What purpose do these denominations play? Charles Spurgeon, great Baptist preacher of 19th century London uses an illustration. Spurgeon said:
“When I read [Genesis 6:14, about rooms in Noah’s ark] I thought it would serve for a point in the parable… Those who lived in one room did not stand or sit with those who lived in another, but they were on the same ark. So I have sometimes thought, there are our Wesleyan friends, some of them love the Lord; I have no doubt they are in the ark, though they do not occupy the same apartment as we do. There are our Baptist friends, who love the Lord; we welcome them in our room. Then there are our Independent friends, those also love the Lord; they are in another room. And our Presbyterian and Episcopalian bretheren—in all these various sections are some who are called of God and brought into the ark, though they are in different rooms. But, beloved, they are all in one ark.