what are the differences between different types of christianity?

Question

serious answers only please.

catholic
protestants
church of england
methodist
evangelical
mormon
jehovahs witness
etc etc...

so they all believe jesus christ was the son of god and he died for our sins? what are the main differences and why are there so many different interpretations? It amazes me how so many people can have differing faiths, when nobody really knows what you should belive.

Answer 1

Jehovah's Witnesses are relatively unique among self-described Christians in that they understand the Scriptures to teach that God's Kingdom by Christ Jesus is a real government which will soon replace all earthly governments.
(Daniel 2:44) God of heaven will set up a kingdom... It will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, and it itself will stand to times indefinite

That Kingdom will rule over the vast majority of mankind, most of whom will have been raised from the dead after Armageddon.
(John 11:23,24) Jesus said to her: “Your brother will rise.” Martha said to him: “I know he will rise in the resurrection on the last day.”
(Acts 24:15) There is going to be a resurrection of both the righteous and the unrighteous.

Until that resurrection, there is no suffering in "hell", or the grave. Sometime after the resurrection, death and "hell" will themselves be destroyed.
(Ecclesiastes 9:5) For the living are conscious that they will die; but as for the dead, they are conscious of nothing at all
(Ecclesiastes 9:10) there is no work nor devising nor knowledge nor wisdom in Sheol ["hell"]
(Revelation 20:14) And death and Hades ["hell"] were hurled into the lake of fire

While a limitted number of humans will be resurrected to heaven to share in ruling over mankind, the vast majority (literally more than 99.9%) of Jehovah's Witnesses expect an EARTHLY hope, the same hope given to Adam and Eve.
(Genesis 1:28) God blessed them and God said to them: “Be fruitful and become many and fill THE EARTH and subdue it [caps added]
(Genesis 2:17) You must not eat from it, for in the day you eat from it you will positively die [so never eating from that tree means never dying]

Interestingly, the Scriptures are full of references to this earthly hope.
(Psalms 37:11) 'the meek will possess the earth'
(Proverbs 2:21) 'upright will reside in the earth'
(Isaiah 45:18) 'God formed the earth to be inhabited'
(Matthew 5:5) 'the mild will inherit the earth'
(Revelation 21:3) The tent of God is with mankind

Learn more:
http://watchtower.co.uk/e/lmn/index.htm?article=article_10.htm
http://watchtower.co.uk/e/rq/index.htm?article=article_06.htm
http://jw-media.org/beliefs/trueworship.htm
http://watchtower.co.uk/e/jt/
http://watchtower.co.uk/e/dg/index.htm?article=article_11.htm

Answer 2

At heart, Catholicism, Protestantism, Church of England, Methodist, Evangelical and Mormon all worship the same trinitarian God, They all believe in the immortality of the human soul and they all believe in the instant eternal reward or eternal punishment when we die according to what kind of life we have lived up to that moment. The exact details may differ and what the religions look like to the eyes may differ, but the form of worship is more or less the same, indicating that they are more or less the same religion.

Only Jehovah's Witnesses differ completely. The God we worship is a single person, not three in one. There is no eternal soul and no instant reward or punishment at the moment of death. Instead, the dead cease to exist until God raises them to life on Earth in the resurrection. Heaven does exist, but the only humans who go there are those chosen to do so. They rule with Christ over the earth where the rest of faithful mankind live and work, worshipping God. This would require a fundamental change in the way the earth and human society is governed. Jehovah by means of Christ as king of his kingdom will get this done for the benefit of all creation.

Answer 3

There are huge differences between these religions. There are books written about it; it can't be answered here.

They do not all believe that Jesus was the Christ (i.e. the Jewish Messiah), let alone the son of God.. They do not all believe that he died for our sins. There are many interpretations because some people don't want to believe the truth so they substitute their own ideas.

There are people who know what you should believe. It is not the case that nobody knows. There is one Truth; we don't always know what it is. We can get very close to it though by not falling for the kind of broad generalizations that inform this question.

