If you are a Lutheran, your religion was founded by Martin Luther, an ex- monk of the Catholic Church, in the year 1517.
If you belong to the Church of England, your religion was founded by King Henry VIII in the year 1534 because the Pope would not grant him a divorce with the right to remarry.
If you are a Presbyterian, your religion was founded by John Knox in Scotland in the year 1560.
If you are a Protestant Episcopalian, your religion was an offshoot of the Church of England founded by Samuel Seabury in the American colonies in the 17th century.
If you are a Congregationalist, your religion was originated by Robert Brown in Holland in 1582.
If you are a Methodist, your religion was launched by John and Charles Wesley in England in 1744.
If you are a Unitarian, Theophilus Lindley founded your church in London in 1774.
If you are a Mormon (Latter Day Saints), Joseph Smith started your religion in Palmyra, N.Y., in 1829.
If you are a Baptist, you owe the tenets of your religion to John Smyth, who launched it in Amsterdam in 1605.
If you are of the Dutch Reformed church, you recognize Michaelis Jones as founder, because he originated your religion in New York in 1628.
If you worship with the Salvation Army, your sect began with William Booth in London in 1865.
If you are a Christian Scientist, you look to 1879 as the year in which your religion was born and to Mrs. Mary Baker Eddy as its founder.
If you belong to one of the religious organizations known as 'Church of the Nazarene," "Pentecostal Gospel." "Holiness Church," "Pilgrim Holiness Church," "Jehovah's Witnesses," your religion is one of the hundreds of new sects founded by men within the past century.
If you are Catholic, you know that your religion was founded in the year 33 by Jesus Christ the Son of God, and it is still the same Church.
It's like saying if you're a patriarch of a family, it was jumpstarted by you.
But we ALL -- patriarch or not -- go back to Noah and his wife. And before that, back to Adam and Eve.
You have therefore cited something that arbitrarily draws a line in the sand.
What? Did your family start with you, thesaleboat? You had no father or mother? You were some immaculate conception who arrived suddenly on the scene? No heritage?
Look at Martin Luther's history, for example. He didn't name any church after himself. [That was done externally]
Luther considered himself to be part and parcel of the historic church. He was there to REFORM the church; not 100% knock it down and start from scratch.
You have flunked church history.
You fail at history.
He formed the Eastern Roman Empire which led to the Eastern Orthodox Church. I don't see Orthodox anywhere on your list. You only start with Martin Luther!
Take a look in the mirror and you will see BIGOT!!!
How Old Is Your Church?And if you are a CHRISTIAN - one who has accepted Christ's Gospel of Grace, regardless of which local fellowship you worship with - you belong to the ONE TRUE CHURCH, purposed in the heart of God before time began!If you are a Lutheran, your religion was founded by Martin Luther, an ex- monk of the Catholic Church, in the year 1517.
If you are Catholic, you know that your religion was founded in the year 33 by Jesus Christ the Son of God, and it is still the same Church.
Founded by Christ and commissioned by the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. Funny how the Bible Believers (tm) don't seem to believe that...
If you are a Christian, you know that your religion was founded when God created the heaven and the earth.
This was very simplistic and very wrong. The ROMAN Catholic church of today is VERY DIFFERENT from the Roman Catholic church of the time of the reformation. Martin Luther did not start a new religion. He didn’t want to cause a division within the church. He simply wanted the established church of his day to get back to the faith of the New Testament as taught by Jesus and the Apostles.
Martin Luther lead the reformation in order to RECLAIM that faith.
If you think everything was hunky dory with the Roman Catholic church, then you need to read why how the Jesuits got started in order to train a large number of clergy who couldn’t even read the Bible from which they could not teach. Simultaneously, they were burning people at the stake for distributing copies of Bibles to common folk.
...and if you are a Jew, your religion is a couple of thousand years older than THAT.
Good post! Of course the haters don’t think so but too bad for them.
The founder of Christianity is Yaweh, in the person of Yeshua. No one except yourself can pray you in, pray you out, or in any way approach G_d except through the Holy Spirit placed in each believer, when he or she confesses their sins to G_d, and accepts the salvation offered through Yeshua sacrifice. The Church is the body of Christ, the believers, not a building, nor an organization whatever it may call itself.
I know when my belief was formed - the day Christ was born. I am a member of the Body of Christ, not a man organized group.
total fail and proves you don’t know what “Church” really is.
First of all, this is the wrong question. The "church" doesn't belong to people.
The true Church is not an organization; the Church is a living organism.
The true Church is not brick and mortar.
In the ultimate meaning of the word, the Church is not really even an institution -- even though out of necessity these days, it has institutional dimensions.
