Why Are There So Many Denominations In The Church

[Charlie1988]

There's an estimated 45,000 Christian Denominations in the world today. 

The rise of denominations within the Christian faith can be traced back to the Protestant Reformation, the movement to “reform” the Roman Catholic Church during the 16th century, out of which four major divisions or traditions of Protestantism would emerge: Lutheran, Reformed, Anabaptist, and Anglican. From these four, other denominations grew over the centuries to a staggering 45,000 today.

Nowhere in Scripture is there a mandate for denominationalism; to the contrary, the mandate is for union and connectivity. The second problem is that history tells us that denominationalism is the result of, or caused by, conflict and confrontation, which leads to division and separation. Jesus told us that a house divided against itself cannot stand. This general principle can and should be applied to the church. We find an example of this in the Corinthian church which was struggling with issues of division and separation. There were those who thought that they should follow Paul and those who thought they should follow the teaching of Apollos, 1 Corinthians 1:12, Each of them says, “I’m with Paul,” or “I’m with Apollos,” or “I’m with Cephas,” or “I’m with Christ.”

1. Denominations are based on disagreements over the interpretation of Scripture. An example would be the meaning and purpose of baptism. Is baptism a requirement for salvation, or is it symbolic of the salvation process? There are denominations on both sides of this issue. In fact, baptism—its meaning, its mode, who can receive it, etc.—has been a central issue in the separation of churches and forming of new denominations.

2. Disagreements over the interpretation of Scripture are taken personally and become points of contention. This leads to arguments that can and have done much to destroy the witness of the church.

3. The church should be able to resolve its differences inside the body, but once again, history tells us that this doesn’t happen. Today the media uses our differences against us to demonstrate that we are not unified in thought or purpose.

4. Denominations are used by man out of self-interest. There are denominations today that are in a state of self-destruction as they are being led into apostasy by those who are promoting their personal agendas.

5. The value of unity is found in the ability to pool our gifts and resources to promote the Kingdom to a lost world. This runs contrary to divisions caused by denominationalism.

History has shown that the greatest damage done to the Church has been a "divided house" caused by "Denominationalism" and the Lord warned that a house divided against itself cannot stand. In my view, the only way to unify the Church is to abolish Denominationalism and join as One Body of believers. I can't see that happening until Christ returns and unites His people in Him.  
 

 

 

[Deborah_]

Statistics like this one give a false impression of the state of the Church. There may well be 45,000 denominations on paper, but what does that mean in practice? Very very few of them claim to be the "only true church". Most merely represent different styles of worship, different ways of organising church government - or even just different languages (in countries where many language groups live alongside each other).

In practice, most Protestant denominations have good relationships with one another. We co-operate in community service projects and in evangelism. We're different - but not divided!

[RdJ]

4 hours ago, Charlie1988 said:

There's an estimated 45,000 Christian Denominations in the world today. 

The rise of denominations within the Christian faith can be traced back to the Protestant Reformation, the movement to “reform” the Roman Catholic Church during the 16th century, out of which four major divisions or traditions of Protestantism would emerge: Lutheran, Reformed, Anabaptist, and Anglican. From these four, other denominations grew over the centuries to a staggering 45,000 today.

Nowhere in Scripture is there a mandate for denominationalism; to the contrary, the mandate is for union and connectivity. The second problem is that history tells us that denominationalism is the result of, or caused by, conflict and confrontation, which leads to division and separation. Jesus told us that a house divided against itself cannot stand. This general principle can and should be applied to the church. We find an example of this in the Corinthian church which was struggling with issues of division and separation. There were those who thought that they should follow Paul and those who thought they should follow the teaching of Apollos, 1 Corinthians 1:12, Each of them says, “I’m with Paul,” or “I’m with Apollos,” or “I’m with Cephas,” or “I’m with Christ.”

1. Denominations are based on disagreements over the interpretation of Scripture. An example would be the meaning and purpose of baptism. Is baptism a requirement for salvation, or is it symbolic of the salvation process? There are denominations on both sides of this issue. In fact, baptism—its meaning, its mode, who can receive it, etc.—has been a central issue in the separation of churches and forming of new denominations.

2. Disagreements over the interpretation of Scripture are taken personally and become points of contention. This leads to arguments that can and have done much to destroy the witness of the church.

3. The church should be able to resolve its differences inside the body, but once again, history tells us that this doesn’t happen. Today the media uses our differences against us to demonstrate that we are not unified in thought or purpose.

4. Denominations are used by man out of self-interest. There are denominations today that are in a state of self-destruction as they are being led into apostasy by those who are promoting their personal agendas.

