Christian Forums

This is a sample guest message. Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

  • Focus on the Family

    Strengthening families through biblical principles.

    Focus on the Family addresses the use of biblical principles in parenting and marriage to strengthen the family.

  • Guest, Join Papa Zoom today for some uplifting biblical encouragement! --> Daily Verses
  • The Gospel of Jesus Christ

    Heard of "The Gospel"? Want to know more?

    There is salvation in no other, for there is not another name under heaven having been given among men, by which it behooves us to be saved."

The root of denominations.

Donations

Total amount
$1,592.00
Goal
$5,080.00

Kidron

Member
In general, denominations arise based on doctrinal differences which occur by misinterpretation of the scriptures.

Originally the dividing issues were based around :

1.) "justification by faith alone".
2.) Salvation by water baptism or sprinkling.
3.) Gifts of the Spirit and if they are in effect today as they operated during the early church.
4.) Mary's role in the salvation of a believer.
5.) The eternal security of the believer.

These same issues and a few others tend to continue to divide us today.

For example.
The catholic church's "doctrine" still does not accept "justification by faith alone" as the only means of salvation.
The average catholic does not know this, but if they take 3 seconds to actually study their church's doctrine, they will discover this fact.
They also teach that Mary is a mediator exactly as Christ and in fact she is a "co-author" of salvation.
They teach she died a virgin and ascended to heaven and is seated right there with Jesus.
They also believe and teach that you are saved by water baptism and are born again into the "one true church" which is the Catholic church.

For example and in general, a Southern Baptist service does not usually allow for the leading of the Spirit and instead tends to have a very strict order during the service that basically never alters or changes from week to week or year to year.
The southern Baptist denomination absolutely will not accept that all of the 9 "sign" gifts mentioned in Corinthians are in effect today.
This is because of a scripture that says " whether there be tongues they shall cease"...combined with, "but when that which is perfect is come"..
They believe the Holy bible is the, "that which is perfect is come".
Also, Paul refers to "signs and wonders" as apostolic gifts or the "signs of an Apostle", and Baptists have concluded that the original Apostles are the last, therefore, most "signs for the Jew" ended when the Apostles died out 2000 years ago.
They also have concluded, and rightly so, that " the gift of tongues" is not a "prayer language", and this is a scriptural misunderstanding that you find among the majority of Pentecostal/charismatic Christians.

A Pentecostal believer, or a Word of Faith, or Charismatic believes, and rightly so, that the Spirit of God should lead the service and the minister is to always allow for this to occur.
The Pentecostal denomination does not believe in the "eternal security" of the believer.
This would be your Assembly of God denomination or the Nazarene denomination, etc.
These denominations and others like them are certain that you can lose your salvation if you dont "live it", that is to say, "live holy" and attempt to consistently keep from sinning.
They would tell you that you can "backslide your way into hell", and that if you "live in sin" after you are saved, you are ither not really saved, or you are lost.

There are plenty of other "doctrinal church divisions" i can illustrate for you, and i will, however, ive highlighted the main ones and in no way intended to offend any believer.
I merely listed the central dividing issues among a few of the mainline denominations for you to evaluate and perhaps take inventory of what type you are.

There are a few other dividing issues.
Such as women in the pulpit, or "mid-tribbers", or even "a second infilling of the Holy Spirit", or "evidence of the Holy Spirit's infilling is speaking in tongues".
However, these are perhaps a bit minor yet they are still practiced as doctrine in many many denominations and therefore continue to divide us as a body of believers.
There is also the "prosperity gospel" or the "full gospel" which you find being preached in abundance by the majority TV ministers found on TBN or Daystar.

