Why are there so many denominations within Christianity..?

Question

e.g Methodist, Pentecostal, Lutheran etc.

Do you believe that only people that are part of your denomination go to heaven?

Are the teachings of each denomination sufficiently different?

If not then why the division?
Why not have just one type of Church?

I'm an atheist but i'm interested in religions and religious study and would appreciate serious answers.

Thank you for your time.

RQ.

Answer 1

Must be because Joe Hovah's Word is so perfect and infallible...

Oh, wait....


Never mind....

Answer 2

I would go further and say there are probably no two Christians or non Christians that believe everything the same. So what. This is part of the free will package. We are free to believe, dis-believe and interpret data differently. It could be argued that this proves Christians are not just zombies who are told what to believe and never ask questions. Some Christians would even see this a good thing as even the scriptures use the different parts of the body as an analogy of the body of Christ. The body needs each different part to function together to make a whole body. In some cases splits were necessary. An example was when Martin Luther who witnessed first hand the corruption of the Catholic church in its money making schemes such as selling indulgences(enabling people to effectively buy their way into heaven). He also through reading scripture became aware of how far they had drifted fro the original message being taught by Christ and the apostles. It was the Catholic church that forced this split to happen as they gave him a choice to recant or face punishment. His life had to be protected by the monarchy.

Answer 3

The reason there are so many denominations is because there are a lot of people who have their own belief of what is right and wrong and how they should worship. This has lead to the division of most churches, from the great schism in the first large break off. But these breaks have even been noted from the beginning of the early Church, where Paul writes about them following false witnesses to the truth and that there is only one Church, that created by Jesus Christ, through Peter with apostolic succesion since those days.
Sadly and tragically the Catholic Church has seen rough days in its history, as have all churches, to include Luther's early church when he permitted a prince to marry more than one woman since there is no reference to how many woman you can marry in the Bible. This caused a schism of Calvinism and then from there Methodists and Anglicans who also had there own agenda. Notably most division where purely accidental, there intent originally was not to seperate from the Church, but their doctrines started to differ to much and they became seperated.
The belief that one person versus another goes to heaven is not Catholic in nature, actually the fundamentalists are the ones that push this effort more than others, but there is no knowing who the saints are, only God knows who and who will not go to heaven.
It is clearly written and stated by Christ himself in the New Testament that not all who believe will be saved, you must show your love for each other as God has loved you. So that mostly fundamentalist idea is very erroneous. You must show and act saintly, following the example of Christ, God's word made flesh.
That is Christian history in a tiny portion, there are plenty of sources out there and if truly interested as you mention at the end, just start reading, that is the best source. I do recommend that if you read, do so with authors from that religion, if not you will get a skewed vision on what that religion stands for.
Take care and I hope this has helped some.

Answer 4

Hmm...looks like you have a lot of answers from atheists. Would you care to get an opinion from a Christian?

My opinion is that it's part of God's plan for us. Yes, I'm being serious here.

Think about it. If everybody HAD to be Roman Catholic in order to call themselves Christian, how many Christians would there be? Or if everybody HAD to be Methodist, or Lutheran, or Anglican, or Baptist, etc.

I believe there are so many denominations because it's God's way of bringing everybody to Christ. As C.S. Lewis wrote, Christianity is the hallway with many doors. ("Mere Christianity") Which door you choose is up to you.

The differences between denominations are extremely minor when compared to the differences between Christianity and other religions. Most of them are liturgical. Though there are a few doctrinal, they are mostly minor (for example, the nature of the trinity). All Christians faiths believe the core doctrines (Jesus as messiah, God as creator, reception of Grace, etc.) Any who accepts that Jesus is savior and repents of his sins, goes to heaven. So, an Anglican, a Baptist, a Lutheran, a Methodist, a Pentacostal, it doesn't matter. All are Christians.

Hope that helps.

By the way, Christianity is not the only religion with sects.

Answer 5

Because there are so many points of view. Two people can look at the same verse, from whatever book, and come up with two different interpretations...even if these two are in the same denomination. No one can see exactly from the same point of view as another, even if they agree. One perception will still be one's own. This is why, when you explain something to another, they often reply, "So what you're saying is..."