Answer 4

You have asked this question and now you will see that everyone will give you a different answer depending on how they understood your question. So with the bible, we have one bible but people been people want to interpret it there own ways and not let the bible show them what it is telling them. For example the bible says God is love so people think or may say there is no hell because God is love but if you study the bible you will also know that God does not like sin or people worshiping other images or gods and he will pour out His wrath on them.
So the reason I see so many religions or churches is because people do not like what is been taught or disagree with what they need to do to be saved so make the bible suit there own ideas and this is where many false teaching come in. The bible is always the same but we change the doctrines because we want to make the bible follow our teachings instead of us following the Bible.

Answer 5

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormonism) is a beautiful Christian religion. Because Mormons believe in the divinity of Jesus Christ and consider Him to be the way to salvation, they are clearly a Christian denomination. It is true that they are not an orthodox denomination (they are neither Protestant, Catholic, nor Eastern Orthodox), because they don't accept the post-New Testament creeds, but their Christ-centered theology clearly qualifies them for the Christian label.

Because Mormons are Christian, we believe in most of the things that Christians believe, including:

1) Christ is divine and salvation comes only through Him.
2) The Bible is the word of God.
3) Men ought to love one another.

Mormons are a unique branch of Christianity, however. We are neither Catholic nor Protestant, so naturally we have some different beliefs. Most of the differences are minor. One significant difference has to do with the authority to act in God's name. Mormons believe that soon after the death of Christ and His apostles, the early Christian Church was greatly influenced by Greek and Roman philosophies and political pressures. Despite the efforts of many good men and women, the true Church of Christ was eventually lost because of these outside pressures and internal, man-made changes. Mormons believe that God reestablished the original Church of Christ in 1820 through a man named Joseph Smith.

To learn more about Mormons, visit my site at allaboutmormons . com !

Hope this helps! Mormon Christianity has changed my life by helping me better follow Jesus Christ.

Answer 6

Well, the Bible tells us exactly what to believe, how to live, and how to pray. I think some religions use more hoopla then others, because all the smoke, candels, and all that nonsense is not needed. I mean, does it ever say Jesus prayed with a whole bunch of people in a church with some candels around him? No he always prayed by himself outside. Except when he ate food with people he would thank God for the food out loud. But the main differences I think are the hoopla, except for Morman because they have some extreme variances in what they believe to be "right". I mean they think that a certain group of people displeased God so he punished them with dark skin and that's why there's black people. Honestly, I think that's a little racist. Jehovahs try to convert people when they shouldn't. People are gonna believe what they're gonna believe and if someone is trying to tell them their way's better people aren't gonna listen. I was raised into the Catholic religion, but I don't like how much they hype over saying all those Hail Mary's and stuff, because in the Bible Jesus said don't pray like the(that one group of people, I don't remember who they were)do, by saying the same thing over and over again, because God knows what you need even before you ask him.
I also don't really like their obsession with candels and smoke and bells. I have a question though... I don't have anything against church or anything, but why go when Jesus said to pray in secret.

But these are just my thoughts. :)

Answer 7

True christians believe that Jesus is the son of god, sent to the earth to be a ransom for our sins.
True christians follow christs command to "go and make disciples" Matt 28:19
True christians reject pagan festivals .Christmas, easrter etc as the the bible says " what harmony is there between christ and Belial".
True christians reject god dishonouring teachings taken from pagandom. Hellfire, purgetory, the trinity, worship of Mary, praying to saints,immortality of the soul.
True christians accept the bible as the word of god.
True christians are "no part of this world" and do not involve themselves in political struggles and remain neutral in wars.
They have"love amongst themselves" and so would not kill their christian brothers or others at the behest of worldly governments.

Answer 8

For the Church of England, and the Roman Catholic Church, the difference is in who has authority to interpret scriptures. The Golden Compass had the Roman Catholic Church all upset, I think mainly because the evil political/religious body who was over controlling was named "The Magisterium". That word means specifically the Roman Catholic Church - in the context of those who had the authority to interpret scripture.

Protestants is a popular name given to those Christians who we against the Roman Catholic Church's claim on interpreting scripture. They 'Protested' the claim and authority that the Roman Catholic Church said they had.

