Trying to figure out who falls into what category of Christian is made even more confusing by the fact at most Christians of all denominations consider themselves the one true catholic (universal) and orthodox (correct) church - though many of them admit to not being apostolic.
I am thinking maybe we Christians should come up with a new way of identifying each other's beliefs - our commonalities and differences - I am talking about the ecumenical councils - churches can identify themselves as to how many of the ecumenical councils they uphold as part of their faith.
The Orthodox recognize 7 ecumenical councils and so do the Catholics - but the Catholics have added more ecumenical councils since then (21 in all!!) that the Orthodox do not recognize so the Catholic church would be Church of the 21 councils and so on.
I think the Mormons would be the Church of zero councils since they accept none of the declarations of those councils on the nature of Christ and his teachings as far as I know.
OK, just because a Baptist denomination (for example) may consider themselves the One True Arm of Jesus Christ doesn't mean it simultaneously thinks of the Presbyterians as a false arm. (Jesus' earthly body had more than one arm; so His spiritual body as represented in His Church can stand to have more than "one" true arm). Missionaries from multiple denominations often worship together...so these true feet of the body of Christ don't look @ each other & claim the other is a "false toe" of Christ.
Bottom line: Yes, every body has a contour where the body ends. But that doesn't mean that the claim to being authentic automatically equates to other similar claims being false. Body membership isn't exclusive to those who claim to be the true feet, toes or arms.
Trying to figure out who falls into what category of Christian is made even more confusing by the fact at most Christians of all denominations consider themselves the one true catholic (universal) and orthodox (correct) church - though many of them admit to not being apostolic.
I am thinking maybe we Christians should come up with a new way of identifying each other's beliefs - our commonalities and differences - I am talking about the ecumenical councils - churches can identify themselves as to how many of the ecumenical councils they uphold as part of their faith.
Starting off with a false, blanket statement regarding Protestant (and other) denominations will only weaken any argument or suggestions that you might posit.
Might I suggest an alternate method to identify Christian denominations?