Why so many?

[Tibby]

The Muslims and Buddhists have less sects then Christians. We have tens of thousands of sects. Why are we so much more divided then the non-believers?

[Sower]

The Muslims and Buddhists have less sects then Christians. We have tens of thousands of sects. Why are we so much more divided then the non-believers?

Tibby:

The Catholic Church is responsible for the divisions that exist today. Because "the doctrines of men" and "the traditions of men" supplanted the Word of God, those who desired to follow the Lord Jesus Christ separated themselves from the apostasy that flooded the Church from the time of Constantine. This brought division, and one of the chief divisions was Orthodox Catholic and Roman Catholic. Had the Church of Rome not falsely claimed supremacy over Christendom, this division may not have occurred.

Also, on one hand, the Catholic Church vigourously defended the deity of Christ and the doctrine of the Trinity. On the other hand, it introduced false teaching such as baptismal regeneration, devotion to Mary, veneration of the saints, relics, rosaries, and a host of other "Catholic" teachings which have no foundation in Scripture but are derived from Babylonian paganism (found worldwide). By the 14th century the Catholic Church was a vast, corrupt, and bloody tyranny, far removed from the truth of Christ and Christ Himself.

The crusades were a good example of the false teaching of the Church and the usurped  power of the popes.  Christ never sanctioned such cruelty and brutality by Christian "knights", but the popes did to their own political advantage. The popes wanted power, prestige, and privileges reserved for kings ans emperors!

Then came the Reformation , and the Catholic response to it, the counter-Reformation, and bloody persecutions of genuine Christians. Foxe's Book of Martyrs will provide you will all the proof you need.

Then the Reformers themselves could not unite over doctrine, and they also did not totally purge out all the false teachings of the Roman Church. They also persecuted other genuine Christians such as the Anabaptists. So there were more divisions.

At the root of all divisions is the fact that even though Christians are saved by grace, their sin natures are not eradicated through the new birth. If Christians do not "walk in the Spirit", then they "walk after the flesh".  And when they do so, Satan begins to control their lives. Satan's greatest weapon against Christians is strife and division. Satanic deception of those not grounded in the Word leads to false dcotrines and further divisions.

However, God also uses "heresies", which are basically divisions over doctrine, to bring to light those who are genuine and those who are false. There have always been and will alwasy be false teachers, false prophets, and false apostles until the Second Coming of Christ.  That is why Christians are exhorted to "prove all things, and hold fast to that which is good".  That often means further division.  The divisions among evangelical and fundamentalist Christians are mostly over points of doctrine.

Since Bible Christianity is the only true "religion" (if you will) it stands to reason that it will be constantly under attack, from within and from without.  On earth, there are still "wheat" and "tares" until Judgment Day. Other religions are seldom under attack, since they all originate with Satan or Satanic deception.  

However, the one true Church -- the Body of Christ -- consisting of all blood-bought and blood-washed believers, is ONE spiritual Body, with ONE Head -- Christ -- who is eternally united to His body. In eternity, all divisions will be erased.

[aw]

I have one thing to say- I agree.

Secondly, Amen.

aw

[Heidi]

I also agree.

[Tibby]

That being the case, why are there so many more Baptist sects then there are Catholic ones? The rebellion does contribute to the large split of Christianity, and that is the Split between the Sacrament/Ancient Church and the Protestant/Evangelical Church. However that does not account for even 1/2 the denominations in the earth today.

[Heidi]

What the Op was saying, Tibby, is that all the sects came out of the catholic church. Most of the acts of the catholci church since the crusades were not Christian at all. It might take as many years to correct the damage done is the years it took to create it.

[michael_legna]

What the Op was saying, Tibby, is that all the sects came out of the catholic church. Most of the acts of the catholci church since the crusades were not Christian at all. It might take as many years to correct the damage done is the years it took to create it.

In all of your posts in this thread all we have seen is your opinion.  Can you support any of the claims you have made with facts or at least references to reliabel sources with quotes and specifics or do you just think you can get away with vague accusations and everyone will just accept what you say as accurate?  I for one will not.

I do not say that there have not been errors made in the name of the Church or byt hose claiming to in some way represent the Catholic Church but no one has ever shown me an error in the doctrine espoused by the Church, except in the same vague way in which you throw out unfounded and unsupportable accusations.

Let's get specific.  If you can provide a statement of doctrine from the Catholic Church and then show me specific scripture that you feel it contradicts and provide your interpretation of that scripture.  

I am sure either your understanding of the Church doctrine will be flawed or worse yet prejudiced or your interpretation of scripture will be inconsistent with scripture as whole.

If you are unable or are afraid to do provide that type of formal argument against the Catholic Church then I would ask you to stop simply slinging insults you cannot or will not support.

[Heidi]

I'd say that's the pot calling the kettle black, Tibbiy. I have quoted how Jesus felt about Mary. I have quoted that Jesus said not to call anyone 'father,' how not to make fasting a public event, where the bible said that Jesus had brothers even though poepe Leo said he  didn't, and many more quotes. I'm not going to repeat myself umpteen times. It is you who needs to find biblical scripture to support the catholic doctrine. So far, I haven't seen much in Jesus's words that does support it! Even if you can find something in Jesus's words that resembles even one thing in the catholic doctrine, the rest of the doctrine is man-made and much of it CONTRADICTS Jesus's words.  Now it's your turn to provide scripture.

