You know, we used to have a million plus denominations, having enjoyed a 25,000% growth rate earlier this year. I guess we must have healed a significant number of those "divisions" since last March, in order to bring the number back down!
Then again, I have to question the data behind this. Why? Because I've had Catholics tell me - with a straight face - that they include Baptists, Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons, and even Rastafarians (!) in their list of Protestant denominations. What I've never seen, however, is an exhaustive list that shows the names of all of these (alleged) 30,000 denominations. I trust you have yours handy. Perhaps you could share it with us?
Pinging AlaninSA and FourtySeven, as I've used their posts from other threads in the above.
The Baptists aren’t Protestant?
1605- Baptists: John Smith
ANABAPTISTS, (after Zwingli), 1519.
- Brethren in Christ, German Switzerland.
- Hutterine Brethren.
- Mennonites, to Pennsylvania, in 1653.
- German Baptists, Dunkards, to USA, 1723.
- German Moravians, who became the “United Brethren Church”, in 1735.
- Separatists and Congregationalists, in England and Holland, came to America as the Pilgrim fathers on the “Mayflower” (repudiated the title of Anabaptists, as they did the “Baptists”).
- The Amish, to Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa.
- The Baptists in USA (repudiated the title).
The Jehovah’s Witnesses was begun by Charles Taze Russell in 1872. This was an offshoot of the American Restoration Movement started by the Campbells (pere et fils) and Stone. The Churches of Christ, the Disciples of Christ and a few others directly came out of it. Other religions started during this time period include:
Mormons, USA, 1829.
Christian Science, USA, 1879.
7th Day Adventist
Assemblies of God
Church of God (all types), Church of God in Christ
Evangelical United Brethren
Pentecostal (all types)
Salvation Army
It has become quite a fad, to think up a new name, come up with a new catchy take on the 2000 year old Word of God, amass a congregation, and maybe even get yourself on television.
All these have resulted from the Protestant Reformation. They may not call themselves Protestants, but their roots and their theological justifications come from it.
The Church Jesus spoke of in Matthew cannot be divided in doctrine. Anyone who disagrees with that clearly disagrees with the spirit of the Scripture in Matthew. Thus, to propose an "invisible church" as many (including yourself) do, one must demonstrate that ALL Protestant denominations are unified in doctrine, and thus, if one can show that at least TWO are different, then the Protestant argument falls apart. (Which I did show at least two were different, and thus your argument does fail, whether you want to admit it or not)
The number of "a million Protestant denominations" or "30000 denominations" doesn't matter for the main argument (the "invisible church" is NOT unified in doctrine) to be true. The argument is true, thus there can be no unified "invisible church", or, Matthew is false.
As an aside, it really depends on how one defines "denomination". It can be said quite reasonably that there are 30,000 Protestant denominations, if one defines "Protestant denomination" simply as a Christian denomination that denies Transubstaintiation and the authority of the Holy See. That's just one example.
Even if one takes the narrow definition that you seem to, one is STILL left with at least TWO on the list you linked to, that are clearly different in doctrine. Or are you going to tell me NONE of the denominations listed on my list were Christian denominations?
We've had this discussion before, and you never faced the ultimate point I made. I suspect once again, you will ignore the obvioius implications of my argument, and simply point out discrepencies in the definition of "denomination", a SEMANTIC argument that's not worth my time.