The Greek word for "church" is ecclesia -- or ekklesia. It means "called-out ones." In other words, the church is "people."
Yes, people wear all kinds of distinct identity labels. But ultimately God's people belong to...yup, you guessed it: God (not people -- as thesaleboat mistakenly implies).
What thesaleboat is really asking here is: "How Old are your denominational traditions?"
thesaleboat seems to be attempting to make a few points here:
* The Protestant church is divided; Roman Catholics aren't;
* Due to latter "start dates" for Protestant traditions, these are somehow not genuine.
Allow me to address the second point briefly here...and then I'll reinforce it AND tackle the first bullet point in the next post.
At least four Roman Catholic "orders" are commonly known:
* Benedictines, 6th century start;
* Franciscans, 13th century start;
* Dominicans, 13th century start though following in Augustinian rules going back centuries previous to that;
* Jesuits, 16th century start
Are you telling us, the saleboat...that because these were "man-made enterprises" (along with the dozens of other Catholic-umbrella orders)...and that ALL of them started quite Johnny-come-lately...that there's something not "genuine" or "authentic" about ALL of them?
Really?
And aren't these man-made orders simply set-apart sanctuaries and outposts for ministry and spiritual growth, with a thematic “rule” governing each one?
Hence, haven't they operated as a sort of “mini-denominations” operating under the broader umbrella of Roman Catholicism?
Well, thesaleboat: How Old are Catholic-Umbrella Orders? (I think 'Sect-Orders' might even be a more appropro title)
As I mentioned in my last post: And aren't these man-made orders simply set-apart sanctuaries and outposts for ministry and spiritual growth, with a thematic “rule” governing each one? Hence, haven't they operated as a sort of “mini-denominations” operating under the broader umbrella of Roman Catholicism?
(And, btw, not all “orders” have had a Catholic umbrella; there's been Anglican, Church of England, Lutheran, Anglo-Catholic and other Protestant-based “orders” in history – some of which are still operative)
Anyway, as I mentioned on my last post, thesaleboat asked the wrong question...and didn't frame it well, anyway.
A similar question that Protestants can address Roman Catholics is:
“How Divided is the Historical Catholic Church – Per Breakdown of Its 'Sect-Orders?'”
IOW, the Catholic church is oft' presented by Catholics as one giant monolith. But it's not. And hasn't been in its history. Theologically it isn't so. Liberation theology has invaded Catholicism. Solid theological reform movements – like Jansenism – hit Catholicism in the 1600s after the Protestants hit them hard the previous century. And, of course, there've been other movements.
Some of the Roman Catholic order jumpstarters themselves bounced around before getting them off the ground. Take Isaac Thomas Hecker, founder of the Paulists (latter 19th century). Hecker was a Methodist-turned-transcendentalist-turned-member of the Catholic Redemptorist order before founding the Paulists. Hardly a “model heritage” deeply rooted Catholic.
And the “Romanizing party” was itself a party that grew stronger in the 7th century. As I look at the book of Acts, I don't see mention of “the Romanizing party” in the earliest church. Do you?
So it seems that as we look over the historical Roman Catholic church – we need a sliced-and-diced vantage point of Catholicism that unveils that Roman Catholicism isn't as “united” as it would like to present itself. Otherwise...
...why did all of these founders below...
...need to start their own endlessly diverse orders...
...based upon endlessly diverse “rules”?
Why couldn't have one said, “This is the rule of Christ. We'll follow it – and Him” ??? And then the rest of these man-made orders could have followed suit if generational stability and a unified front is so important.
