Are all of these saved? Does it matter which denomination or sect you belong to...?
Hello Tellyontellyon, God saves people/individuals, not institutions (not churches and/or denominations), though I believe that every church/denomination, at least those whose teachings fall within the pale of Christian orthodoxy, have people who are saved within them (and many, as well and sadly, who are not, just like the Bible makes clear to us).
As far as belonging to a particular sect or denomination being important or not, that could be answered with both a "yes" and a "no"
(as long as the institution in question holds to the most important tenets of the Christian faith, that is .. e.g. the
Apostles' Creed, the Nicene Creed, the Symbol of Chalcedon .. and you could certainly add the
Athanasian Creed into that mix).
Denominations (in many ways like the Great Schism of the Church in 1054 AD, which resulted in the split that still exists today between the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church) allow people to gather together with others who
1. hold the most foundational tenets of the Christian faith as one, but who also
2. have differing beliefs in other, less foundational areas of the Christian faith.
So then, the level of importance that a person assigns to one or more of these #2 kind of beliefs will determine how important it is to him/her to belong to a particular sect/denomination/church that holds them, as well (and to many, these kinds of differences are VERY important, just FYI).
--David
p.s. - I'm actually a fan of having our various churches and denominations, because they help remind us that God may be slightly larger than the church and/or denominational boxes that we like to put Him in. It also keeps any one group from having too much say so (or power) over the Christian faith in general, which with human beings, rarely, if ever, leads to anything good
.. as I'm certain that you are already aware.
edit: Just FYI, Catholics, Lutherans, Baptists are people who are associated with a particular church or denomination. Calvinists, on the other hand, like Arminians, are people who hold to a particular systematic theology or set of beliefs (so, there is no "Calvinist" or "Arminian" church, as such, though there are churches that hold to the tenets of Calvinism, to one degree or another, just like there are churches that hold to the tenets of Arminianism, to one degree of another).
