Denominations

[Sketcher]

♥ Why?

I believe it boils down to:
- Ignorance. We don't know everything, which causes believers of all stripes to overreach in terms of what they think they know. This is how you get believers that believe in worshiping one way vs. worshiping another way.
- Sin. Some church leaders allowed themselves to become corrupted by sin in such a serious way that Christians under them or who heard about them had to disassociate with them.

♥ Is my impression of Christianity way off, or is it as bad as it appears?

There are those in certain denominations that believe that those in other denominations are Hell-bound, and others, often in those same denominations, who do not. Whether that happens or not I think goes with a person's way of thinking more than their denomination's theology.

♥ How would you change it if you could?

I would settle the questions on theology and practice that provoke divisive responses, so that the differences would be limited to superficial ones, and this would be recognized by everyone. That would result in large-scale repentance, and certain offices being vacated for good. And certain social debates all of a sudden would by consequence, disappear.

 

[thecolorsblend]

♥ Why?

At the core, I think the divides between the Catholic and Protestant worlds come down to authority. As you have probably noticed in your studies of Christianity's scriptures, the text rarely interprets itself. And some passages require a lot of interpretation. Catholics recognizes an authority for all matters of religious faith. Protestants recognize a different authority.

Within the Protestant world itself, there are yet more disagreements but those tend to revolve around matters of degree more than matters of direct substance. A bit more of X and a bit less of Y. So, the differences between one Protestant community and another are very real but they're usually taken less seriously.

♥ Is my impression of Christianity way off, or is it as bad as it appears?

Sadly, I think you are mostly correct in your assessment of Christianity.

♥ How would you change it if you could?

Well, I'm Catholic so my preference that all Christians should be Catholic should go without saying. I tend to be very suspicious of people who believe, in essence, that doctrine doesn't matter.

For example, I can respect the evangelical Christian who is an evangelical Christian as a matter of personal conviction. I disagree with that person, of course, but I do respect them for having a conviction and sticking to it.

But the people who spout variations on "Eh, everybody is wrong in some way or another" always raise a red flag. There are a dizzying number of divisions within the Christian world. Considering the broad range of disagreement the various Christian bodies have with one another, the law of numbers demands that at least one Christian body is right about everything.

But I digress.

I'm Catholic and I wouldn't be Catholic if I thought some other community was correct. So, I think my preference that all Christians be Catholic should be self-evident. And even among those who disagree with Catholicism, I hope they can at least respect the fact that I care enough about them to want them to join the Catholic Church than dismiss the very real and very serious differences we Christians have with each other as irrelevant and trivial.

 

[zippy2006]

While every religion has differences of opinion, Christianity from very early came to define itself as based on specific beliefs much more strongly than other religions.

I agree with this, and you see a similar thing in Islam.

 

[ViaCrucis]

I'm a Buddhist, but I'm curiously drawn to reading the Bible and feel a certain comfort in reading and holding it.
In Buddhism we do have different schools and styles, but for the most part, we respect each others denominations and see them all as valid.

I find Christians seem to have much sharper divisions. I don't really know why because, as an outsider the differences seem slight, and don't warrant a separate church.
But in Christianity we see people from different denominations who won't worship together or even recognise each other as on a true path to heaven.
Are Catholics going to hell? Are protestants going to hell? Lutherans? Baptists? Seventh Day Adventists?
I suspect, if Christianity is true, then you can all go to heaven... and then you will HAVE to get along!

Anyway, a question or two!?

♥ Why?

The answer to that literally fills hundreds of history books and covers two thousand years of history--with a lot of really complicated events happening at different times and places.

A short answer is that there have been at various times what we might describe as crossroad moments, where certain questions come up; and there isn't always a consensus over those questions. Sometimes this does not result in schism (the separation of church bodies from one another), but other times it does.

That is a tremendous oversimplification of course.