5. The value of unity is found in the ability to pool our gifts and resources to promote the Kingdom to a lost world. This runs contrary to divisions caused by denominationalism.

History has shown that the greatest damage done to the Church has been a "divided house" caused by "Denominationalism" and the Lord warned that a house divided against itself cannot stand. In my view, the only way to unify the Church is to abolish Denominationalism and join as One Body of believers. I can't see that happening until Christ returns and unites His people in Him.  
 

 

 

3. That has happened in revivals. Don't remember where it was. It was on a video called Transformations from the Sentinel group about when God came to town. One pastor got killed by his neighbour and then they set their differences aside and prayed together and preached at each other's podiums and they got revival.

That's why satan rather lets us fight useless. He doesn't want revival.

[Neighbor]

6 hours ago, Charlie1988 said:

The rise of denominations within the Christian faith can be traced back to the Protestant Reformation, the movement to “reform” the Roman Catholic Church during the 16th century, out of which four major divisions or traditions of Protestantism would emerge: Lutheran, Reformed, Anabaptist, and Anglican. From these four, other denominations grew over the centuries to a staggering 45,000 today.

Hi, Seems to me the divides go back to the very beginning of local church body gatherings. The seven churches of Asia minor being an example of how very quickly the word of God gets used differently  at different church bodies, with some so very quickly even losing their first love. Even further back the Apostles divided over differences of opinion and assignment by God.

[Neighbor]

Humans have been deliberately divided by God since the Tower at Babel days. If there were one church, a mega church, it would build a monument to itself, and forget it's first love as it did great works in the name of itself.

[AnOrangeCat]

3 hours ago, Deborah_ said:

In practice, most Protestant denominations have good relationships with one another. We co-operate in community service projects and in evangelism. We're different - but not divided!

I agree with this. An awful lot of denominations are denominations in name only. They may have different statements of belief and points of emphasis but when it comes to the way its members live their daily lives and put their believes into practice there's not a lot of difference. Certainly there are exceptions but my experience has been that a lot of it is just on paper. The fact that some would emphasize certain things over others lines up with Paul's body of Christ analogy. That's when things are working as intended, though. In practice we're in a fallen world and have our sin natures to contend with so the mark will be missed sometimes.

Edited June 20, 2024 by AnOrangeCat

[Diamond]

8 hours ago, Charlie1988 said:

There's an estimated 45,000 Christian Denominations in the world today. 

Revelation says there are seven churches. So all "45,000" has to be one of those seven. Although I have seen church that seem to be two of the churches we read about in Revelation. 

[TheBlade]

17 hours ago, Charlie1988 said:

There's an estimated 45,000 Christian Denominations in the world today. 

The rise of denominations within the Christian faith can be traced back to the Protestant Reformation, the movement to “reform” the Roman Catholic Church during the 16th century, out of which four major divisions or traditions of Protestantism would emerge: Lutheran, Reformed, Anabaptist, and Anglican. From these four, other denominations grew over the centuries to a staggering 45,000 today.

Nowhere in Scripture is there a mandate for denominationalism; to the contrary, the mandate is for union and connectivity. The second problem is that history tells us that denominationalism is the result of, or caused by, conflict and confrontation, which leads to division and separation. Jesus told us that a house divided against itself cannot stand. This general principle can and should be applied to the church. We find an example of this in the Corinthian church which was struggling with issues of division and separation. There were those who thought that they should follow Paul and those who thought they should follow the teaching of Apollos, 1 Corinthians 1:12, Each of them says, “I’m with Paul,” or “I’m with Apollos,” or “I’m with Cephas,” or “I’m with Christ.”

1. Denominations are based on disagreements over the interpretation of Scripture. An example would be the meaning and purpose of baptism. Is baptism a requirement for salvation, or is it symbolic of the salvation process? There are denominations on both sides of this issue. In fact, baptism—its meaning, its mode, who can receive it, etc.—has been a central issue in the separation of churches and forming of new denominations.

2. Disagreements over the interpretation of Scripture are taken personally and become points of contention. This leads to arguments that can and have done much to destroy the witness of the church.

3. The church should be able to resolve its differences inside the body, but once again, history tells us that this doesn’t happen. Today the media uses our differences against us to demonstrate that we are not unified in thought or purpose.

4. Denominations are used by man out of self-interest. There are denominations today that are in a state of self-destruction as they are being led into apostasy by those who are promoting their personal agendas.

5. The value of unity is found in the ability to pool our gifts and resources to promote the Kingdom to a lost world. This runs contrary to divisions caused by denominationalism.

