Why the great divide between Christians?

Question

Why is there such a gulf between the various forms of christianity?

Catholic-Protestant-Methodist-Presperterian-Born Again-Jehovahs Witnesses-Baptists-Mormons-Anglicans-Plymouth Brethren-Greek Orthodox-Jewish etc etc etc etc...

I have lived and worked with some real extremes and they hate each other more than they hate Non-Christians..... why?

Answer 1

They cant even agree if Jesus was god or the son

Answer 2

First of all Jews are not Christians, Mormons have a lot of non-mainstream views and are generally viewed as a cult, as are JWs.
Catholics, Protestants, Methodist, Baptists, Anglican and many other groups don't hate each other at all. If you are in the Church you will know that unified services between all these groups are very common. I think a lot of things are assumed about divisions within the Church which are just not the case.

Answer 3

well, I've personally experienced little conflict between, for example different protestant groups and catholics in my time. However, some of the groups have major doctrinal differences between their beliefs and others, e.g. Mormons believe in the Angel Moroni, Jehovah's Witnesses do not believe Jesus was the Son of God, etc. Some of these differences mean that to some, these groups are not truly Christian.

Secondly, there is division between any group of people, even if there are just 2 of them. As, according to some sources, there are over a billion Christians, the human instinct to collect into smaller groups is magnified greatly.

Answer 4

Interestingly, such "hatred" should be expected by true Christians in this time of the end, and it actually helps identify Jehovah's Witnesses as Christ's true disciples:

(John 15:19) If you were part of the world, the world would be fond of what is its own. Now because you are no part of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, on this account the world hates you.

(Luke 6:22) Happy are you whenever men hate you, and whenever they exclude you and reproach you and cast out your name as wicked for the sake of the Son of man.

(1 Peter 4:4) Because you do not continue running with them in this course to the same low sink of debauchery, they are puzzled and go on speaking abusively of you.

(2 Timothy 4:3-5) For there will be a period of time when they will not put up with the healthful teaching, but, in accord with their own desires, they will accumulate teachers for themselves to have their ears tickled; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, whereas they will be turned aside to false stories. You, though, keep your senses in all things, suffer evil, do the work of an evangelizer, fully accomplish your ministry.

It seems signficant that the relatively small religion of Jehovah's Witnesses are the ones best known for their worldwide preaching work. Yet Jesus commanded that ALL who would call themselves "Christian" perform this public work:

(Matthew 28:19,20) Go therefore and make disciples of people of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy spirit, teaching them to observe all the things I have commanded you. And, look! I am with you all the days until the conclusion of the system of things.

Learn more:
http://watchtower.org/library/jt/index.htm
http://watchtower.org/library/w/2003/3/1/article_01.htm
http://watchtower.org/library/w/2002/4/1/article_01.htm

Answer 5

Because they have lost the plot.

All these "Religions" have corrupted the word of Jesus Christ and in many cases adopted Old Testament concepts as their justification.

In most cases the heirarchy is desperate to retain their power and hatred is a powerful tool in maintaining cohesion within an organisation.
However something like 90% of Brits claim to be Christian yet about 7 per cent worship regularly, so I reckon 80% are Christian Fundementalists who accept Jesus's teaching but reject the organised religions add ons.
Do you know what most of the money collected by the Church of england is spent on, the poor? buildings? No, its Clergy Pensions over 60%

More PLC than a religion, and the others may very well be worse.

Answer 6

Because they are more interested in labels than Christianity.
I am Roman Catholic, very happy and content in this faith, however I have every respect and good wish for people of other Christian denominations, people of other faiths and indeed people of no Faith whatsoever.
I believe in a human who happens to be an Anglican, a Jew, a Hindu etc., not the other way around.
Some people are terribly closed minded, it's a case of "I'm right and everyone else in wrong" and then again there is the "us and them syndrome" - these failings occur in all aspects of life not just in religion.
I think that an awful lot of faith believers including Christians are in for a very nasty shock when they arrive at the gates of Heaven.
I don't think they will even be asked what denomination they belonged to, just simply how they treated everyone else...............

Answer 7

Alot of good answers here. Here's my 2 cents.

I think alot of the perceived "hate" stems from differences in belief systems. (I feel "hate" is a stong word, but I can understand why you used it.) Men come up with these rules and doctrines which are not biblically based. They add stuff to the Bible. They choose to ignore parts of it. They tend to take stuff out of context, as others have pointed out. I think adding or ignoring all of this "stuff" to/from God's word dilutes it and causes people to sometimes entirely miss the point of the Bible. Ironically, the Bible itself cautions against that sort of thing (Deu. 4:2, Rev. 22:18,19).

Not aiming my answer at any specific religion, but how silly would it sound if I invented my own cult, religion, or denomination and then made a rule that said if you want to get to heaven you better not drink carbonated beverages before noon? And you must drink purple kool-aid at least once a week? Doesn't that sound crazy? Yet, that's not far off from what alot of the various groups you describe have come up with on thier own.

I think if you take people from demonination "A" and asked them what they thought of religion "B", you'll get quite few stong opinions about these kinds of differences. And it's a two-way street. I am sure group "B" can tell you stuff they don't like about "A". They are more concerned with pointing out the perceived faults of others that giving any consideration to thier own. They like to preach thier own system and tear down others. Now I ask you, who wants to be a part of that?

God's plan of salvation was not not meant to be complicated. The root of the problem is so many groups have made it that way.

Answer 8

Because there is more input from man in doctrines than God. The Bible is what ALL Christians should follow. Anything beyond that is of evil. God's word is simple. Love, live, help, have faith, be baptized, forgive and ask for forgiveness, repent, live as Christ lived. All this other arguing about Sabbaths (Sunday or Saturday), Purgatory, the Watchtower, Popes, God having a wife, using a tambourine versus no instruments, ladies having to wear dresses only, etc.... is all nonsense! The doctrines of men are a snare. Follow the Word of God and all will go well with you!

Answer 9

Some ignore parts of the Bible, some focus only on one part and ignore everything else, others completely reword it. Some say, "My denomination is the right one" whereas others say, "Mine is, not yours".

It's all foolishness. The fact is, is that there is no other name under Heaven or Earth that can save us, but that of Jesus Christ. There are those who are saved in each denomination, and those that are damned.

If everyone took the Bible for simply what it says, instead of trying to read what isn't there into the words that are written (and then proclaim it to be truth!), there wouldn't be such animosity amongst ourselves.

Answer 10

Hate is a very strong word! I personally don't hate any of those groups or non-Christians. Please be careful you made the error of calling J.w's and Mormons Christians when they are not.

Now to answer your question the biggest difference I see is that some groups believe that the Bible is the inerrant Word of God while others don't. Some like Catholics think that tradition is more important. Others like main-line Protestants think accepting everyone and tolerating everything even sin is most important.

Answer 11

Theology. Their used to be only one show in town - Catholicism (300's - 1500's). The Catholics kept the Bible written in Latin. One of the results was no common or poor people could dispute their theology because they didn't know Latin. In the 1500's Martin Luther translated the Bible into the common German language. He feared it would lead to a bunch of denominations and erroneous teachings, but felt he still needed to do it.

When religious people hate each other it could be because their not totally secure with their beliefs, defensive. Or several other reasons.