Then in the last 80 years, you have an onslaught of "new bibles" and many of them are quite secular, were created using conflicted or "messed with" greek manuscripts or no manuscripts at all, or omit very important "doctrinal" scriptures.
I'll give you an example.
Take the bible you use and turn to 1st Timothy 3:16.
Does your "bible" say.."God was manifested in the flesh" or does it say "He was manifested in the flesh"?
Well, the greek manuscripts say "GOD" and because of scriptures like this, we as Christians are able to prove the deity of Christ.
However, once you substitute "he" for "God" you lose the revelation and of course the doctrine.
Turn your Bible to Colossians 1:14.
Does it say "in whom we have redemption through his Blood"?
Or does it omit the verse completely or omit the word "blood
Why is that?...
So, here again is a doctrinal scripture, a very important one, found in the greek texts which teaches us the importance of the "blood" of Christ regarding redemption, but yet many "new versions" take it out or change it.
Bibles like the NIV for example.
Believer, its one thing to change the language so that a bible is easier to read, but its Satanic to alter the scriptures and omit central doctrines of the faith so that the revelation is completely lost or destroyed.
I encourage to take a look at your "version" and get real interested in what im telling you.

So, there is plenty of ammunition to go around that will continue to divide us and not unite us as the body of Christ.
Satan is really quite amused.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I love this thread .... :thumbsup

Though there are at least two other threads of similar topic ..... :lol


At the end of the day, whatever is the root cause of denominations, and whether this whole thing is biblical or not, I believe God does not care !

He is not going to judge anyone based on denominations - i.e. whether one is Anglican, Baptist, Catholic, Methodist, AOG, Pentecostal, Evangelical, Charismatic, Presbyterian, Episcopal, Non-denominational, home churched, Trinitarian or Non-trinitarian, Sabbatarian or Non-Sabbatharian, etc.....

God is going to judge each and every one of us solely based on how we lived our lives as Christians. Our salvation depends not on how we get doctrines right or wrong, but God is going to look at our hearts and see if we have truly loved and followed Him, and Him alone ....



Am I right or am I right ? :biggrin
 
The original denominations during the life and times of Jesus Christ were Pharisee, Saducees, Essenes, Zealots, Sicarii, and of course Jewish Christianity.
 
I love this thread .... :thumbsup

Though there are at least two other threads of similar topic ..... :lol


At the end of the day, whatever is the root cause of denominations, and whether this whole thing is biblical or not, I believe God does not care !

He is not going to judge anyone based on denominations - i.e. whether one is Anglican, Baptist, Catholic, Methodist, AOG, Pentecostal, Evangelical, Charismatic, Presbyterian, Episcopal, Non-denominational, home churched, Trinitarian or Non-trinitarian, Sabbatarian or Non-Sabbatharian, etc.....

God is going to judge each and every one of us solely based on how we lived our lives as Christians. Our salvation depends not on how we get doctrines right or wrong, but God is going to look at our hearts and see if we have truly loved and followed Him, and Him alone ....



Am I right or am I right ? :biggrin


You are quite right on both counts.
1.) u are right to love the Thread....

2.) God is not going to judge any believer, as he has already judged his Son in our place.
(isnt the Gospel good news)?
oh YES.
 
Kidron

When are you going to talk about the 1500 years of Christian history before Protestants even existed?

NC

there were not too many denominations around at that time.
they called it the "dark ages".
hows that?

these days, there are many many denominations.
im not sure of the exact number but you can Google or Wikipedia it and maybe they can provide a stat.
 
The original denominations during the life and times of Jesus Christ were Pharisee, Saducees, Essenes, Zealots, Sicarii, and of course Jewish Christianity.

How about Semiramis, Queen of Babylon.? tho she was around a bit in advance of Jesus.
she created "Easter".
She's gone but Easter is still hanging in there along with the colored eggs and the chocolate bunny that Walmart sells. :study
 
CalledToServe

Why do you think ignorance is funny?