History has shown that the greatest damage done to the Church has been a "divided house" caused by "Denominationalism" and the Lord warned that a house divided against itself cannot stand. In my view, the only way to unify the Church is to abolish Denominationalism and join as One Body of believers. I can't see that happening until Christ returns and unites His people in Him.  
 

 

 

I saw this video where this Mark Lowry who wrote "Mary did you know". It seems hes always trying to be funny and he is. So he was asking all the people "are there any Presbyterians, Baptist, AOC so forth so on saying there's allot of denominations. Then he smiles and says "one of us is right".  Oh man made them all laugh. It was so wonderful to see so many together praise GOD glory to Jesus. 

There is one vine and so many branches .. who can count. 

[Dennis1209]

I agree with the assessment @Charlie1988 supplied; the Reformation was the beginning of denominational splits (Satan and his minions never miss a service). It also began the 350+ Bible versions and translations in print today. What is worse is the centuries of the Dark Ages, where it was illegal to own a Bible, and the Bible was read and interpreted with bias by a priest in Latin, which few, if any, in the pew understood.

As church history records, splits occurred (and still happen) due to core Salvation issues and many other doctrinal issues. OSAS, Calvinism vs. Arminianism, baptism, the Eucharist, etc. Cults have formed, calling themselves churches, to name just a few, LDS, Jehovah's False Witnesses, Jim Jones, David Koresh, the RCC, 7^th Day Adventists, prosperity gospel churches, the church of AI, and so many other examples.

The seven churches Jesus wrote to in Revelation chapters two and three are the history of the church age written in advance. With the benefit of hindsight in our generation, we can see and closely date it.

I do not like to label myself as belonging to a particular denomination; I am a Christ follower. The church will not be perfect until Christ's return and our glorification. Upon retirement and moving to another state, I aligned myself and joined an independent Baptist Church because the denomination mirrors my own beliefs and doctrine.

In the Baptist denomination, there are sub-denominations: Alliance of Baptists, American Baptist Association, ‌American Baptist Churches USA, Baptist Bible Fellowship International, Baptist General Convention of Texas, Baptist Missionary Association of America, Convention of Atlantic Baptist Churches, Converge, Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, Foundations Baptist Fellowship International, General Association of Regular Baptist Churches (GARBC), National Association of Free Will Baptists, National Baptist Convention/USA Inc., National Baptist Convention of America Inc., International, National Missionary Baptist Convention of America, North American Baptist Conference, Pentecostal Free Will Baptists, Primitive Baptists, Seventh Day Baptists, Southern Baptist Convention, Venture Church Network, and ‌Virginia Baptist Mission Board.

I listed all the above to make a point; these splits will continue to splinter and split over truth and biblical doctrine, as well as other denominations.

Satan has manifested himself in the Baptist denomination, particularly the current Southern Baptist Convention. At the same time, there is a strong push and voting to allow women pastors and deacons, gay pastors and deacons. We are living in the last church age, the Laodicean church age.

Other denominations are struggling and splitting over the same politically correct ideology and human thinking of inclusion, not God's word on the issues.

[Charlie1988]

17 hours ago, Deborah_ said:

Statistics like this one give a false impression of the state of the Church. There may well be 45,000 denominations on paper, but what does that mean in practice? Very very few of them claim to be the "only true church". Most merely represent different styles of worship, different ways of organising church government - or even just different languages (in countries where many language groups live alongside each other).

In practice, most Protestant denominations have good relationships with one another. We co-operate in community service projects and in evangelism. We're different - but not divided!

I agree most of the Protestant Churches get on or tolerate each other well. But that only represents a small percentage of denominations. The Protestants have nothing in common with the larger Denominations, such as the Roman Catholic and and Eastern Orthodox. They teach a very different Gospel message, based on works and sacraments. The vast majority of their congregation have never studied the Bible and their Church Ministers don't encourage them to do so.

I'm a member of an independent, non denominational Reformed Baptist church. Our senior Pastor instructs us, not to have any fellowship with Churches who don't hold to Reformed theology. I'm sure most Churches, only have fellowship with other sister Churches who interpret the Bible in the same way they do and hold to the same systematic theology. It's only natural, all like minded Churches have good relations. But they are hostile towards those who hold to different views. 

I saw a documentary some years ago, it covered the war which took place after Martin Luther denounced the Roman Catholic Papacy as being Antichrist. I had no idea of the scale and brutality of that war, it was a very bloody war bows and arrows and swords. I can't remember how many died but it was in the tens of thousands and many more wounded. 

That documentary made me realize that people are willing to kill their brothers in Christ, just because they hold to a different view. I think that spirit of hatred for others in the Church who hold to different views is still in the Church but it's being restrained.