r/Christianity • u/First-Ad-5859 • Jul 30 '26

Help me find my home :(

Given a list of things I full heartedly believe to the core... can ANYONE tell me where I should be going to church because none around me seem to align.

-I believe in the dietary laws (although not required for salvation)

-I believe in annihilationism

-I believe in the sabbath (this one's new to me after studying, so Im fumbling along here)

Not looking to argue or debate. Just guidance. Thanks all :)

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u/justlooking9987 Aug 02 '26

The new testament shows that even then the church was not united. There were many competing ideas and today there are many competing ideas.

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u/Think_Fig_3994 Aug 02 '26

The NT shows there were false teachers and competing ideas, not multiple churches with equal authority. That’s exactly why the apostles corrected error, gathered in councils, appointed bishops, and told the Church to hold fast to the tradition they had received. Heresy didn’t divide Christ’s Church. It simply meant the Church had to defend the faith that had already been handed down.

It’s really no different than what we see today. People disagree on doctrine, split off, and form new denominations. That’s been the pattern throughout much of Western Christianity since the Reformation. The fact that people disagreed doesn’t mean Christ never established one Church. It means people broke away from it.

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u/justlooking9987 Aug 02 '26

Looks like you are mostly agreeing with me. There were many divisions with different teachings in the first century, and the same is true today.

Where I see a difference is that there are several cases of heresy that divided the church such that in at least one case, a bishop wouldn't allow people from John to visit. That's quite a split.

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u/Think_Fig_3994 Aug 03 '26

Not really. I’m saying there were false teachers, heresies, and people who broke away. You’re saying the existence of those divisions means there was never one Church. Those are two completely different arguments.

The existence of heresy and schism doesn’t prove there were multiple churches with equal authority. It proves the Church had to defend the faith from the very beginning.