With so many contradictions among them, which of the 25,000+ protestant denominations has the whole truth?

Question

Before answering remember Luther´s words in a letter to fellow reformer Heinrich Zwingli. "There are almost as many sects and beliefs as there are heads; this one will not admit Baptism; that one rejects the Sacrament of the altar; another places another world between the present one and the day of judgment; some teach that Christ is not God. There is not an individual, however clownish he may be who does not claim to be inspired by the Holy Ghost, and who does not put forth as prophecies his ravings and dreams."

sorry, it´s 33,000 and counting.
Source: World Christian Encyclopedia by David B. Barrett, George T. Kurian, and Todd M. Johnson (2001 edition).

..and by the way I agree that it is embarrasing that there are so many. We should be ONE, as Jesus wanted, because how can others believe us when we have so many divisions?:
Jn. 17:20-21 - I pray not only for them, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, so that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you

To Martin:
Your answer has nothing to do with my question. You pretend to know hustory (although biased I would say) and to teach it to others while using epithets like "Romanists" (just like Luther did), which shows all you are is a Catholic-hating Lutheran. An Anglican bishop, John Henry Newmann said "To be dep in history is to cease being a protestant", and he converted to the Catholic Church. Be careful, your knowledge of history (once free from bias) may end up making you a Catholic sooner than you think.

Answer 1

Doctrines aside, the only churches which continue to enjoy the real and substantial presence of Jesus Christ, who IS truth, are the Catholic Church, and the Orthodox churches of apostolic origin.

This pretty much says it all.

Answer 2

That many huh? I knew there were a bunch but I didn't realize the number was quite that high.

That number is quite embarrassing, but I would rather have allot of Christian denominations then go back to the days when there were few, and power hungry people pretended to be Christian so they could chop off the heads of anyone they did not like.
You see one of the reasons we have so many denominations, is that people get sick of totalitarian dictators who pretend to be Christian and then try to force people to do unchristian things.
When Churches try to do unchristian things the threat of a divided Church sometimes puts them back where they ought to be. Kind of like the checks and balence system in the American government.


Quite frankly I don't pay to much attention to denominations any more. To many Church leaders go against what the main denomination says. Christianity isn't about denominations it is about Christ.
Certain fields of work require that people learn the difference between real money and counterfeit money. In those classes they don't drag out 25 thousand fake bills they pull out real money and make the students study the real McCoy so thoroughly that when they actually get a counterfeit it is as clear as the light of day that something is not right.

That is how we should handle those denominations of the Church become so familiar with what the entire Bible says that we know at once if the Church we go to has a problem.

When we discover the problem we then have to decide if the problem warrants leaving that Church. We are just like any other people even the best of us make mistakes, some mistakes are so small you can easily overlook them, but some mistakes are large and require immediate action.
The question is does the Church follow the essentials of the faith? We can differ on things like when the rapture will occur, but we can not differ on who Christ is. When we follow the wrong Christ we are not Christian.

Answer 3

Let's not forget the ones that teach only Baptism,other faith,other repent but if you do wrong again and again ask forgiveness.
And we wonder why there so many different Christian Religion in this world today they are all confuse but there are some truth in all of them from Catholic to Mormon. Jesus said watch and feel for yourself which one is right for you. But other may feel this or that church is right for them. I can only said this is a confusing world and we shouldn't judge if they follow God and Jesus. Because we have an enemy that want us to fight among each other

Answer 4

I normally hold my tongue when it comes to Romanist arrogance when they pull these types of games. This line of thinking and style of attack shows that certain Romanists have no clue of Church History. And that they neither understand the theology of other denominations nor sadly their own theology taught by their church. Is this some kind of rite of passage after confirmation, to go “beat up on Protestants?”

But let's go back to 1054 AD. You all remember from history class, this was the year that the Latin West and the Eastern Orthodox split apart in the "Great Schism." But what I want to know is why the Bishop of Rome on December 25th, 800AD crowned Charlemagne Emperor. Didn't the Latin West already have an Emperor in Constantinople? Why then were they rebelling against the Byzantine Empress and against their Empire by crowning a new Emperor? If everything was so honky up until the 16th century prior to the Protestant Reformation, why then was the Western Church in such a constant state of chaos? Why did St. Leo III (who crowned Charlemagne emperor in 800 AD) have his eyes gouged out in 799 and had to take refuge with Charlemagne? I don’t think the Romanist view of church history is as ideal as they like to think. You just need to read the histories of the Popes (I can suggest books by a couple of Roman Catholic authors that have done a great job) to understand that the Bishop of Rome was constantly fleeing the city of Rome and pleading with the European Monarchs to re-take the city and re-install them as the Bishop.

