One of the works of the flesh listed in Galatians is herisis from which we get the English word heresy. However, in the Greek it simply mean divisions. We can see Paul objecting to how quickly the Corinthians began to align themselves in these sort of divisions;

Today we have those who follow Luther, Calvin, Knox, Piper, Grahm, Wessley, etc. It was essential for Satan to cripple Christianity because without Christians, he would have been unable to build the technology and infrastructure he needed to exercise control over the whole world.

Monolithic Christianity under the Roman Catholic church was necessary for the formation of western civilization as it gave a cohesiveness to the formation of nations and culture as well as universities and systems of scholarship. If Satan maintained a monolithic church, he risked having the secularism he was introducing being in conflict with it. It was essential that numerous options were available for the religious consumer.

Adam Smith was no supporter of religion. However, he had a favorable view of denominations as their distinctives would end up bristling against each other such that they would be motivated to jettison anything substantive to obtain market approval. Thus he saw an eventual end to what he considered the nuisance of religion.

A person who selects a particular denomination is usually required to accept, defend, and promote whatever is considered unique about the denomination. This automatically puts the church member in a subordinate position of functionary. Biblical Christianity has a more active role in mind for the Christian than just a component in an organizational system;

1. To be exercising judgment. (Romans 14:5)

2. To be questioning, examining, and searching. (Acts 17:11)

3. To be acquiring deeper understanding. (Colossians 1:9)

4. To be actively growing in faith. (2 Peter 1:5-9)

5. To becoming more like Jesus. (Ephesians 4:15)

What defines a denomination is some particular doctrine or practice which by definition requires adherence and thus inhibits the active questioning by the members. Questioning is prohibited with all the zeal of one convinced he is guarding the sacred. This can summon great passion to prevent questioning or individual inquiry. Instruction may be given, but not in response to inquiry but rather in an expectation of a sort of regurgitation of doctrine that tends to stagnate any attempt by a Christian to mature and come to greater wisdom and understanding. The establishment of denominations was a critical element used by Satan to keep Christians in a sort of somnambulist dormancy.