toldailytopic: Why are there so many Christian denominations? And is that necessarily

Nathon Detroit

Nathon Detroit

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The TheologyOnline.com TOPIC OF THE DAY for July 21st, 2011 01:14 PM


toldailytopic: Why are there so many Christian denominations? And is that necessarily a bad thing?






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WizardofOz

WizardofOz

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Why are there so many Christian denominations? Great question! I've always wondered why and would love to see some sort of breakdown of the various denomination and what sets them apart.

Is that necessarily a bad thing? Not at all
 
genuineoriginal

genuineoriginal

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WizardofOz said:
Why are there so many Christian denominations? Great question! I've always wondered why and would love to see some sort of breakdown of the various denomination and what sets them apart.

Is that necessarily a bad thing? Not at all
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A list of a lot of the Christian denominations is found here broken down into groups by major differences.
 
genuineoriginal

genuineoriginal

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Why are there so many Christian denominations?
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The inspiration of the Bible depends upon the ignorance of the gentleman who reads it.
--Robert Ingersoll​
And is that necessarily a bad thing?
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Just because the Bible says something doesn’t make it truth if what you are saying from the Bible is slanted, distorted, mis-applied, or merely the letter of the word.
--J. Preston Eby ​
 
G

griffinsavard

New member
Knight said:
The TheologyOnline.com TOPIC OF THE DAY for July 21st, 2011 01:14 PM


toldailytopic: Why are there so many Christian denominations? And is that necessarily a bad thing?






Take the topic above and run with it! Slice it, dice it, give us your general thoughts about it. Everyday there will be a new TOL Topic of the Day.
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Click to expand...


Is it bad? Well it is prophetic. :eek:

According to Mathew 13 beginning about verse 24 Jesus tells of the parable of the wheat and tares. According to the illustration a gardener plants a garden with good crops and an enemy comes in and plants bad crops among the good ones. When the workers of the garden come and tell the landowner what has happened they ask wether they should try and pull up the bad plants. At which the master gardener says no but to let both plants grow together until they are ready to harvest. The reason for this is when plants are young they are hard to distinguish. The gardener says when they are ready to harvest the difference in the plants will be readily seen and be able to be seperated; the good go to one pile, the bad plants into another to be burned.

The story is a picture of how the church would be infiltrated by 'bad plants' i.e. people who don't really believe and have ulterior motives for joining the church of Christ; like political power, money, or fame. A good example of this is the emporer Constantaine of Rome. According to the parable all this happened because the watchman, those set to keep watch over the garden became lazy, allowing the enemy to slip past them.

In Revelation 14 we see the harvest of the garden taking place and the angels seperating the good seed from the bad. According to the parable it is not up to one man, someone like the Pope of Rome, to play the divider and declarer of God's people, this power belongs only to our High Priest, Jesus the Christ. You can see Jesus performing this action in Mattew 25 towards the end of the chapter. Read it and see. :dizzy:

hope this helps.....:cheers:
 
Nick M

Nick M

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Christianity is a mess because people try and reconcile the gospels of circumcision and uncircumcision. Then you have people that water baptize and those that say they don't need to do it. And tithe, and keep other ordinances. Instead of following Paul(teachings), who is our apostle.
 
The Berean

The Berean

Well-known member
There are so many "denominations" basically because of differences in interpretations of Scripture and dispute over church doctrines, beliefs, and church government.
 
G

griffinsavard

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2 Cor. 11:12 But what I do, I will also continue to do, that I may cut off the opportunity from those who desire an opportunity to be regarded just as we are in the things of which they boast. 13 For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. 14 And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. 15 Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works.

All organizations who try to do 'good' in this world are infiltrated by evil people who want to take adavantage of other people.
 
G

griffinsavard

New member
Individuality is a good thing, the reformation was not only caused because of the Catholic churches corruption. People were tired of control and suppression of individuality by goverenment, church, etc. The printing press gave people the ability to educate theirself and become who 'they wanted to be.'

Any organization has factions and differences.

This is why socialism does not work, we are all differant.
 
Totton Linnet

Totton Linnet

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The reformation was only half done, the doctrine was reformed along bible lines but the ministry was not reformed along bible lines, the reformers went back only to the fathers [so called] because they relied upon the might of princes every bit as much as the Catholic church.

So the new wine was poured into old wine skins and the new cloth sown onto old....

Doesn't anybody think that it is as wrong to hate the Catholic church as it is/was for the church to hate the Jews? even today it is the Catholics/coptics that break through first in the hard places and protestants follow on behind.

I think by and large Catholic haters do not prosper any more that Jew haters.
 
GuySmiley

GuySmiley

Well-known member
How many are there? In my time on TOL I've seen the number go from 18,000ish to 37,000. Where do these numbers come from?
 
The Berean

The Berean

Well-known member
Traditio said:
If Protestants loved Our Lord, they would submit to the authority of His Holy Church.
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If Trad loved Our Lord he would show some humility and love instead of arrogance, a superiority complex, and ignorance.

I love the Lord very much not that it's any of your business.
 
Traditio

Traditio

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The Berean said:
If Trad loved Our Lord he would show some humility and love instead of arrogance and ignorance.

I love the Lord very much not that it's any of your business.
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Then submit to His commands:

"This authority, however, (though it has been given to man and is exercised by man), is not human but rather divine, granted to Peter by a divine word and reaffirmed to him (Peter) and his successors by the One Whom Peter confessed, the Lord saying to Peter himself, 'Whatsoever you shall bind on earth, shall be bound also in Heaven' etc., [Mt 16:19]. Therefore whoever resists this power thus ordained by God, resists the ordinance of God [Rom 13:2], unless he invent like Manicheus two beginnings, which is false and judged by us heretical, since according to the testimony of Moses, it is not in the beginnings but in the beginning that God created heaven and earth [Gen 1:1]. Furthermore, we declare, we proclaim, we define that it is absolutely necessary for salvation that every human creature be subject to the Roman Pontiff" (Unam Sanctam).
 
Universalist

Universalist

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Thank God for the reformation, hallelujah! God is good!.......whew! I can't imagine the world without it. The more I really think about it, I believe I would have put myself on a burning stake had we not had the reformation.

The control, manipulation, and fear is bad enough in some Protestant circles, not even half of us would have survived in the Catholic world.

To answer the question.

God is the author of the confusion, and thank God for it. With this, people are able to find LIBERTY in Christ, well at least some of us anyway. Without the different denominations, the control and manipulation would lead to murder.

Thank God for the ability to seek God for yourself without mans permission on 'how'.
:the_wave:
 
Alate_One

Alate_One

Well-known member
Traditio said:
If Protestants loved Our Lord, they would submit to the authority of His Holy Church.
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Have you ever considered the idea that the true Church is invisible and composed of many denominations, including even some Catholics and Greek/Eastern Orthodox?

I would say this in addition, that many denominations are different based only on style of worship and teaching and in many denominations there's more variation within the denomination than without. This is especially true of baptists since there is no centralized authority at all.

I think there are so many because people want to emphasize different aspects of the gospel. They want to worship in the way they feel led. So, especially in societies with a strong tendency towards individualism (and people dividing over minor issues), you end up with a buffet of different sorts of churches.

So long as Christ is preached I don't really care what the little pet peeve issues are. I may not be able to join just any church but I can worship in almost all of them. The diversity, to me, is not a bad thing.
 
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