In hindsight it can often seem like a number of the schisms that happened historically could have been avoided had certain people involved acted differently, or if circumstances had been slightly different, but hindsight is 20/20 as they say. But things happened the way they did, and we can lament that, but all we can really do is see how we can go moving forward. In some cases those old wounds have been tended to, in some cases those wounds seem to be healing, sometimes things are better now than they used to be; and then in some cases things seem pretty well cemented in stone between certain groups.

Some examples of these things off the top of my head:

- In the 5th century a schism erupted among the Eastern Churches between those who accepted the theological definition of the Incarnation at the Council of Chalcedon (451 AD); while others did not. The Chalcedonians charged the non-Chalcedonians of being Eutychians (after a heretic name Eutyches), while the non-Chalcedonians seem to have charged the Chalcedonians with rejecting the orthodox teachings of St. Cyril of Alexandria. As such the Chalcedonian Churches (today consisting of the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Protestant churches) and the non-Chalcedonian Churches (today consisting of the Oriental Orthodox, e.g. the Coptic Orthodox Church, the Armenian Apostolic Church, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, et al) ended up divided from one another. However, in more recent times open dialogue between the Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox have helped bridge a lot of gaps, and similar conversations have occurred between the Oriental Orthodox and the Western Churches. There is a general consensus that both Chalcedonians and non-Chalcedonians actually do agree in the substance of our theology, the difference was ultimately only a matter of semantics.

- Lutherans and Roman Catholics have a pretty strong five hundred year long history of not getting along, seeing as Rome accused us of heresy, excommunicated us, and we in turn may have decided to call the Pope the antichrist. However generally speaking relations between the various Lutheran bodies around the world and the Roman Catholic Church are pretty good today. A number of years ago there was a Joint Declaration on Justification between Catholic and Lutheran theologians discussing those points we agree, while acknowledging our differences--not all Catholics or all Lutherans are happy about the Joint Declaration, but it is something that did happen. On Reformation Day (October 31st) 2017, the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther nailing the 95 Theses to the church door in Wittenberg, Pope Francis actually took part in events commemorating Martin Luther--though it is fair to mention that many Catholics were not necessarily happy about the Pope doing this. So relations are better, but does that mean Lutherans and Catholics are going to get back together? Not likely, while open dialogue and civil discussion does mean a drastic improvement in our relationship to one another, but there are certain things which keep us divided--most central of these being the topic of Justification. There are other issues, of course, for example the papacy as an institution, doctrines such as purgatory with which we simply cannot agree with. And so while open conversation and improving relationships will no doubt continue (hopefully), it's hard to imagine a reconciliation between Lutheranism and Catholicism, there's simply too much at stake that neither side is willing to compromise on. And, honestly, I think that's a good thing here, even if I am deeply remorseful and deeply lament that we are not in communion with one another.

♥ Is my impression of Christianity way off, or is it as bad as it appears?

The vast majority of mainstream Christians--Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant--recognize one another as Christian and generally do not call into question the salvation of each other; that is we recognize one another as brothers and sisters even in spite of our divisions. There are Christians who do think they alone are saved, or they alone are Christian and nobody else is, but these are really more on the fringes of Christianity.

On the whole we recognize one another as Christians, sharing a common Christian faith, as long as we are confessing the common Creed, i.e. the Nicene Creed. The Nicene Creed is generally treated as the litmus test of Christian orthodoxy, and thus anyone who confesses it is a Christian and anyone who does not places themselves outside of the Christian faith.

♥ How would you change it if you could?

This side of the Eschaton, I think things will most likely stay divided--and that's very depressing to me, but I don't see a way that this could change without it being utterly destructive to the convictions and confessions of billions of Christians the world over.

It's a hard question, how do we balance unity with conviction? Because there has to be a point where a line is drawn in the sand and we say, "Here I stand", otherwise there's no conviction, there's nothing being confessed. If there's nothing worth being confessed, that means there's nothing worth believing. So, as horrible and as bad as I think the state of affairs are, on some level I think it is better that there are people who stick to their confessions and convictions over what could only be described as a false unity. Unity without conviction isn't anything.

I would rather someone disagree with me strongly and believe it, then agree with me weakly because they don't believe anything.

-CryptoLutheran