FC

perhaps you should spend some time in study.
if you decide to do this, then study the origin of Easter.
Spend some time with Cush and Nimrod.
Do a little study regarding Tammuz and Ishtar.

oh nevermind.
u are not going to study, so, let me help you.
(enjoy):)

“The fact that vernal festivals were general among pagan peoples no doubt had much to do with the form assumed by the Eastern festival in the Christian churches. The English term Easter is of pagan origin†(Albert Henry Newman, D.D., LL.D., A Manual of Church History, p. 299).
“On this greatest of Christian festivals, several survivals occur of ancient heathen ceremonies. To begin with, the name itself is not Christian but pagan. Ostara was the Anglo-Saxon Goddess of Spring†(Ethel L. Urlin, Festival, Holy Days, and Saints Days, p. 73).
“Easter—the name Easter comes to us from Ostera or Eostre, the Anglo-Saxon goddess of spring, for whom a spring festival was held annually, as it is from this pagan festival that some of our Easter customs have come†(Hazeltine, p. 53).
“In Babylonia…the goddess of spring was called Ishtar. She was identified with the planet Venus, which, because…[it] rises before the Sun…or sets after it…appears to love the light [this means Venus loves the sun-god]…In Phoenecia, she became Astarte; in Greece, Eostre [related to the Greek word Eos: “dawnâ€], and in Germany, Ostara [this comes from the German word Ost: “east,†which is the direction of dawn]†(Englehart, p. 4).
As we have seen, many names are interchangeable for the more well-known Easter. Pagans typically used many different names for the same god or goddess. Nimrod, the Bible figure who built the city of Babylon (Gen. 10:8), is an example. He was worshipped as Saturn, Vulcan, Kronos, Baal, Tammuz, Molech and others, but he was always the same god—the fire or sun god universally worshipped in nearly every ancient culture. (Read our free booklet The True Origin of Christmas to learn more about this holiday and Nimrod’s part in it.)
The goddess Easter was no different. She was one goddess with many names—the goddess of fertility, worshipped in spring when all life was being renewed.
The widely-known historian, Will Durant, in his famous and respected work, Story of Civilization, pp. 235, 244-245, writes, “Ishtar [Astarte to the Greeks, Ashtoreth to the Jews], interests us not only as analogue of the Egyptian Isis and prototype of the Grecian Aphrodite and the Roman Venus, but as the formal beneficiary of one of the strangest of Babylonian customs…known to us chiefly from a famous page in Herodotus: Every native woman is obliged, once in her life, to sit in the temple of Venus [Easter], and have intercourse with some stranger.†Is it any wonder that the Bible speaks of the religious system that has descended from that ancient city as, “Mystery, babylon the great, the mothe of harlots and abominations of the earth†(Rev. 17:5)?
 
Greetings Kidron. I and a few of us here know about the pagan origins of Easter. Rather, it ought to be Firstfruits. Do you also observe the feasts of the Lord outlined in Leviticus 23?

Most people do not see the need, totally unaware that these feasts were the Lord's prophetic blueprint involving mankind's redemption through the ages taking us all the way to the end. This is why "salvation" doctrines are disputed--- they threw away the Lord's prophetic instructions so-to-speak and make their own ideas. Frankly, I don't see too many churches, even with the vast number of denominations, that have things right.
 
......these days, there are many many denominations.
im not sure of the exact number but you can Google or Wikipedia it and maybe they can provide a stat.

