other, why do you have so many tribes and why is everybody tribe-hopping?

We are different tribes just like the Holy Mary Catholic church in Tiptonville, Tennessee is a different tribe than the St. Thomas Catholic church just down the street in Tiptonville, Tennessee...

[Springfield Reformer]

If you all agree with each other, why do you have so many tribes and why is everybody tribe-hopping?

Protestants/evangelicals largely do agree with each other on a vast majority of issues.  There are two major dynamics that cause the "tribe-hopping" you find so off-putting.  Most serious is the incursion of liberalism, outright rejection of Scripture, supernaturalism, Christian morality, etc., by those supposed to be church leaders, usually fostered by a deliberate infiltration of the denominational seminaries.  What happens is typically that those remaining faithful to God and His word get pushed out of the buildings and the denomination proper and have to start from scratch somewhere new.  

The other big dynamic is petty stuff that has nothing whatever to do with theology proper.  People church-hop for the music, the pews are uncomfortable, somebody hurt their feelings, I've seen it all.  Well, maybe not all, but I've seen a lot of ridiculous reasons for looking up a new church.  If you were to do a serious statistical analysis, I'm guessing the people who change over disputes as to the exact meaning of a given Scripture are an extreme minority, compared to the nonsense factors.

And in those matters where there are identifiable doctrinal differences between groups, they seldom involve questions so deep they would each say the other party is lost.  They are more like modes of baptism, or theories about the Second Coming, or should the Lord's Supper be held every Sunday or only once a quarter, or should believers get involved in politics.  That's where the majority of us are at.  

At my church, for example, we intentionally look past all that fru fru every Sunday.  We routinely pray for other churches in Springfield, churches which to you look like these sharp divisions, but which we regard as our brothers and sisters in Christ, whom we love, and desire to be blessed and used of God for the Gospel as much as we wish that for ourselves.  And if you're missing that inner dynamic, you're really missing the big picture, you're missing the work of the Holy Spirit.  When any two fellowships agree on Scripture as the leading authority in faith and practice, that's the work of God, and you're going to have a lot more in common than not, and the Gospel above all, because God has written it so clearly that it cannot be missed by honest hearts seeking out God's truth.

Peace,

SR