St. Paul reminds us plainly: “For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints” (1 Cor. 14:33). Yet when we look across the Christian world today, we see confusion everywhere. Tens of thousands of denominations and non-denominational churches—each claiming to be “Bible-believing,” each teaching divergent doctrines, each appealing to the principle of Sola Scriptura.

If Sola Scriptura were truly God’s design, the result would not be thousands of competing voices, but one clear faith. God is not the author of confusion. Division is not the work of the Spirit of Christ, but of human pride and private interpretation.

The abuses in the late medieval Roman Church were real and grievous. But in reacting against Rome, the Reformers threw off not only these errors but also the very first principles that Jesus Christ and His Apostles entrusted to the Church. In seeking reform, they abandoned the Apostolic pattern itself.

The Scriptures testify that salvation was not left to a vague faith alone, nor to private interpretation of a sacred text, but was rooted in specific practices and sacraments handed down by Christ through His Apostles. These include:
• Repentance and Confession
Jesus gave His Apostles authority to forgive sins: “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained” (John 20:23). St. Cyprian wrote: “Let each confess his sin while he who has sinned is still in this world, while his confession can be received, while satisfaction and forgiveness granted through the priests are pleasing before the Lord” (On the Lapsed, 29).
• Baptism
Peter declared on Pentecost: “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38). St. Justin Martyr (2nd century) explained: “We have learned from the Apostles this reason for this rite of Baptism, in order that we may obtain in the water the remission of sins” (First Apology, 61).
• Chrismation (Confirmation)
The Holy Spirit was conferred by the laying on of Apostolic hands: “Then they laid hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit” (Acts 8:17). St. Cyril of Jerusalem taught: “Beware of supposing this to be plain ointment… it is the gift of Christ, and by the presence of His Godhead it causes in us the Holy Spirit” (Catechetical Lectures, 21).
• The Eucharist
Jesus declared: “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you” (John 6:53). St. Ignatius of Antioch called the Eucharist “the medicine of immortality and the antidote that we should not die but live forever in Jesus Christ” (Letter to the Ephesians, 20).
• Unity in the Church
Christ established one Church, His Body (Eph. 1:22–23), and declared: “Upon this rock I will build My Church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it” (Matt. 16:18). St. Cyprian famously taught: “He can no longer have God for his Father who has not the Church for his mother” (On the Unity of the Catholic Church, 6).
These are the first principles of Christian life—not later inventions, but the very means of salvation as handed down by Christ and the Apostles.

The proliferation of denominations is not proof of the Spirit’s diversity, but of human error. God is not the author of confusion. He gave us one Lord, one faith, one baptism (Eph. 4:5). The cure for division is not to invent another movement or “new way of doing church,” but to return to the Apostolic Faith—the faith once for all delivered to the saints (Jude 1:3).

– Bishop Michael Callahan