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You have done your homework very well. The reason I started this thread was to see what kind of answers I would get from my beginning question of how many Christian denominations are there in the world, and point out the mass confusion this has caused. I was born and raised Baptist. And then 5 years ago I really started looking into theology to find out what really is the full truth of the Church. I would ask a Methodist and get one answer, then I would ask a Pentecostal and get another answer, then I would ask an Agelican and get another. One church would teach that abortion was o.k., one would teach that same sex marriages were o.k., and then the next would teach that divorce was o.k., and all of them taught that contraception was o.k. There isn't any logical way a person could believe that God would leave us with 38,000 different Churches all teaching basically the same thing, but also teaching many other things. The bottom line is that everyone should be asking where is the authority. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Hello Pax. No i learned the truth the hard way while on other boards like this one. When my faith was challenged i search the early Church and found that all Catholic beliefs were in place within a generation of the Apostle John. Protestants have helped me confirm my faith. Our Lord designed His Church to speak with one voice. The traditional way of deciding which Church is the one founded by Jesus Christ is to compare each to the four "Marks of the Church" as defined in the Nicene Creed. (3) Those marks are, of course, that the Church is one, holy, catholic and apostolic.One of the undeniable aspects of unity and oneness in the Bible is the constant warning (especially in the writings of St. Paul) against (and prohibition of) divisions, schism, and sectarianism, either by command, or by counter-example (Matthew 12:25, 16:18, John 10:16, 17:20-23, Acts 4:32, Romans 13:13, 16:17, 1 Corinthians 1:10-13, 3:3-4, 10:17, 11:18-19, 12:12-27, 14:33, 2 Corinthians 12:20, Galatians 5:19-21, Ephesians 4:3-6, Philippians 1:27, 2:2-3, 1 Timothy 6:3-5, Titus 3: 9-10, James 3:16, 2 Peter 2: The Father of the Reformation who late in life looked around and saw the damage that Sola Scriptura and 'private interpretation' of Holy Scripture was doing to his 'reformation', and made the following remarks. This one will not hear of Baptism, and that one denies the sacrament, another puts a world between this and the last day: some teach that Christ is not God, some say this, some say that: there are as many sects and creeds as there are heads. No yokel is so rude but when he has dreams and fancies, he thinks himself inspired by the Holy Ghost and must be a prophet" De Wette III, 61. quoted in O'Hare, THE FACTS ABOUT LUTHER, 208. "Noblemen, townsmen, peasants, all classes understand the Evangelium better than I or St. Paul; they are now wise and think themselves more learned than all the ministers." Walch XIV, 1360. quoted in O'Hare, Ibid, 209.

I would certainly advise our seeker to avoid any group of people, which claiming to be Christian, embraces a particular doctrinal system taught by an individual leader, group of leaders, or organization, whose teachings, practices, and liturgy are commiserate with cultism and whose system of laws denies either explicitly or implicitly one or more of the central doctrines of the Christian faith as taught in Holy Scripture. And I would warn our friend to be very wary of any ecclesiastical system, which claims to be the

IRENAEUS can answer for me. IRENAEUS was the second bishop of Lyons suceeding St. Pothinus. He was a student of St. Polycarp who was tutered by St John the Apostle. He was born in 140AD and died AD 202. The TRADITION of the Apostles, manifested 'on the contrary' in the whole world, is open in every Church to all who see the truth...And, since it is a long matter in a work like this to enumerate these successions, we will confute them by pointing to the TRADITION of that GREATEST and MOST ANCIENT and UNIVERSALLY KNOWN Church, founded and constituted AT ROME by the two most glorious Apostles, Peter and Paul, a TRADITION which she has had and a faith which she proclaims to all men from those Apostles" ibid 3,1 and 3,3 For Irenaeus "tradition" included three things: 1) the Christian faith that was handed on -- oral or in writing "For how should it be if the Apostles themselves had NOT left us their writings? Would it not be necessary to follow the course of the TRADITION which they handed down to those whom they did commit the Churches?" ibid 3,4,1 2) a living authority "Wherefore it is incumbent to OBEY the presbyters who are in the Church...those who, together with the succession of the episcopate, have received the certain gift of TRUTH..." ibid 4,26,2 3) transmission and preservation by succession "In this order, and by this SUCCESSION, the ecclesiastical tradition from the Apostles, and the preaching of the truth, have come down to us. And this is MOST abundant proof that there is one and the same vivifying faith, which has been preserved in the Church from the Apostles until now, and handed down in truth" ibid 3,3,3 "Those, therefore, who desert the preaching of the Church, call in question the knowledge of the holy presbyters....It behooves us, therefore, to avoid their doctrines, and take careful heed lest we suffer any injury from them; but to flee to the Church, and be brought up in her bosom. ibid 5,20,2

Philip Schaff, a major Protestant church historian respected by most Protestant Bible scholars writes in his History of the Christian Church - - The church view respecting the sources of Christian theology and the rule of faith and practice remains as it was in the previous period, except that it is further developed in particulars. The divine Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, as opposed to human writings; AND the ORAL TRADITION or LIVING FAITH of the catholic church from the apostles down, as opposed to the varying opinions of heretical sects -- TOGETHER FORM THE ONE INFALLIBLE SOURCE AND RULE OF FAITH. BOTH are vehicles of the same substance: the saving revelation of God in Christ; with this difference in form and office, that the church tradition determines the canon, furnishes the KEY TO THE TRUE INTERPRETATION of the Scriptures, and guards them against heretical abuse." (volume 3, page 606) J.N.D. Kelly, a major Protestant church historian from this century writes in his Early Christian Doctrines -- (after many examples) "It should be unnecessary to accumulate further evidence. Throughout the whole period Scripture AND tradition ranked as complementary authorities, media different in form but coincident in content. To inquire which counted as superior or more ultimate is to pose the question in misleading and anachronistic terms. If Scripture was abundantly sufficient in principle, tradition was recognized as the SUREST CLUE TO ITS INTERPRETATION, for in TRADITION the Church retained, as a legacy from the apostles which was embedded in all the organs of her institutional life, an UNERRING GRASP of the real purport and MEANING of the revelation to which Scripture AND tradition alike bore witness." (page 47-4 Thus in the end the Christian must, like Timothy [cf. 1 Tim 6:20] 'guard the deposit', i.e. the revelation enshrined in its completeness in Holy Scripture and CORRECTLY interpreted in the Church's UNERRING tradition." (page 51)

According to the Dictionary of Christianity in America [Protestant] (Downers Grove, IL: Intervarsity Press, 1990): "As of 1980 David B. Barrett identified 20,800 Christian denominations worldwide . . ." ("Denominationalism," page 351). <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I'll give you one: The Assumption of Mary. It used to be considered heresy, in fact, Pope Gelasius (495 A.D) and Pope Hormisdas (514 A.D) rejected this teaching and declared anyone who taught it heretics. It wasn't until 1950 that Pope Pius XII declared it as official Roman Catholic Doctrine. So before 11/1/50 any Catholic who believed the Assumption of Mary was considered a heretic by the RCC, but after 11/1/50 any Catholic who doesn't believe it is considered a heretic by the RCC. Hmmm.... <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Thanks for your opinion but i think these Protestant Bible scholars are more reliable. Here is a few examples. William Hendriksen Member of the Reformed Christian Church, Professor of New Testament Literature at Calvin Seminary The meaning is,