Why so many?

[blainefabin]

You Brighter possibilities theory is the reasoning Buddhist use as to why there is more then one sect. And yet, they have so few Sects in comparison to us.

Blaine- You make a good point, but JN is right. There are a few good protestants on the board. I can't think of any off hand...

again brothers and sisters,  my apologies.

mike

[Left Coast]

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?

I don't think it is the Catholic Church's fault, or anyone else’s fault.
God raises churches up, but they are run by very fallible men. So they fall away.
When someone sees that the church is in error, they start a new one. And the cycle continues. Add to that those that believe they are right and can't be wrong to start their own churches.
Remember Muslims and Buddhists and others are false gospels, Satan doesn't have that much motivation to attack them. He does have motivation to attack and divide the body of Christ.

[Allinall]

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?

Because it's easier to break things than it is to fix them.  

Smarty pants

Nope!  Jus' simple and true.  

[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?

I don't think it is the Catholic Church's fault, or anyone else’s fault.
God raises churches up, but they are run by very fallible men. So they fall away.
When someone sees that the church is in error, they start a new one. And the cycle continues. Add to that those that believe they are right and can't be wrong to start their own churches.
Remember Muslims and Buddhists and others are false gospels, Satan doesn't have that much motivation to attack them. He does have motivation to attack and divide the body of Christ.

Sounds like you are saying it IS someones fault. Blaming Satan, classic. Do you really think Satan is responsible for the Great Schism and Reformation?

[Left Coast]

Sounds like you are saying it IS someones fault. Blaming Satan, classic. Do you really think Satan is responsible for the Great Schism and Reformation?

Some people pick and choose what they want from the bible some people pick and choose what they want from posts.
I also said:

God raises churches up, but they are run by very fallible men. So they fall away.

Calvin and Luther and others of the Reformation could see how the church was no longer faithful to the word of God. They weren’t perfect, but God raised them up.
Concerning The Great Schism the Catholic Church had already fallen away.
Even while the bible was being written churches were falling away, the 7 churches of Revelation are an example of that. Today you would a great deal of difficulty finding a believer in that part of the world.
There were the beginnings of division in the Apostles themselves.

Galatians 2:11  But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed.
Galatians 2:14  But when I saw that they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel, I said unto Peter before them all, If thou, being a Jew, livest after the manner of Gentiles, and not as do the Jews, why compellest thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews?

Interestingly the Catholic Church looks to Peter as their first Pope with infallible doctrine, and here the bible says his doctrine was flawed.

[Tibby]

Sounds like you are saying it IS someones fault. Blaming Satan, classic. Do you really think Satan is responsible for the Great Schism and Reformation?

Some people pick and choose what they want from the bible some people pick and choose what they want from posts.
I also said:

God raises churches up, but they are run by very fallible men. So they fall away.

Calvin and Luther and others of the Reformation could see how the church was no longer faithful to the word of God. They weren’t perfect, but God raised them up.
Concerning The Great Schism the Catholic Church had already fallen away.
Even while the bible was being written churches were falling away, the 7 churches of Revelation are an example of that. Today you would a great deal of difficulty finding a believer in that part of the world.
There were the beginnings of division in the Apostles themselves.

Oh, I read your post. That line told me nothing. It had nothing to do with my reading, it was your writing that was lacking.

Galatians 2:11  But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed.
Galatians 2:14  But when I saw that they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel, I said unto Peter before them all, If thou, being a Jew, livest after the manner of Gentiles, and not as do the Jews, why compellest thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews?

Interestingly the Catholic Church looks to Peter as their first Pope with infallible doctrine, and here the bible says his doctrine was flawed.

God forbid he post something with the word “catholic” in it, and NOT make a stab at the Roman Church...

[Left Coast]

God forbid he post something with the word “catholic” in it, and NOT make a stab at the Roman Church...

It was not a stab at the Catholic Church. It is an observation that 1,000 years before the "Great Schism" of 1,000 years ago the Catholic Church had already gone away from Gods design.
All churches do. I don't view the Catholic Church as above or below any other church.
The church took the stand the Pope can be judged by no one --- But Paul judged the so called first Pope.
In those thousand years between the crucifixion of Christ and the Great Schism there were other churches, just not as powerful and as militant as the Catholic Church.
The faithful had to maintain a low profile or be imprisoned, tortured, and repressed by those that were in power.
The Catholic Church had gone astray way before the great schism.
There are some things the Catholic church does right, but they are no better or perfect than any one else.

[Tibby]

That leads us back to square one. We are in the top 5 largest world Religions, and we have many more splits and divisions than anyone else. And we claim to be the one with the most truth.

We can say it is a thing of culture, different cultures understand differently. But Buddhists use this same line of reasoning, and they don’t have as many splits, and they are not as competitive with other there Sects as we are. Those non-Christians sure know how to love one another.

We can blame Satan, but if that is the case, then lets give the guy a metal, because he has done a terrific job. Not only has he used our human nature to split us so much, but it appears that he has been able to teach Muslims and Buddhists to fight there human nature, because they have WAY less Sects then we do.

[JudgeNot]

We are in the top 5 largest world Religions, and we have many more splits and divisions than anyone else.

Ah, come on Brother Tibby - a professional student like yourself making such a sweeping statement with no supporting material?  I'm so dissappointed.    