| Year Founded | Name of Order [a 'Mini-Denomination' of Sorts] | Man-Made Founder | |
| 6th century onward | Benedictine-Based [Break-offs Included] | ||
| 525 | Benectines | Benedict | |
| Early 6th century | Female Benectines | Scholastica | |
| Early 10th century | Cluny [many Southern France orders were reformed under 'Clunaic lines] | Odo | |
| 11th century | Vallumbrosians | John Gualbert | |
| 1100 A.D. | Fontrevault | Robert of Arbissel | |
| 1701 | Mechlarists | Mechitar [w/16 others] | |
| Dominican/Augustinian Rule-based | Note: The Dominican order was NOT initial order based on Augustinian rule; hence not listed first | ||
| 1120 | Premonstratensions [also known as Norbertians] | Norbert [German-born who set up French orders and died residing in Italy]...so hardly a Middle-Ages localized presence only | |
| Late 12th century | Trinitarians [reformed group called 'Barefoot Trinitarians' still exists] | John of Matha | |
| 1206 | Dominicans | Dominic | |
| 1210 | Franciscan-Based | Francis of Assisi | |
| Franciscans also known as Friars Minor; Some Lay Franciscans known as Franciscan tertiaries; some Franciscans came to be known as 'Observatist Franciscans' others as 'Recollect Franciscans' and then 'Discalced Franciscans'...Such 'unity' of names even within the Franciscan bunch, eh? | |||
| 1557 | Alcantarines [Spanish Discalced Franciscans] | Peter of Alcantara | |
| Late 16th century | Camillans | Camillus [break-off of first Capuchins and then recollect Franciscans] | |
| 1540 | Jesuit-Based | ||
| 1540 | Jesuits originally known as The Society of Jesus | Ignatius Loyola | |
| Cistercian-Based | |||
| About 1099 | Cistercian | Robert of Molesne [with Stephen Harding as key early leader] | |
| 1084 | Carthusians | Bruno | |
| 1128 | Knights of Templar | Bernard of Clairvaux | |
| Mid-12th century | Gilbertines [no local presence only; a network of 25 monasteries] | Gilbert of Sempringham | |
| Latter-17th century | Trappists | Armand-Jean le Bouthillier De Rance' | |
| Ursulines/Carmelites-Based | |||
| Early 1500s | Ursulines | Angela Merici [Later, Barbe Jeanne Acarie helped establish Ursulines] | |
| Latter 16th century | Discalced Carmelites | John of the Cross a leader, but not founder | |
| 1603 | Carmelites | Barbe Jeanne Acarie | |
| Other Orders – Listed chronologically | |||
| 961 | Mt Athos | Athanasius the Athonite | |
| Early 1000s | Camaldolesians | Romauld | |
| 1113 | Victorines | William of Champeaux | |
| Early 1200s | Poor Clares | Clare | |
| 1235 | Mercedarines [Our Lady of Mercy] | Peter Nolasco and Raymond of Penafort | |
| Latter 13th century | Celestines | Celestine | |
| 1346 | Bridgetines | Bridget | |
| 1360 | Gesuati | John Colombini | |
| 14th century | Sisters of the Visitation [the Jesuatesses] | Catherine, cousin of John Colombini | |
| Latter 14th century | Brethren of the Common Life | Geert de Groote and Florentius Radewijns | |
| 1425 | Oblates of Mary [Later called Oblates of Torde' Specchi] | Frances of Rome | |
| 1436 | Minims [Ordo Fratres Minimorum] | Francis of Paola | |
| 1524 | Theatines [break-off of Orators of Divine Love] | Cajetan and Giovanni Pietro Caraffa (Pope Paul IV) | |
| 1532 | The Somaschi | Emiliani Jerome | |
| 1548 | Confraternity of the Most Holy Trinity | Philip Neri | |
| 1572 | The Brothers Hospitalliers | John of God | |
| Cistercian-Based | |||
| 1575 | Oratorians | Philip Neri | |
| 16th century | Volokolamsk | Joseph of Volokolamsk | |
| 1597 | Piarists | Joseph Calasanctius | |
| Early 1600s | Jansenism [not an “order” but a theological reform movement] | Cornelius Otto Jansen | |
| Very early 17th century | Visitation | Francis of Sales and Frances de Chantel | |
| 1633 | Sisters of Charity, Lazarites | Vincent de Paul | |
| 1737 | Vincent de Paul Society | Frederick Ozanam | |
| 1737 | Passionists | Paul of the Cross | |
| 1835 | Pious Society of Missions/Pallottini Fathers | Vincent Pallotti | |
| 1843 | Similar Pious Society of Missions for women | Vincent Pallotti | |
| Mid-19th century | Sisters of Providence/Fathers of Charity | Antonio Rosmini-Serbati | |
| 1859 | Salesians [Female version: Daughters of Our Lady Help of Christians, 3rd largest Catholic order today] | Giovanni Melchior Bosco | |
| 1880 | Sisters of the Sacred Heart | Frances Cabrini | |
| Latter 19th century | Paulists [break-off of Redemptorists] | Isaac Thomas Hecker | |
| 1903 | Catholic Daughters of the Americas | ||
| 1917 | Baptized and Unbaptized Disciples | Narayan Vaman Tilak | |
| 1933 | Little Brothers of Jesus/Little Sisters of the Sacred Heart | Formed post-humously after the rule of Charles Eugene DeFoucald | |
| 1939 | Sisters of Jesus | Formed post-humously after the rule of Charles Eugene DeFoucald | |
| 1958 | Little Brothers of the Gospel | Formed post-humously after the rule of Charles Eugene DeFoucald | |
| 1965 | Little Sisters of the Gospel | Formed post-humously after the rule of Charles Eugene DeFoucald |