They like to think that everyone broke off them and that they have retained not only the orthodox faith but unity (catholicism). This is exactly the type of games that they like to play. If you look at the Roman Catholic church today, how unified are they? Sure they always “plead” with us Protestants to return to the catholic faith. But when you look the Roman Catholics in the United States, that unity is a joke. They have liberal Roman Catholics that want to have married priests, women priests and even homosexual priests. The majority of Roman Catholics largely ignore what the Pope instructs them to do and believe. They also have conservative Roman Catholics that call the Pope the Anti-Christ (certain Traditionalists) and wish to return the church back to its former “catholic’ roots. I really don’t see where Romanists have room to talk and attack Protestants.

But what I am having a hard time understanding is why Pope Adrian VI was installed as the Bishop of Rome to reform the curia? Why did he say that the Church was “rotten in head and members” as all of Europe was denouncing the corruption of the Roman Catholic church? And if the Protestants were so insidious and evil, why did Adrian VI ask for the Protestants to re-join the church so that they could fend off the Muslim invaders in Hungry? If the church, and the curia were not corrupt prior and during the 16 century, why was a reformer like Adrian VI needed? I also seem to remember Lutheran and Roman Catholic forces working together to crush the Anabaptists in the Münster Rebellion (1532-1535).

Answer 5

"How to have communion" is not secondary and neither is how to baptize. "This is my body which will be given for you" is the absolute and utter focus of scripture. It is the cross of Christ made present, in the flesh, to believers - "unless you eat the flesh of Man and drink his blood, you have no life within you." Everything else is just a slouching toward Jerusalem.

Baptism is the literal admittance of a person into Christianity. I should think that not exactly secondary either!

Now, to be fair, most of the mainline protestants aren't that different from Catholics even in these, although their deemphasis of communion to monthly (or fewer) celebrations I think is somewhat scandalous in light of "Do this in memory of me" and the revelation in the Book of Acts that the disciples did this every day.

Answer 6

The whole truth is with the One True God.
Each group of men may conceive some part. So we better exchange views rather than teaching each other. Only the Messengers of God can teach.

Answer 7

No denomination has the WHOLE truth. But all the major non-cult denominations - Catholic, Episcopalian, Methodist, Presbyterian, Church of Christ, Nazarene, Baptist, Assembly of God, Church of God. Pentecostal Holiness, Charismatic, most Independent, etc etc agree on the three or four most basics tenets of Christian doctrine. That is, in their official teachings. In many of them you have to dig kind of deep to find those doctrines; they have grown rather wishy-washy and fail sometimes to teach or hold to their basic truths, to avoid offending others. (This robs them of God's power.)

But essentially they agree, and this basic agreement supports the fact that those three or four basic teachings are God's most definite truths from the Bible. St Paul summed it up, "Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief."

After discussing a particular subject St Paul knew was controversial, (and indeed, that same subject is still controversial today), he stated "But if any man seem to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither the churches of God." I Cor 11:16
Modern chuches often spend way too much time being contentious about insignificant differences and way too little time helping seekers like you find the universal truths of the teachings of the Bible.

So, read the Bible yourself. Most of it is very simple and easy to understand. (But don't tell the theologians that.) When you come to a bump, ask God to help you understand, instead of trusting any man. Then look for a real non-cult church like one of those mentioned above, that fits your own understanding of the Bible the best.

Answer 8

Only those that are Born Again see the truth ,and only when you become Born Again willl the truth be revealed ,its impossible to see the truth untill a man becomes Born Again through the Word Of God

Answer 9

What is the whole truth? Does anyone have the whole truth? What a silly question even coming from an Atheist who live on half truths and insinuations. Go read the Bible and don't talk to me about truth you silly little man. xx

Answer 10

now, what is truth? as soon as you can answer that (thats assuming the absolutest view of truth) then you can find out which of the denominations in question has the 'whole' truth. although, perhaps none of them do, or perhaps all of them do, perhaps there is no truth or perhaps there can be a series of competing truths etc. your question is based on an assumption which is not shared by all, even many people