without denomination

To what denomination did Peter, James, John, Paul and the early followers of Jesus the Christ belong? According to the Bible they were members of the body of Christ which is the Lord's church (Ephesians 1:22-23; Colossians 1:18,24; 3:15). They were not members of any denomination.

Saved became members of the body

All who were saved became members of this body, the church, by virtue of the fact that the Lord added them to it (Acts 2:47). Yet they still belonged to no denomination. They had been called out of the "power of darkness", or the world, and brought into the church which is also called "the kingdom of God's dear son" (Colossians 1:13-14,18)

Just so today

If people believe in Christ, repent and are baptised like those we read of in the New Testament, this would make them Christians, and nothing more (Mark 16:16; Acts 2:36-41; 8:35-39; Galatians 3:26-27). They would not be members of any denomination. If they came together on the first day of the week (Sunday) to worship God, accepted and taught the Bible in all matters of faith and practise, observed the same commands in the same way the early disciples did, they would simply be Christians, members of the body of Christ, or in the New Testament church - without being members of any denomination.

The first century church

The church of the first century - as established by Christ himself - was not a denomination, but simply and purely the spiritual body of Christ on earth.

On this, most will agree. But on the necessity of returning to that status and on the means of doing so, few will agree. Divesting ourselves of years of conditioning does not come easily to any of us, but if we want to be acceptable to God it is surely a necessity (John 17:20-22; 1 Corinthians 1:10-13; Ephesains 4:1-6).