What are the main lines of christianity?

Question

I learned 2 main lines are cathoric and protestant when I was in my country (which is mainly buddist). After I came to America,I met some cathoric or baptists people, but I have never met protestant people, and I am little comfused... Is that true the two main lines are cathoric and protestant, or the textbook was wrong??????

Answer 1

The text book is wrong. There are more than 2 main lines, but if we were to separate Christianity into two main lines it would be between Western Christianity (Roman Rite Catholicism, various western heresies which include Protestantism, ) and Eastern Christianity (Eastern Rite Catholicism, Eastern Orthodox Churches (schmatic Catholics), early Eastern heresies).

Most textbooks forget and do not make note of Eastern Christianity even though it is much more diverse than Western Christianity.

here are some figures
http://www.scborromeo.org/images/fig1.jpg
http://www.scborromeo.org/images/fig6.gif

Answer 2

"Protestant" is a label which generally stands for non-Catholic Christians. There are literally HUNDREDS of different protestant groups: Methodists, Presbyterians, Baptists, Mormons, Anglicans, and the multitude of "spin offs." You've probably met a LOT of Protestants.

Answer 3

Christianity is a single religion observed by several churches. The churches include the Catholic Church, Orthodox Church and Evangelical Church (also known as the protestant). The later was started by Martin Luther to protest the several deviations the Catholic Church imposed on its followers and was therefore named the Protestant Church. Under the Protestant Church falls all Evangelical churches such as the Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian...etc.

Answer 4

The protestant reformation occurd in the 1500s separating a good portion of the Catholic church (mainly the only Christian church/denomination) into two: Catholic and Protestant (protestant comes from protest...)

Anyhow, you're right that basic Christianity is split into Catholic and Protestant, but there are denominations of both-- that is, groups of people who have different beliefs. Baptists don't believe its right to baptize babies... Presbyterians, Methodists, Lutheran, etc do baptize babies. That kind of difference.

For more information about the reformation, go to:
http://www.educ.msu.edu/homepages/laurence/reformation/

For more information about protestant denominations:
http://www.religionfacts.com/christianity/denominations/comparison_charts.htm

Answer 5

Your textbook was technically correct. The word protestant comes from the word "to protest". To protest what? To protest the hold of the Roman Catholic church on the people and its keeping of the scriptures out of the hands of the common man. The reformation changed this. Today, I would not classify there being only two lines of Christianity, I would say there are "eras" and there are seven main eras. Jesus addresses each of these eras at the beginning of Revelation. I have created a study that shows His opinion and rebuke to each of these eras. http://tinyurl.com/nyjzb

As a preview, here are the seven eras...

Apostolic church era
Martyred church era
Constantinian church era
Roman Catholic church era - present today
Protestant church era - present today
Non-denominational church era - present today
Prosperity Gospel church era - present today

Answer 6

There is ONE christian faith which is divided into denominations of ORTHODOX , CATHOLIC and PROTESTANT which is further subdivided in various SECTS, of anglicans, baptists, greek orthodoxs etc.....all these groups derive out of the same Christian tradition. The difference is in the interpretation of the crhistian traditions and there are many ways to skin a cat as they say......

Answer 7

Ok, Baptist are Protestant, but is it possible that you've never met a Pentecostal??? I am a Pentecostal...

Answer 8

Protestant or baptist are the same.