Christianity
Adventists
African & Afro-Caribbean Churches
African Orthodox Church
Agapemone
Albigenses
American Baptist Churches
American Orthodox Church
Amish
Amish Mennonites
Anabaptists
Anglican Communion
Anglo-Catholics
Apostolic Brethren
Armenian Church
Assemblies of God
Assumptionists
Assyrian Church
Baptists
Bogomils
Bohemian Brethren
Brethren (Dunkers)
Brethren in Christ
Buchanites
Calvinistic Methodists
Cameronians
Camisards
Cathars
Catholic Apostolic Church
Catholics
Celtic Church
Chaldaean Christians
Cherubim & Seraphim Churches
Christadelphians
Christian Brethren
Christian Science
Church Army
Churches of Christ
Churches of God
Church in Wales
Church of Christ Scientist
Church of England
Church of Ireland
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Church of North India
Church of Scotland
Church of South India
Church of the Nazarene
Church of the New Jerusalem
Congregationalists
Conservative Baptists
Coptic Orthodox Church
Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion
Covenanters
Cumberland Presbyterian Church
Disciples of Christ
Doppers
Doukhobors
Dunkers
Dutch Reformed Church
Eastern Orthodox Church
Episcopal Church of Scotland
Episcopal Church of USA
Ethiopian Orthodox Church
Evangelical churches (various)
Family of Love
Fifth Monarchy Men
Free Church
Free Church of Scotland
Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland
Free Will Baptists
Gideons
Greek Orthodox Church
Huguenots
Hussites
Hutterites
Independent Methodists
Jehovah's Witnesses
Jesus People
Jumpers
Lollards
Lutherans
Malabar Christians
Maronites
Mennonites
Methodists
Millennial Church
Moravian Church
Muggletonians
Nazarenes
Nestorians
New Testament Assembly
Old Believers
Old Catholics
Oriental Orthodox Churches
Orthodox Church
Particular Baptists
Paulicians
Pentecostal Churches
Plymouth Brethren
Presbyterians
Primitive Methodists
Protestants
Puritans
Quakers
Reformed Churches
Religious Society of Friends
River Brethren
Roman Catholics
Rosicrucians
Russian Orthodox Church
Salvation Army
Seventh-day Adventists
Shakers
Society of Friends
Southern Baptist Church
Swedenborgians
Syrian Orthodox Church
Uniates
Unitarians
Unitarian Universalists
Unitas Fratrum
United Church of Christ
United Free Church
United Reformed Church
Waldenses
Wesleyans
Antonians
Augustinian Hermits
Austin Friars
Barnabites
Benedictines
Bernardines
Black Friars
Black Monks
Blue Nuns
Bonhommes
Brethren of the Common Life
Brigittines
Brothers Hospitallers
Camaldolites
Canons Regular
Capuchins
Carmelites
Carthusians
Christian Brothers
Cistercians
Cluniacs
Conceptionists
Conventuals
Culdees
Doctrinarians
Dominicans
Franciscans
Friars Minor
Friars Preachers
Gilbertines
Grey Friars
Grey Nuns
Hieronymites
Hospitallers
Ignorantines
Jacobins
Jesuits
Knights Templar
Little Brothers of Jesus
Marianists
Marists
Minims
Minorites
Norbertines
Oratorians
Passionists
Paulines
Piarists
Poor Clares
Poor Soldiers of the Temple
Premonstratensians
Salesians
Servites
Sisters of Charity
Sisters of the Love of God
Sisters of the Sacred Cross
Somascans
Studites
Sulpicians
Sylvestrines
Theatines
Trappists
Trinitarians
Ursulines
Visitandines
White Friars

I am sure there must be more than that, so my apologies to any denomination I have missed out. There are of course thousands of smaller cults and nut groups such as at Waco.
 
Greetings Kidron. I and a few of us here know about the pagan origins of Easter. Rather, it ought to be Firstfruits. Do you also observe the feasts of the Lord outlined in Leviticus 23?

Most people do not see the need, totally unaware that these feasts were the Lord's prophetic blueprint involving mankind's redemption through the ages taking us all the way to the end. This is why "salvation" doctrines are disputed--- they threw away the Lord's prophetic instructions so-to-speak and make their own ideas. Frankly, I don't see too many churches, even with the vast number of denominations, that have things right.


Honestly, i celebrate Easter and Christmas.
They way i deal with it is just to think of it as a day to honor the Lord.
If someone wants to dye an egg and have me hide them, then i'll do it.
On Christmas we give gifts...and watch Rudolph the red nosed reindeer.
As a matter of fact i really like to watch "A Charlie Brown Christmas" as well.
For me, all of this "easter is a pagan religion" stuff is a non issue, however, it is interesting history isn't it?