1. The idea that only a select few go to heaven is insane, and based upon the world's deep sense of shame, and vengeance. Heaven is not a place, but our true state of being;
2. Viewpoints again.

Answer 6

Denominations "spring up" due to doctrinal differences i.e. something that a group believes to be life shatteringly true, but that their original denomination doesn't seem to get.

My take on it is that the "parent" church becomes stale, in a rut, tradition bound or possibly even corrupt. A new generation comes along and wants more meaning and stages a revival based on some teaching and creates one or more new churches that form a denomination. This grows and over time becomes stale and tradition bound.....

As time passes, doctrine of various churches change, so you will find Methodist pastors teaching some catholic dogma and vice versa.

Answer 7

We're all different. Each individual in the world has their own take on reality, and certainly on God. So it makes sense that people should foregather with others who enjoy worshipping God the same way they do. Some like music and clapping and happyhappy, others prefer quiet reverence. So the quiet folks get together in one place, and the happyclappys in another, and they all worship God and glorifiy His name in their own way.
Since Jesus doesn't carry a membership card, he looks past the format to the heart and accepts all these different expressions of their love and gratitude.
The important thing is not "religion" (the "how") but the vital relationship with God that transforms us into the best person we can be--that is the "why."
We can't "earn points" with God--we worship him however we do it, as a natural response of love for what He has done for us.
I respect others; I've attended several diff types of churches and can appreciate the positive of all the different groups. I now attend a church in my neighbourhood because for now it's where I can best grow and serve God and others.

Answer 8

I am Catholic, used to be a Protestant.

The Catholic Church, like any organization made up of mortal humans has had some problems over the years, that is what drove Calvin and Luther to break away. They should have stayed within the Church and worked to reform it instead. Odd, that even the reformers believed much closer to the Catholic faith (perpetual virginity of Mary, etc) than many Protestant groups now.

Catholics do not believe that non-Catholics are going to hell, we share Sacramental Baptism with our Protestant brothers and sisters. The Pope was grossly mis-quoted by the AP news last month. He NEVER said that non-Catholics are hell bound. We also do not believe that ALL Catholics necessarily are going to heaven, we have to be in a state of Grace, through the Sacraments.

Hope this helps, and Peace be with you!

P.S. "one Love's" comments on the first page brings up my main question, should we find a Church that "fist us" or should we search for the truth and fit ourselves to God? Are we doing our soul any good by finding a group that believes like you even if those beliefs themselves are wrong? Or is Religion just about making us feel better? That is exactly why I spent 20 years studying different faiths.

Answer 9

There are actually only a small handful of major branches of Christianity. The crazy proliferation of denominations is in the couple of branches that believe biblical interpretation is the responsibility of each individual person. Catholics, Orthodox, and conservative Lutherans and Anglicans, believe that the Church is responsible for biblical interpretation, and so you don't see this sort of thing going on in our churches, for the most part.

Answer 10

There was only one church, the Roman Catholic church, until the great schism in 1099 (or something like that). From there we got the eastern orthodox religions. Very close to Roman Catholicism, but they do not accept the primacy of the pope. Then Martin Luther came along in the 16th century, and from there it became a free-for-all. After Luther everyone and their dog thought they had the authority to interperet the bible, and that's why we have so many different denominations.

You are correct though, it would be much better to have one church, because obviously there can't be thousands of different versions of the truth. As for me I would go with the church Jesus started himself - the Roman Catholic church, but that's just me. It is true that there were problems in the church, although I think they tend to get exaggerated by protestants to justify their schism, but the answer was not to break away, it was to reform from within. Interestingly enough Martin Luther believed most of the same things the Catholic church still does, but as I said, when you open the door to thousands of different interpretations you get thousands of different denominations.

Peace be with you.

Answer 11

Because if five different people read the bible, you will get five slightly different takes on it.

Each denomination has its own exegesis of the bible. Some take it more literally, some take it as a guide not as literal, some are preoccupied with all kinds of legalistic and logical, symbolism and deductions and calculations and fortune telling and prophesy foretelling about when the world will end and others are more interested in church politics and traditions.