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 superpimp
The boss of thefamily
Registered: 06/11/01
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Loc: Philadelphia/NYC
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 Question about different Christian sects 
#1785844 - 08/06/03 06:55 PM (18 years, 5 months ago) |
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I'm not very religious, but I do know a bit about Catholicism since that's what my family is, even though we never went to church.
I don't really know anything about the other Christian groups that there are. I know non Catholic Christians are the descendants of the Lutheran movement and the reformation and all that, but what is the difference between Lutherans, Episcopalians, Unitarians, Baptists, and other Christian groups?
All week it's been a big thing in the news about the gay Episcipalian bishop, and I was just watching a piece on the news where they had a discussion with all these church leaders from different faiths. So, what's the difference between them all? Can someone set me straight here?
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World Spirit
PNW
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Re: Question about different Christian sects [Re: superpimp]
#1787513 - 08/07/03 07:21 AM (18 years, 5 months ago) |
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Deleted by admin
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Darkcloud
tiwkcuFtsilihiN
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Re: Question about different Christian sects [Re: superpimp]
#1787533 - 08/07/03 07:39 AM (18 years, 5 months ago) |
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According to the World Christian Encyclopedia, there are 34,000 Christian sects in all.
It might be somewhat hard to separate them all. LOL...
Source
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 Sole_Worthy
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Re: Question about different Christian sects [Re: Darkcloud]
#1788203 - 08/07/03 01:43 PM (18 years, 5 months ago) |
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Ive also wondered this, but never seem to get a decent answer...maybe I should do some research 
good luck
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get it all together get like birds of a feather
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superpimp
The boss of thefamily
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Re: Question about different Christian sects [Re: Darkcloud]
#1788827 - 08/07/03 04:11 PM (18 years, 5 months ago) |
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Where could I go to read about the basic differences between the larger groups? I'm not going to read each religions official website to see what they have to say, I just want a basic rundown on the basic differences.
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Sole_Worthy
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Re: Question about different Christian sects [Re: superpimp]
#1788955 - 08/07/03 04:48 PM (18 years, 5 months ago) |
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yeah id also like the basicrun down. this is what I know:
the thing about the CoE (chruch of england) was when henry VIII wanted to get divroced and ddint want to have to go through the pope to do it. in them days I think all of european churches were controled by the pope at the top.
catholosism is the bread and win thing. did JC mean it literaly or metophoricaly when he said this is my body and blood.
also gnosticism or gnosis,im not sure. which in the early days. like after JC died to year 1000AD or something they were as popular at the mianstream christianity.
johovas witness belive JC has returned. in 1914 infact, but not in the form of a man.
i speak to this hardcore christian on MSN, and he ansers most of my questions, but dosnt know much about the other groups.
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get it all together get like birds of a feather
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Amber
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Re: Question about different Christian sects [Re: superpimp]
#1789000 - 08/07/03 04:57 PM (18 years, 5 months ago) |
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This is a horrible oversimplification, but you asked for it, so here it goes: 
First, there were Christ and the Twelve Apostles. Each of them started churches in different areas of the Knowne Worlde, and all of these churches were basically founded on Yeshua and his teachings. Of course, there were some variations based on the differences between the Apostles' teachings (no one tells the same story in exactly the same way, but generally the message was always the same), and of course differences arose based on the varying cultures of the members themselves. This wasn't considered to be a big deal at first. Some of the churches got into arguments with each other, and occasionally there were church councils to resolve these disputes, but for the most part they could live and let live. This is how you have gnostic Christian sects such as we find in the Nag Hammadi texts existing contemporary to the early Roman Christians, etc.
