please help me with a brief discription of how all the demoniations of christainty are different but the same?

Question

Raised Catholic tryed the mega church type thing for a while in HS the found athesim later in life. I have always found it confusing how you have pennacostals, baptist, espicapalians, protestants, but all christians, how does that work and do you have softball games against each other?

Thanks to all that have given a well thought out answer since i know very little on the subject I will let this go o voting anyone with links to web sites that you think would be helpful you can email me thru my profile thanks again

Answer 1

Actually all denominations are not the same.
You can really divide them into 2 major groups.
1. Trinitarian.
2. Not-Trinitarian.

The majority of proclaimed Christian denom's are Trinitarian. They will typically say that the major defining characteristic of being a "Christian" is one who believes in the trinity.
What some people find astonishing about this, is that the doctrine, which is the foundation of what these ones claims defines a "Christian", is neither found explicitly in the Bible, nor even the word trinity is found anywhere in scripture.

As for those who actually believe God is superior to Jesus, and that Jesus is created, the trinitarins, use the same tactic as the atheists use against those of all religions. They claim that those who actually only believe what the Bible says, are "brainwashed" and apostates.

Yet, I think it is everyone's right to research everything to their own satisfaction, by reason of the fact that if God is Almighty, he certainly is powerful enough, and wise enough, to decide whom he approves, and who he disapproves.

As for softball games? I wouldn't play with someone who cheats on the scorecards.

The best non-biased publication I have ever seen as regards the different doctrines of religions calling themselves Christians is:
Religions in America- by Leo Rosten
This book is a gathering of information as conveyed by the representatives of the many religions in the US by Leo Rosten and published in a side by side format, so that one can easily study the various doctrines of the many churches to see what each one teaches, and the reasons they have for doing so.
I find the study of religions very very interesting, and have found this book to be outstanding in it's ability to relay the information with absolutely no bias favoring one religion over another.
It really is a must have for anyone serious about evaluating their own faith, and looking honestly at the doctrines of other faiths.
I really do commend Leo Rosten for giving us this totally practical book.

Answer 2

Without getting into the history makes it harder to explain but it would take a while to write about 1400 years of history to really get the picture, so here goes. All Christian believe that Jesus is the son of God and he is God. When Luther split form the Catholic Church he made his own rules and regulations. At this same time the printing press was invented and more people had access to the bible which until then only the church had copies off. When more got access and read it, they disagreed with Luther and others in interpreting the bible and more denominations followed. The differences are not that major but some felt one thing was more important than another. So, they went and did there own thing. The bible is the same but the organization and structure may be different. Some may us/ have a method to follow or believe what the bible says word by word. No one has altered or changed what the Bible says . Hope this helps. Peace

Answer 3

How they're the same
Well Protestants and Catholics differ in
Protestants teach Jesus Christ is the only way to salvation, and one must be born again
Catholics teach the pope can forgive sins

As far as individual denominations
Some teach trinity, others teach Jesus, God, and the holy spirit are the same but different aspects
Some teach infant baptisim, others teach baptism at the age of accounabilty, while yet others teach you must be baptised after you're saved. Then some belief baptism is required for salvation, while others don't. Some teach baptism by immersian others teach baptism by sprinkling.
Some teach the gifts of the holy spirit, like speaking in tongues, while others say those gifts were of the past.
Some teach God Predestined everything, while others teach God knows what will happen but doesn't plan the future.
Some teach the endtimes are a future event, while others teach revelations already happened. Then there is even doctrine debate about the rapture whether it occurs before the tribulation, in the middle or at the end.
There is many others as well, but i think you get the pt.

As far as the same, as long as they believe Jesus is the only way to salvation there're a genuine church. The catholic church is the harlet found in revelations. And Mega churches usually teach a prospertiy message, give to the ministry and the floodgates of heaven will pour down on you. However Jesus was poor, and so don't be deceived by their attractive message.

Answer 4

It's just a matter of differing beliefs. They all believe in Christ and certain other things, but they differ on other points. I would not know how to begin to point out each individual difference. Some worship more formally--similar to the Catholic worship service and some are very animated like a pentacostal service where you have people jumping around, singing and speaking in tongues.

Think of Christianity as one group (originally). From the beginning, it would split (schism). People would disagree and split off and take followers with them. Catholics are just one group of many. The one thing that binds all of us is that we believe in God who created the world and His Son Christ.

And no, they don't play softball against each other. Generally, they prefer to criticize each other.

Answer 5

lol indeed there are softball leagues amongst the various denominations, I used to be in an informal one against other area churches (its a singles group thing).

What they have the same is that we all believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that He died for our sins. That's the standard which makes you a Christian.

What they have different is the method they choose to worship and the various aspects of Jesus and His ministry that the different denominations try to mirror. In a black Southern Baptist church, members often get up and dance their joy; yelling a joyous "Amen!" is encouraged during the sermon. In a Catholic Church in Baltimore, that is probably frowned upon lol.

That's really all it comes down to; how you want to worship.

Answer 6

LOL---Actually, some of the Churches in our area do play sports against each other! There is no "brief description" of how all these denominations differ. But most of the differences are little things that seperate the whole group from being able to worship peacefully together. Sometimes folks can't even get along with themselves! -- Blessings!

Answer 7

The religions which you have mentioned are only few of religious groups entire the nation. You know ministers or many people who claimed to be very intelligent in understanding the bible, founded their own religious group not only for the purpose of preaching or teaching the words of God in the bible but for their personal welfare or interest. They are not really inclined to teach what was written on the bible.They are making their own doctrines out of the bible and are very good in ennticing people to join them because their interest are the contributions of their members which they claimed their share of the 10% of the income of their members. So many pastors now are millioneers who owns big houses and many ;building and eating good foods without thinking those are the contributions of their members.In short they made religions as a business, a b ig business although they know that are in the category of false christians, false pastors.If you will only follow the bible, they religion that was founded by Jesus Christ himself when he became man is the Church of God and no other else. So all those who are in other religions are false christians. They are not following Jesus Christ since the word christian came from his name as Christ. In short if you are not with christ, you are not christian.
jtm

Answer 8

In Christianity you have the Catholic Church(founded in 33AD by Jesus Christ) for over 1,500 years, along comes Luther in 1517 and he split from the Catholic Church and created Protestantism. From Protestism came Lutherans, Baptists, Methodists Presbyterians, etc. Protestants have over 33,000 denominations. Most of them believe in the Trinity, worship Jesus Christ

Answer 9

The similarities: all believe that Jesus came to reconcile us to God and bring forgiveness. All believe in following the New Testament style of philosophy such as forgiveness, love, and the "great commission" of telling people about God.

The differences: How to interpret some passages, either literally or figuratively. How to baptise people. Some groups take a couple of verses and over emphasize them or take them out of context. When this happens, people get frustrated and decide to move to a denomination with beliefs more close to their own.

Answer 10

They're different in the aspect of certain beliefs are different but the core beliefs are the same so they all are Christian.

I never got into softball but there's a volleyball league among the local churches here... (still a little far for me for that though...)

I prefer homechurch to the major denominations myself.