Posted on 10/11/2014 8:36:27 AM PDT by Gamecock
Question: If one thing is clear, it's that there is one, single, visible Church that Jesus founded. This multitude of competing, conflicting denominations is no sign of God's work; therefore, it must be the work of the Evil One. Somewhere in the midst of these 30,000 denominations, there is one true church, and the rest are in sin and rebellion.
Answer: The "thousands-of-denominations" argument is very often employed to prove all sorts of things. Here are some citations from letters received from other Catholics:
How can all these denominations claim to follow the Bible yet all come to different conclusions? How can I possibly know which one of those above teach the truth when they can't even agree on what the Bible says? The Bible alone has created so much havoc in this world.
If there is only one Church, why are there so many Protestant denominations? Possibly many thousands throughout the world, as compared to only one Catholic Church? I do see it as a sign of God's judgment that there are close to 30,000 Protestant denominations.
The Bible alone can be dangerous. In fact, the Bible alone IS dangerous. Look at Protestantism: 100,000 different interpretation of the Bible, 100,000 contradictions, 100,000 different denominations claiming to have the key.
Peter said that no prophecy of the Scripture is for private interpretation. This is why you have 30,000 different Protestant denominations that all believe differently from one another. This alone should give you a clue that Protestantism is not the true Church of Jesus Christ.
So, the existence of many Protestant denominations supposedly proves that the Sola Scriptura is dangerous, that we should not try to understand the Bible for ourselves, that the church of Rome is the one true church, and of course, all the other churches are false.
Elsewhere I have written on the significance of the heterogeneity among Christians. (See That They May Be One and Disagreement among Protestants). Here I simply want to make one important addition, namely, that the allegation so often repeated by Catholic apologists that there are 20,000 to 30,000 Protestant denominations is simply FALSE . . . not to mention the double standard employed, for the Roman Church is not exactly united. There are untold factions and divisions, and diverse understanding of doctrine within Catholic groups and by different Catholic theologians and individuals.
In an article entitled "30,000 Protestant Denominations?", Evangelical apologist Eric Svendsen exposes the falsehood of this fabrication. Briefly:
Svendsen shows that the source of this figure is the World Christian Encyclopedia (David A. Barrett; Oxford University Press, 1982).
Barrett cites a figure of 20,780 denominations. However not all of them are Protestants. According to Barrett, Protestants account for 8,196 (and incidentally, Roman Catholics account for 223).
However, even this figure of eight thousand Protestant denominations is misleading, for Barrett defines "distinct denominations" as any group that might have a slightly different emphasis than another group. The distinction is made on the basis of jurisdiction, rather than differing beliefs and practices.
Barrett breaks down the Protestant bloc into twenty-one major "traditions" which are much closer to what we usually mean by the word "denominations." It is interesting that Roman Catholics are subdivided into sixteen such "traditions."
Svendsen concludes, "In short, Roman Catholic apologists have hurriedly, carelessly - and, as a result, irresponsibly - glanced at Barrett's work, found a large number (22,189), and arrived at all sorts of absurdities that Barrett never concluded."
Jesus tells us the way. That works for me.
Yep, got a whole lot of people tortured and murdered in direct violation of the Law of Love.
Always a false argument that uses dates as a substitute for God's eternal plan.
The only Church, comprised of every single soul who has entrusted themselves by faith to Christ's finished sacrifice, was chosen in the heart of God in eternity and before time began. He has no grandchildren or great grandchildren. He has children, chosen, saved, pure, imbued with the righteousness of Christ, formed into His Body, formed as His Bride.
Denominational dates in history are a poor, poor substitute or Eternal Truth - declared by God in His inspired Word - nor do they matter in the slightest. It is in short, a world-bound argument that misses the truth.
"Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes."
Ephesians 1:4
Question..
What if Jesus is the anti messiah or ‘in place of’or ‘instead of’ messiah, created by the greco roman latin world that counterfeits the Messiah of Israel, Joshua?
Answer.. it would explain 30,000 different denomination daughters birthed from the original counterfeit greco roman latin mother church.
And it may explain why Christendom cant see itself in mystery babylon...
Catholic 33 Jesus Christ
"Church of Christ" claims the same thing.
Later documents softened that positioned.
My daughter-in-law became Catholic before she married my son. I helped to find a class for her and I contacted the parish close to her college. I told the priest that she was baptized Presbyterian and he said, "That is pretty close, yes her baptism would be accepted."
We all are much better off by looking at what we share and go from there than to purposely distance ourselves from others.
Discussed here.
"recursion: n. See recursion."
Wisdom...increasingly rare on FR these days...
And how is it that all of those groups claim to follow the Bible *alone* to come to their conclusions?
Not alone.
Is the protestant position that difficult to understand?
What about those brave Unitarian and Christ the Scientist martyrs of the 3rd Century? Or the brilliant Dutch Reform and Foursquare Gospel theological scolars and their contribution to the early councils and synods? And where would we be without the military might of the Congregationalists?
The date prove otherwise. History doesn’t lie.
from the chart
United Church of Christ
1957
A union of different traditions
My daughter-in-law became Catholic before she married my son. I helped to find a class for her and I contacted the parish close to her college. I told the priest that she was baptized Presbyterian and he said, "That is pretty close, yes her baptism would be accepted."
My understanding is, with water in the name of the triune God, is sufficent.
We all are much better off by looking at what we share and go from there than to purposely distance ourselves from others.
Those who talk about "thirty thousand denominations" (or whatever the number pulled out of a dark place is this year) seem to be deliberately misunderstanding and misrepresenting protestant ecclesiology. See, for an example, the oft repeated chart Salvation reproduced above.
I, as a Presbyterian, don't think the Lutherans and the Baptists are not Christians and in a false church. The Catholic arguers do seem to think that.
Whether there are 30,000 denominations or 300 doesn’t change the basic point, i.e., that they can’t all be right, unless one accepts the idea that some variations in theology, worship, and organization are legitimate variations of the core Bible message. And then the argument becomes: which variations are legitimate, and which aren’t?
Well, they are just plain wrong.
A number of Protestant churches say the Apostle's Creed and all say the Our Father. Each Protestant denomination holds onto certain aspects that are also shared by Catholics. That is what we should be concentrating on.
We are separated for reasons only God knows.
It will be to His Glory when we all put away our differences.
Jesus would have it no other way.
The problem with your chart, with “Catholic” first on your list, is you and your fellow Romanists think ROMAN Catholic when they read “Catholic,” the totalitarian system that arose to prominence claiming primacy over Christian churches of the Roman empire around the time of Leo, some 500 years AFTER the original Apostolic church.
The original Catholic church in the Bible, and the paganized totalitarian Roman Catholic system bear no resemblance to each other.
“The original Catholic church in the Bible, and the paganized totalitarian Roman Catholic system bear no resemblance to each other”.
Blah, blah, blah. Can you come up with anything original.
I don’t believe any denomination or person has it 100% correct... we are all sinful imperfect vessels and should humbly approach the Lord’s thrown and rejoice in his grace. We should take a humble attitude and a servant heart with each other and not boast for our ideology or denomination. We are brothers and sister in Christ let that be enough.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.