Then, in about 325 A.D., a horrible thing happened. Emperor Constantine declared Christianity the national religion of the Roman Empire. Although this gave the Christians legal protection (which in those days meant you wouldn't be eaten alive by lions or burned to death at the stake for entertainment in the Colliseum), it also meant that Christianity had to be standardized and given a priesthood hierarchy that could be controlled by the Emperor. Constantine called the Council of Nicea together to formulate the new statement of faith. Most of the leaders from all the various flavors of Christianity came; some didn't come in protest. The story of the Council of Nicea is actually a pretty interesting one, full of bargaining, dissent, corruption, and intrigue, but I'm trying to keep this short. The point is, Constantine decided that Yeshua's statement to Peter that "upon this rock I will build my Church" meant that Yeshua had transferred his authority to Peter, and since Peter had spent some time in Rome, and Constantine could easily claim the place near the present-day Vatican as his tomb, the Bishop of Rome would conveniently be the head of the new religion of the Roman Empire. Thus, Roman Catholicism is born. To this day, Catholicism insists that true priesthood authority descends in an unbroken chain from the first Bishop of Rome, Peter, to the modern Pope, and that the validity of all priesthood power rests on this connection. The Nicean Creed is their statement of faith. By their definition, deviating from its tenets makes your faith non-Christian. There are still some pre-Nicean forms of Christianity in existence, but they're sort of the black sheep of the family no one likes to talk about.
Then, near the end of the Middle Ages, Martin Luther and a few other revolutionaries decided the RCC was corrupt. In Luther's case, he declared the Catholic interpretation of priesthood authority was all wrong, and decided that Christian authority was actually derived from the "priesthood of all believers." In other words, there isn't a line of ordination, per se, but priesthood is based on a person's faith in God. Ministers were called and set apart by the Divine, not a line of priesthood extending back to Peter. The Church of England, or Anglican Church (called Episcopalian in the United States, because after the Revolutionary War we decided we better change the name) was started by King Henry the VIII because the Pope would not approve one of his divorces, but it was really legitimatized as its own religion under the guidance of his daughter Queen Elizabeth. The Anglican Church doesn't necessarily believe in the priesthood of all believers, instead claiming that their priesthood extends from Peter, as well, only they've got it while the current Pope does not, because of that dratted corruption. It's all very mysterious, really. The point is, thus came Protestantism. The Protestant churches are Protestant because they protest the authority of the Pope in some way. The schisms have been never-ending ever since; it seems every time a member has a quarrel with their minister or priest, they declare that person's authority null and void and proceed to start another church on their own. Generally speaking, however, all these churches do still agree with the basic tenets of the Nicean Creed, thus still qualifying them as "Christian," even though the RCC might declare them to be apostasized heretics in violation of the True Faith (which most Protestants nowadays are more than happy to shout right back at them).
This brings us to some of the more marginalized members of the Christian community. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (commonly known as the Mormon Church, headquarted in Salt Lake City, UT), for instance, claims to be Christian, but in a very different way. They believe, like the Protestants, that the priesthood authority of the RCC was done away with due to their wickedness, but unlike many Protestant churches they also believe in a priesthood line of succession. The difference is, they believe that after the Catholics lost this power, it was "restored" to the earth by a resurrected Yeshua and his Apostles visiting and ordaining the young Joseph Smith, who then ordained others, who have continued the line of succession all the way up to the present-day Prophet and President of the Church, similar to what the Catholics claim about the Pope. However, the Latter-day Saints also have some rather heretical beliefs that are in opposition to the Nicean Creed. They claim these beliefs to be the original teachings of Christ as restored through Joseph Smith, that the original Christians believed before Constantine messed things up with his state religion, but this doesn't stop the Catholics and Protestants from claiming their beliefs aren't Christian and disowning them from the fold. Of course, there are also break-off churches from the LDS Church, which believe and practice different things (some of these are the infamous modern polygamists), which I won't go into here for brevity's sake (I know, too late ). Due to their collective beliefs about Joseph Smith, however, you could probably term these churches as Restorationist instead of Protestant or Catholic.
