How many Christian Denominations are there?

[Assisi]

Pax

So we can all agree here that there are several thousand denominations around the world that claim to be of Christian origin. So now lets say I am a non-believer and I am looking to find out what this Christianity thing is all about. Which one of these 38,000 so called Christian churches do I turn to for the truth?

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

[Scarletprayers]

Wouldn't it be great if all the churches in North America and Europe tore down the denominational signs and put up a sign that said "Come in and worship God". I think that we as a body could accomplish a lot more with a common vision

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Gerioke,

I believe that a day is coming like that, but it will not be man who initiates it. I have seen too much protecting of denominational and local church "territories." I believe God is going to say "enough is enough" sometime soon and he is going to judge the church for their actions and that when that day comes it will no longer matter if you follow Paul or Appolos, because we will all be one church under Christ again and there will be no more division and it will be like the church in Acts all over again.

My husband and I have chosen to remain non-denominational because we just want to be "Christ's free servants." We don't want a denomination dictating what we should believe or follow. We want our only allegiance to be to Christ, our Savior and Lord. We believe in the local church body and the necessity of leadership and line of authority, but we also believe that denominationalism has done much to harm the church and to keep people from being free to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit with their lives.

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Sue, how do you actually do that. Attend and fellowship somewhere yet still remain apart? I really am asking???? I have the same problem with the church I am attending. I finally just quit going because I felt so torn about some things???

[Trinity]

i agree CFS!! Denominations don't matter all that matter is to be Christ's Free Servant

[Scarletprayers]

Assisi

IRENAEUS can answer for me. IRENAEUS was the second bishop of Lyons

[Assisi]

Assisi

IRENAEUS can answer for me. IRENAEUS was the second bishop of Lyons

[Pax]

Assisi are you from Stuebenville? 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.

[Pax]

horizoneast are you holding on to this notion of Sola Scriptora? And what about all the versus in the Bible that talk of Scripture plus Tradition? Look up John 21:25 "And there are also many other things that Jesus did, which if they were written one by one, I suspose that even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. Amen."

Or you could look up 2 Thessalonians 2:15 "Therefore, bretheran, stand fast and hold the traditions which you were taught, whether by word or our epistle."

So if you really study scripture you will see that it is scripture plus tradition if you want the fullness of the truth. I also like 2 Timothy 3: 16&17, especially verse 17 that points out that the scripture will equip you for every good work.

[Pax]

There are a few things that you have mentioned that we could debate. I could list 13 other places in the Bible that speak of scripture plus tradition. Also if you look at the history of Christianity when was this idea of Sola Scriptora first proposed and by who? How about Martin Luther in 1530. I believe the Augsburg Confession is the first formal Lutheran statement of faith. I'm not sure if this was his first time he publically brought up this idea of Sola Scriptora, but I'm sure it was sometime around then. The previous 1,500 years leading up to this the Church taught of scripture plus tradition. What do we go with 1,500 years of Church history or a fallen away Catholic priest who decided he would interpret the Bible the way he saw fit. It's all history.

[Guest yod]

Pax,Jun 1 2005, 03:54 AM]

Or you could look up 2 Thessalonians 2:15 "Therefore, bretheran, stand fast and hold the traditions which you were taught, whether by word or our epistle."

And I believe those traditions are from the Old Testament scriptures....basically the meaning of the Feasts of God, the walk of a believer since the days of Abraham, the spiritual meaning of the Torah, etc...etc...etc...

Rabbi Shaul (Paul) is definetely NOT saying that anyone should follow the anti-semetic "church fathers" or the writings of the gnostic Didache which came later.

You can not prove that "traditions" means otherwise.

[Assisi]

Assisi are you from Stuebenville?

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.

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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.