One thing thats cool to do is to bake a birthday cake at Christmas time and sing "happy Birthday Jesus".





K
 
Perhaps denominations are good things. Instead of people with different opinions fighting all the time, they can break up into denominations and worship with like-minded people. Of course, there is still fighting ...
 
Aardverk

You should read up on denominations. Many of your denominations are religious orders of the Roman Catholic Church, part of one denomination. There are over 30,000 denominations at last count. And though a lot of denominations are uniting for one reason or another, they can't seem to keep up with division in Christianity.

Most Christians, including those who are sticklers about most other things, don't have a qualm about denominationalism. Like the comment that denominationalism may be a good thing as it curtails fighting when those of a feather flock together. They seem to have no realization that it may be hindering their witness to the world.

Each denomination is a religion in itself. The only witness is a denominational witness. Of which the Roman Catholic Church is the chief witness. They say they are "the True Church". There is no supernatural leader in a bunch of organizations that have their own distinctive human leadership, organizational structure, and doctrinal standard.

The only advantage of denominationalism is that Christians can choose a denomination that suits their own fancy. Never was able to find one of those myself. Guess I'm too fancy for them.

NC
 
I have the answer to the problem of denominations:

Everybody join my church, Lutheran Church Missouri Synod.

We believe in the Father, Creator God, maker of heaven and earth.

We believe in the Son, Jesus the Christ who died on the cross for the forgiveness of sins, was physically dead, physically raised from the dead to witness to the disciples and then rose bodily into heaven.

We believe in the Holy Spirit who regenerates all who come to Christ in faith.

We believe that the bible is the inspired and inerrant word of God.

That's the essentials, right?

So, Former Christian, Called to Serve, Tina, Kidron, Adullum... come on over and join my church and we'll have all the rest of the Christians join the LCMS as well...

Any takers? :waving
 
The only advantage of denominationalism is that Christians can choose a denomination that suits their own fancy. Never was able to find one of those myself. Guess I'm too fancy for them.


FC,

As much as you may be unaware or are in denial, you are also a denomination of your own - it's called "Former Christians".

You have maintained all along that you're not an ex-Christian but you're "in Christ". It's a unique belief and denomination of your own.

Question is : Do you think you are saved ?
 
Aardverk, You should read up on denominations. Many of your denominations are religious orders of the Roman Catholic Church, part of one denomination. There are over 30,000 denominations at last count.....

Each denomination is a religion in itself. .......

The only advantage of denominationalism is that Christians can choose a denomination that suits their own fancy. Never was able to find one of those myself. Guess I'm too fancy for them.
It seems that even us ex-Christians seem to find something 'Christian' to disagree about:sad
'DENOMINATION: a religious organization whose congregations are united in their adherence to its beliefs and practices"(My underlining.)​
Before I left the Catholic church there were break-away groups who would not accept various things, the obvious one was the change to the vernacular mass. They ganged together and found priests willing to carry on with the mass in latin. I would have described them as 'united in their adherence to its beliefs and/or practices'. I do accept however that the Missal and indeed the Tridentine mass remained the same and that the latin mass was never actually abolished - as far as I know. I am not disputing the accuracy of your point, this is merely a comment, I don't want to start an argument:halo

I was well aware that many of the 'denominations' I listed were, strictly, 'orders' but the definition of denomination did not seem to me to be reason to exclude them. They have after all identified themselves by their unique practices (see the definition).

I also could not find a denomination where I felt comfortable with their beliefs, and like you, I eventually stopped calling myself a Christian and accepted that I would henceforth be labelled a heretic. I learned to live with that title but it still smarts a bit that I am excluded, by many, from the Christian fellowship due to what I perceive to be ignorance.

Right, let's see your list of 30,000 denominations:eeeekkk

Dominus vobiscum.
 

Donations

Total amount
$1,592.00
Goal
$5,080.00
Back
Top