The Difference Between a Church and a Sect

One of the problems people have in this age of non-denominational churches is the danger of getting sucked in by a sect. In fact, if you read the following excerpt, walking into a mainstream denominational church may not protect you from this danger.

From The Heidelblog,

Finally, we should not simply assume that all those groups that call themselves “church” are such. As early as 1561 the Dutch Reformed Churches recognized this problem with respect to the Anabaptists, whom all the confessing Protestants rejected as part of the Reformation altogether. The churches confessed, “for all sects in the world today claim for themselves the name of ‘the church'” even though they are not actually churches. This is how we deal today with many of the groups that arose in the 19th century as part of the so-called “Second Great Awakening” and the other groups such as the Millerites (who gave us the Jehovah’s Witnesses), the Christian Scientists, the (traditional) Seventh-Day Adventists, and virtually all of the Pentecostal groups that arose out of the Cane Ridge “revivals” (early 19th century) and the Topeka and Azusa Street “revivals” (early 20th century). In 16th-century terms, in the language of the Belgic Confession, these are mostly “sects” and not churches at all since they lack “the marks of the true church,” namely, the pure preaching of the gospel, the pure administration of the sacraments, and the use of church discipline.

I truly believe that the Episcopal organization fails the tests of pure preaching of the gospel (example: The Worst Sermon Ever?) and the use of church discipline (example: the Righter Trial).  I could give more examples of both failures of course, but you get the point.