One religion, different doctrines! X-ray of beliefs, positions of denominations in Christendom

There is a pathetic story of a 14-day-old baby girl born prematurely and severely jaundiced, a medical challenge that needed blood transfusion. However, her parents being Jehovah Witness members refused any urgent medical attention for her following their position that it was against the doctrine of their church.

The parents opted to take the baby home, but the Lagos State Government intervened by taking the child from the parents and carried out the blood transfusion process in order to save the girl’s life.

Over the years, church doctrines and beliefs had been known to be the standard or laid-down practices established in order to guide the church as a body. As there are different sects in Christianity so are doctrines.

Doctrines are the body of teachings of a religion, or a religious leader, group or organisation. Doctrines are seen as sacred and must be followed to the letter. Members of such groups with a doctrine adhere strictly to them believing that any deviation could affect their spiritual worship.

Unfortunately strict adherence to some doctrines has been discovered to be to the detriment of individual and social growth. As in the case of the story shared, the fear of contravening their church’s doctrine could have led to the death of the baby.

An elderly woman, Mrs Kemi Olateju, a Jehovah Witness member said whatever the Bible does not approve Jehovah Witness members don’t do. She said: “Concerning blood transfusions, according to Acts Chapter 15 verses 28 and 29, the Bible prohibits eating any sort of blood. There are other blood expanders that one can use without blood transfusions such as Saline Solution, Ringer’s Solution, and Dextran can be used as plasma volume expanders, and these are available in nearly all modern hospitals.”

She also revealed why Jehovah Witness members don’t celebrate birthdays, which she attributed to King Herod’s experience.

“We all know what happened on Herod’s birthday. Matthew Chapter 14 verses 6-10 and 2Timothy 3 verses 16 and 17 gave details of it. What is the origin of birthdays? We do rejoice together right? Also, Ecclesiastics 3 verses 12 and 13, 1 Corinthians 10 verse 31, all these Bible verses explain it well,” she added.

Speaking further on other doctrines of the Jehovah Witness, Olateju, stated why the denomination doesn’t engage in child christening. She noted that the position of the denomination was that it is not ideal to postpone the naming of a child as parents could predetermine their child’s name right from conception.

She also said Jehovah Witnesses shun the idea of spending extravagantly, owing to the fact that it could mislead the underprivileged as the Bible frowns on making others to stumble.

According Olateju, the more reason Jehovah Witnesses don’t accept blood transfusion is the prevalence of HIV/AIDS, while they do not join others to sing the national anthem because the Bible says ‘you shall not serve any other God.’ “No Jehovah Witness will swear allegiance to another idol,” she added.

Among members of the Apostolic Faith, it is said that they do not use medications. However, a pastor of the church, who pleaded anonymity, said it is not true. He said: “we use drugs, but we believe that our healing comes from God, and it is only God that can heal.”

The Seventh Day Adventist church is also known for its position on non-celebration of major Christian festivals including Christmas and belief that the right day to observe the Sabbath is on Saturday and not Sunday.

Backing the position of the church, a Seventh Day Adventist cleric, Mr Dosu-Idowu Tosin, said: “there is no place in the Bible that points out where Christmas should be celebrated on December 25. The characteristic of the period around which Jesus was born made people to choose December. Also, there is no place in the Bible which states that Sunday is the Sabbath day. The day God rested was on a Saturday, which is the Sabbath day. That is why we worship on Saturday and also observe it as a day of rest,” he said.

Speaking on the value of doctrines, the Pastor of Eternal Light Church, Pastor Ben Oluwarotimi noted that, a doctrine is a system of truth, the body of a teaching, message of Christ and epistles of Paul.

“A lot of people believe doctrines is all about covering of hair, ‘don’t wear trousers, not carrying a corpse inside a church and the like’. Most of these things are man-made, and people will find a scriptural reference to back them up. The reason the body of Christ decided to be worshiping on Sunday was because Jesus Christ resurrected on a Sunday. In order to honour Jesus Christ, most of these doctrines people refer to are beliefs,” he added.

There are also mixed views on how orthodox and Pentecostal churches treat the dead during burial. TribuneChurch spoke with some clerics on why some churches bring corpses inside the church during burial service and why others don’t.

A member of the Anglican Church, Kayode Shobayo,  coroborated Pastor Oluwarotimi’s submision that, doctrines are man-made to put members in check, but most times Biblical references are used to back up such doctrines.

Reacting to one of the major doctrines of the Anglican Church, Shobayo noted that, “in churches where infant baptism takes place, confirmation is seen as part of the sacrament of the church, and to ensure the place of one’s membership in the church, it is important for one to go through it.

“Acts 8:14-17 speaks more about this. It is a practice where you declare your Christian faith publicly. When someone does not get confirmed, that causes a gap or a lapse. Churches where they don’t believe in confirmation may not see the need for it; but majorly, orthodox churches carry out these practices,” he said.

A venerable in an Anglican church, who pleaded anonymity, said the reason othordox churches do allow corpses in the church at burials is an effort to honour the dead, especially if he had done good works while alive.

“It could be possible that the deceased had his wedding and worshiped in the church and such person cannot be denied of this last rite. It is only the spirit that has gone, but the body is still part of the church. It is only in the case when the deceased was not yet baptised before death that the deceased would only be laid at the church’s entrance,” he added.

Speaking on the position of the Christ Apostolic Church, a member of the church, Mr Niyi Adeife opined that: “it is believed that it is only the living that can serve God, the dead cannot serve or worship God. That’s why most C.A.C churches don’t allow corpses inside the church. It’s either the burial service would have been held at the grave side before the church service commences or otherwise.”

A Celestial Church of Christ member, Mrs Keji Adewunmi, attested to the philosophy of the church on why members don’t wear shoes to church, especially whenever they have their white garments on.

“The pioneer of the church, who was a carpenter, mostly didn’t use any footwear. So, this was adopted by all members of the church as a doctrine and it was seen as the best way to seek the face of God, which has a spiritual backing in Moses’ encounter with God.

“Also, it is forbidden for women to attend church services or wear white garment during their monthly flow. During such period, they are regarded as unclean, except for some purification process before they can wear the white garment again,” she added.

The popular pentecostal church, the Redeemed Christian Church of God, is not exempted with its notable dual classical and model churches membership. This system, which has come to stay in the church, however, has given the church a dual face, yet united under one head.

Wife of a Provincial Pastor of the church in Benue State, Pastor (Mrs) Ayo Arawole, reacted to the development, saying, “the church is one, the reason why we created another parish, which we call model, was to bring in the elite, the existing one is called classic.

“The model parishes were established because of the big fishes; we don’t plant but build auditoriums for model parishes and we allow them to come just as they are with the intention of bringing them closer to God with the help of the Holy Spirit.”