[Rich]

Yea, it's the Catholics who keep dividing and splitting into new sects and force all the protestant groups to keep fragmenting. Yea right, talk about some very confused and misdirected people, how about the fact that since the 'reformation' and the whole Bible alone theory came about,
all thats happened in protestant circles is that when there is a disagreement, well heck lets form our own group that teaches what we want to hear, and then when we have another disagreement, well no big deal we'll start a new group.
          There is a simple explanation of course, it doesn't work,
each group has bits and pieces of the truth, but not all, why else would there be so many different sects, each w/ their own ideas on salvation, rapture, communion, baptism, once saved always saved, and on and on.
        Talk about doctrines of men, and false teachings, but what do you expect when you get pride and egos involved.
After all that seems to be what drives a fair share of the people on this forum, they keep claiming all they're interested in is the truth, but due to poor information, poor knowledge of history, plain old bigotry, pride, egos, and just wanting to argue, they just keep spewing the same tired old stuff.
         It really is sad to see self professed 'true Christians' filled W/ such hate, bigotry,and misinformation, hopefully one day you will learn to act like the 'true Christians' you all profess to be, until that time some of us misinformed, idol worshipping, Bible burning, crusade causing Catholics will be praying for you.
       

   

[michael_legna]

I'd say that's the pot calling the kettle black, Tibbiy. I have quoted how Jesus felt about Mary. I have quoted that Jesus said not to call anyone 'father,' how not to make fasting a public event, where the bible said that Jesus had brothers even though poepe Leo said he  didn't, and many more quotes. I'm not going to repeat myself umpteen times. It is you who needs to find biblical scripture to support the catholic doctrine. So far, I haven't seen much in Jesus's words that does support it! Even if you can find something in Jesus's words that resembles even one thing in the catholic doctrine, the rest of the doctrine is man-made and much of it CONTRADICTS Jesus's words.  Now it's your turn to provide scripture.

I think you are mistaking who wrote which post.  It was not Tibby it was I who wrote that post.  But I am not asking you to throw all types of accusation around without a focus I am asking you to pick one and do a thorough and careful analysis which I have not seen you do ever.  If you think you have please tell me the thread and post number and I will respond to it - to save you having to restate yourself.  But I have been following your posts and have never seen you do more than a superficial review of a single verse, never looking at related verses to see if your interpretation hold us as consistent.  

For example your issue about how Jesus felt about His mother Mary based on Him calling her woman.  You never bother to consider what the attitude you accuse our Lord of would mean in light of the commandment to honor your father and mother, nor do you consider that the word "mother" Christ uses (when studied in the original language) is the same word used to describe Eve in the Old Testament so we see Christ pointing to Eve as a TYPE of Mary.  Or stated another way He is setting up Mary as the second Eve, just as He is the second Adam.  By jumping to conclusions or interpretations based on a simplistic literal reading of a single verse in isolation like you have done and not considering the type of points I have just made above is typical of how you formulate your doctrines and is the reason your make such mistakes.

[ollie]

That being the case, why are there so many more Baptist sects then there are Catholic ones? The rebellion does contribute to the large split of Christianity, and that is the Split between the Sacrament/Ancient Church and the Protestant/Evangelical Church. However that does not account for even 1/2 the denominations in the earth today.

Division breeds Division. Splits split into more splits. New denominations spring up. It is the way of man.

But Christ and His church abounds in spite of this. It is the way of God.

[ollie]

Yea, it's the Catholics who keep dividing and splitting into new sects and force all the protestant groups to keep fragmenting. Yea right, talk about some very confused and misdirected people, how about the fact that since the 'reformation' and the whole Bible alone theory came about,
all thats happened in protestant circles is that when there is a disagreement, well heck lets form our own group that teaches what we want to hear, and then when we have another disagreement, well no big deal we'll start a new group.
          There is a simple explanation of course, it doesn't work,
each group has bits and pieces of the truth, but not all, why else would there be so many different sects, each w/ their own ideas on salvation, rapture, communion, baptism, once saved always saved, and on and on.
        Talk about doctrines of men, and false teachings, but what do you expect when you get pride and egos involved.
After all that seems to be what drives a fair share of the people on this forum, they keep claiming all they're interested in is the truth, but due to poor information, poor knowledge of history, plain old bigotry, pride, egos, and just wanting to argue, they just keep spewing the same tired old stuff.
         It really is sad to see self professed 'true Christians' filled W/ such hate, bigotry,and misinformation, hopefully one day you will learn to act like the 'true Christians' you all profess to be, until that time some of us misinformed, idol worshipping, Bible burning, crusade causing Catholics will be praying for you.
       

   

Christ's church never changes due to the whims of men but is there for anyone to be added to upon obedience to the gospel.

[Tibby]

Are you saying the Protestant Churches of today are still dealing with the issues of the 1500 AD Catholic Church?

[Heidi]

Again, more attacks instead of scripture from Christ to back up your claims. I assume this means you don't have any. Rich is particularly good at attacking rather than explaining. Attacks only show frustration at having nothing else to say. I will respond when you can provide scripture from Christ telling us that we should call the pope, "Holy Father", that Mary didn't have any more sons, that we should pray to Mary, and that we should make fasting a public event. Otherwise your attacks are just attempts to hurt people, not help them.

[ebia]

Otherwise your attacks are just attempts to hurt people, not help them.

Try reading your own posts sometime.