"Catholic" means "universal". In the beginning there was only one Christian Church. It was universal, throughout the then-known world. As time passed, it gradually changed, and adopted new beliefs and practices which were unknown in apostolic times.
In 1050 A.D. the Catholic Church split into the Roman Catholic Church and the Greek Orthodox Church. The split was supposedly over a disagreement as to whether the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son, or from the Father alone. But this was only the straw that broke the camel's back. There were more basic differences between the east and the west, primarily the authority of the Catholic Church. In the Roman Catholic branch, the pope of Rome was the head of the Church. In the Greek Orthodox, it was the council of patriarchs in Constantinople.
The Lutheran groups' primary belief is in "justification by faith alone" as Luther taught.
The first Methodist churches were followers of John Wesley, and reflected his teachings on the possibility of holiness and entire sanctification. In our day, the Wesleyan Methodist Church, the Nazarene Church, and the Salvation Army Church are still preachers of holiness. The Salvation Army does not practise baptism or communion. Some Methodist Churches modernized, and are among the more liberal churches today.
The main distinction of all Baptists groups is their insistence on believers' baptism by immersion. Baptist churches are usually independent and self-governing.
Historically, Anglicans and Episcopalians were identical. They were called "Episcopalians" in United States and "Anglicans" nearly everywhere else. The word "Episcopalian" refers to the form of church government. It means government by overseers or "bishops". Generally, Anglicans do not consider themeselves to be "Protestants" They, like the Roman Catholics and Greek Orthodox, trace their spiritual ancestry back to the apostles. Their liturgies are similar to RC and GO. "Low Anglicans" tends to be less liturgical. Recently when Episcopalians began to accept homosexual priests, some churches split off and called themselves "Anglicans".
"Presbyterian" refers to government by "presbyters" or elders. Presbyterians have tended to be Calvinists, though the more liberal ones probably are not.
Jehovah Witnesses, unlike most Christian denominations believe Christ is Michael the archangel and that he was the first creation of God. They insist on calling God by His name "Jehovah". They believe only 144,000 are qualified to take the bread and wine of communion, and are the only ones who will go to heaven. All other JWs will have eternal life right here on a restored earth.
Mormons believe that metal plates, inscribed in "reformed Egyptian" were discovered in the 1800s which gave the whole history of Jews who somehow found their way to America. Joseph Smith discovered a pair of glasses called "Urim and Thummim" which, when he donned them, miraculously enabled him to read the plates in King James English. Christ was supposed to have appeared in the Western hemisphere and given the same teachings here as He did in the holy land. The people in the Western hemisphere are those "sheep which are not of this fold" which Christ mentioned in the gospels. Some of the words which Christ supposedly said here are identical to the ones found in the gospels. Mormons have many distinctive teachings, such as that a member may get married for "time" or for "eternity".
I do not know the differences between all of these religions to be honest.