The Jehovah's Witnesses might exist in yet another fourth category, but quite honestly, I don't know that much about them to comment. I know that, like the Mormons, they are not considered Christians by most Catholics and Protestants, but they insist that they are, and I'm willing to give anyone the benefit of the doubt on something as insanely confusing as religious affiliation. I know their beliefs are quite different from the Mormons, though, and that there is quite a bit of enimity between even those two groups.
Obviously, all these different beliefs about the nature of the priesthood and what the true teachings of Christ might be, lead to some very different perspectives regarding the question of gays in the priesthood. Personally, I think it's a bunch of silliness and hair-splitting, but then, I'm not exactly a Christian.
Amber
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Chevelle
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Re: Question about different Christian sects [Re: Sole_Worthy]
#1789027 - 08/07/03 05:05 PM (18 years, 5 months ago) |
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I know that Christianity has so many sects because people would come up with there own ideas and branch off to form a new religion, when they didn't agree with what the church leader was teaching.
Just a comment to Sole Worthy, Jehovahs Witnesses believe in 1914, Jesus became the reigning king in heaven, hurling the devil down here..go figure..they don't think he has returned to Earth in different form. JW's are also considered true christians, because they believe in entirety what the bible teaches, they don't take bits and pieces and fit them together to form a religion that suits themsleves. They refer to the world of "Christianity" as you believe it to be...ie: all the sects and branches therof...as Christendom. The definition being: the realm of secretarian activity dominated by religions that claim to be christian. Christianity refers to the original form of worship and access to God taught by Jesus.
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silversoul7
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 Re: Question about different Christian sects [Re: superpimp]
#1789605 - 08/07/03 08:03 PM (18 years, 5 months ago) |
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Just so you know, there are Christian sects which are neither Catholic nor Protestant. The Greek and Russian Orthodox churches are the largest of these. There is also the Coptic church, which originates from Ethiopia. And then there is Gnostic Christianity. Most of these churches have been around almost as long, if not as long as the Catholic church, so if anyone tells you that the Catholic church is the one true church founded by Jesus Christ himself, they're full of shit.
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"It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong."--Voltaire
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superpimp
The boss of thefamily
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Re: Question about different Christian sects [Re: silversoul7]
#1790167 - 08/07/03 10:47 PM (18 years, 5 months ago) |
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I'm not really interested in the entire history of Christianity, I just want to know what are the main differences between the larger sects in the US such as Baptist, Methodist, Episcopal, and a few of the others.
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MusicSucks
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Re: Question about different Christian sects [Re: superpimp]
#1790730 - 08/08/03 01:58 AM (18 years, 5 months ago) |
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Differences are mainly in the way that mass is held and the way things related to the church are practiced. The biggest differences are obviously between Catholicism and Protestantism. Protestants (Evangelists) protested against the state Christianity was in because they felt it had gotten too far away from scripture. They have a much more literal interpretation of the Bible than Catholics. Theres a good table comparing Catholics and Protestants here: http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_capr.htm
Differences in Protestant Sects are more minimal, so heres a website: http://www.myss.com/worldreligions/Christianity13.asp
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There is no dark side of the moon really... Matter of fact, it's all dark.
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HagbardCeline
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Re: Question about different Christian sects [Re: superpimp]
#1790779 - 08/08/03 02:26 AM (18 years, 5 months ago) |
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This is something that has intrigued me too. I knew the origin of most of the larger sects in the US, except the Baptist's. I was raised in a Southern Baptist home, and I have never gotten the story about how it originated.
So if someone is so inclined, that is the one I most want to know of.
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I keep it real because I think it is important that a highly esteemed individual such as myself keep it real lest they experience the dreaded spontaneous non-existance of no longer keeping it real. - Hagbard Celine
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gnrm23
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Re: Question about different Christian sects [Re: superpimp]
#1791235 - 08/08/03 08:32 AM (18 years, 5 months ago) |
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old enough to know better
not old enough to care
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