Here is what I came up with in just 15 minutes:

Islam:
The truth is that Islam is more broken into sects than even Christendom. (Aspects of Islam, MacDonald , p. 90).

Buddhism:
As there are many different sects in Christianity and many sprinkles on a rainbow donut, so too are there many different factions of Buddhism. Not having a central thesis or any current core figure of authority (such as the Pope), Buddhism has become richly diversified. In some cases, the teachings of Buddha have become intertwined with local polytheistic traditions, as in Tibetan Buddhism. In these offshoots, supernatural beings, elaborate cosmologies, rituals, and other things you certainly wouldn't call strictly "philosophical" may appear.  (http://www.soyouwanna.com/site/syws/buddhism/buddhism.html)

Hinduism:
Hinduism is extremely catholic, liberal, tolerant, and elastic. This is the wonderful feature of Hinduism. The term ‘Hinduism’ is most elastic. It includes a number of sects and cults, allied, but different in many important points. Hinduism has, within its fold, various schools of Vedanta; Vaishnavism, Saivism, Saktism, etc. It has various cults and creeds. Hinduism accommodates all types of men.
Swami Shivananda, The Divine Life Society, Rishikesh

Christianity:
A fairly good article on the subject: http://www.auburn.edu/~allenkc/fbf/churches.html
 

[C C]

   I think the reason that there are so many is because:

WE DONT LOVE EACH OTHER  

If suddenly we all felt an overwhelming love for each other--ALL OF US--all at the same time, then we would make it our top priority to decide what we need to agree on.

That does happen.  And then what the churches do is that they agree that Christ died for our sins.  And that includes the sins that cause our divisions.  So, really, under covers we're united.  It's just hard to tell it.  So, really, we aren't so many.  we all just have different names.  One body, many names.  

[Tibby]

I didn’t think I need citations.

Islam, more sects then Christians? I don’t think so. Not ever close!

Lists only 8 Sects
http://www.geocities.com/defender_of_the_truth/

Exact quote “Islam does not have nearly as many sects and divisions as does Christianity”
[urlhttp://atheism.about.com/library/FAQs/islam/blfaq_islam_sects.htm[/url]


Buddhism, no central thesis? What about the 4 Noble Truths?
http://www.buddhanet.net/4noble.htm
http://tn.essortment.com/nobletruthsb_riuk.htm
http://dharma.ncf.ca/introduction/4-Noble-Truths.html

Buddhism doesn’t have an much of a moral code or Deistic structure as Christianity does, and it allows for more variation in the different sects. But it does have a central Thesis.


Hinduism, millions of cult? Ok, yeah I agree with you there.


Sad thought, Candice. But so true.

[JudgeNot]

Ha-ha Tibby!    We work well together!
Between us we've demonstrated that anyone with an opinion can find supporting information on the great WWW.  

(Ahem… personally I don’t think I would use an atheist website, however.)  

[Tibby]

Well, Christian sources seem to have the idea that because they worship the one, true God, they have the right to make up facts and twist info. Besides, that was about.com's atheist site. About.com is a good source, doesn't matter which branch.

[blainefabin]

Sounds like you are saying it IS someones fault. Blaming Satan, classic. Do you really think Satan is responsible for the Great Schism and Reformation?

Some people pick and choose what they want from the bible some people pick and choose what they want from posts.
I also said:

God raises churches up, but they are run by very fallible men. So they fall away.

Calvin and Luther and others of the Reformation could see how the church was no longer faithful to the word of God. They weren’t perfect, but God raised them up.
Concerning The Great Schism the Catholic Church had already fallen away.
Even while the bible was being written churches were falling away, the 7 churches of Revelation are an example of that. Today you would a great deal of difficulty finding a believer in that part of the world.
There were the beginnings of division in the Apostles themselves.

i disagree with most of this. first calvin luther and others (zwingli?) saw areas that they thought needed reform in the church. they were not the only ones, just the ones that started new churches out of it with new doctrines. the catholic church did reform but that is another matter.

you need to state why you think the catholic church fell away by the great schism, not just make the assertion.

it is true that during the apostles own life such heresies as gnosticism had arisen and there were issues in each of the churches, but it is also clear that the orthodox nature of the church was keeping things together. that abuse will happen is no great surprise, but that doesn't mean the whole church has fallen. the very fact that we see correction in the bible should imply that these issues were there and being dealt with.

Galatians 2:11  But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed.
Galatians 2:14  But when I saw that they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel, I said unto Peter before them all, If thou, being a Jew, livest after the manner of Gentiles, and not as do the Jews, why compellest thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews?

Interestingly the Catholic Church looks to Peter as their first Pope with infallible doctrine, and here the bible says his doctrine was flawed.

there is a difference between infallible doctrine and impeccable character. that peter was being a hypocrite in his action does not mean he was teaching error. paul doen't confront peters teaching, but he does confront his character. many people misunderstand what is meant by the pope being infallible, which is sad. but this portion of scripture does not demonstrate anything about his doctrine, only that peter too is a sinner saved by grace.

mike

[JudgeNot]

From Mr. Tibbs:

Well, Christian sources seem to have the idea that because they worship the one, true God,

Uh-oh...  Hopefully, Brother Tibby - you mean to say "because WE worship the one, true God...

You ARE a Christian - right???  

(Forgive me for being so picky - I'm involved in writing contracts for construction of bridges, etc.  One little miscue, and contractors are expert at picking up on it for extra cash.)