The Roman Catholic Church doesn't exactly believe that you are saved by Jesus Christ. He definitely had something to do with it, but they claim that the 'Church' has the authority to save or to excommunicate a person. To them, God is okay with that.

I do know what I believe. So I think that you were to general in your accusation. What I would tell you is what I have found out: God will work with you if you want to know Him. The desire to know Him comes from Him. It is against human nature to want to know God. Many people end up making a God of their own in order to have God conform to their understanding. But to accept God for who He is, that is rare.

Answer 9

1. Catholics:
The Pope knows all. The Pope lives in the Vatican in Rome, Italy. The Pope is infallible: whatever he declares to be true, is true, and has always been true. Even if prior Popes declared otherwise. There is only one God. He created everything. Jesus Christ is God (and the Son of God), God is God, and the Holy Spirit is God. This is called the mystery of the Trinity. Humans are inately evil. God was going to send all humans to hell, but instead allows good Catholics to go to Heaven, the place where God lives. He allows this because Jesus Christ the Son of God died on a cross to redeem our sins. Women are yucky. They can't be priests. Non-Catholics are scum.
2.Protestants:
The doctrines of the Protestants can be summarized as: the rejection of papal authority, rejection of some fundamental Roman Catholic doctrines, the priesthood of all believers, the primacy of the Bible as the only source of revealed truth, and the belief in justification by faith alone. This was born as a result of "Reformation in the catholic church".
3. Church of England:
It is the officially established Christian church in England, the "mother church" of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the oldest among the communion's nearly forty independent national churches. Instead of pope, they consider the monarch / queen of England as the head of this church. It contains a mixture of worship ideas both from catholic and protestant church.
4. Methodists:
Methodism is a group of Protestant Christianity. The Methodist movement traces its origin to the evangelistic teaching of John Wesley. It originated in 18th century Britain, and through vigorous missionary activity, spread throughout the British Empire, the United States, and beyond. Originally it appealed especially to workers, agricultural workers, and slaves. Theologically most Methodists are Arminian or sometimes moderately Calvinist, emphasizing that Christ accomplished salvation for every human being, and that humans must exercise an act of the will to be saved (as opposed to the traditional Calvinist doctrine of monergism); and low church in liturgy (although this varies greatly in individual chapels; the Wesleys themselves greatly valued the Anglican liturgy and tradition).
5. Evangelical
Its the Protestant Church in Germany. Church founded by a fusion of Lutherans and Calvinists in Germany in 1817, the term today is commonly used to refer to persons or denominations who believe in the necessity of a personal conversion and faith for salvation.
6. Mormons
They believe that "Mormon" may only properly be applied to its "members" of the "Church of jesus christ and LDS (later day saints); however, the term is occasionally used more broadly to describe any individual or group that claims belief in the Book of Mormon, including other Latter Day Saints groups. According to Latter Day Saint belief, Mormon is the name of the prophet who compiled the book of scripture known as the Book of Mormon. . Mormons believe that the Book of Mormon is another scriptural witness of Jesus Christ that is comparable to the Bible, which they also believe to be the word of God. The book gets its name from Mormon, the prophet who abridged the record during the 4th century. The terms "Mormon" and "Mormonite" were first used in the 1830s as pejoratives to describe those who followed Joseph Smith and believed in the divine origin of the Book of Mormon
7. Jehovas witnesses
They are members of an international Christian new religious movement whose adherents believe it to be a restoration of first-century Christianity. The religion was developed in response “to what they saw as compromise and corruption in mainstream Christianity. They dispute doctrines such as the Trinity, hellfire, immortality of the soul, and clergy-laity divisions as illegitimate additions to the original Christian teachings.

You can see that even basic belief system is so varied and there are numerous other branches of the Christianity. Hopefully you now know the difference between these seven sects.

Answer 10

The simple answer is what cheir said...
Jesus Christ was God in the flesh - this is what true Bible believing Christians will say.

JW's and Mormons don't believe this - the others do..hope this helps.