Is There Unity in The Protestantism Sects?

[Joshua]

Hi this particular writing is just describing why Protestant sects are not the church of Christ, I mean no offence by offending protestant but I only speak the truth.

The reason I say this, is because The Church is the bride of Christ as we all know how can he marry all of these churches?... Lord Jesus prayed to his Father and asked that they ( the church ) may remain one like he is with the father, also many other passages say so...

You may say " the Church" is not Catholic, Orthodox, or Protestant but the spiritual beliefs of everyone having faith in Lord Jesus.
But that must be wrong. It is also condemned in scripture by Lord Jesus when he states that a kingdom divided against itself cannot last.
Therefore we conclude that the Church must be ONE, and remained ONE since the BEGINNING... what church has remained ONE in LORD JESUS since the BEGINNING... They is only one church that can trace it's history right back to the BEGINNING... The Catholic Church!




Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is ONE BODY, AND ONE SPIRIT even as ye are called in one hope of your calling. One Lord, one faith, one baptism, etc.---Eph. 4-3 to 5-3:



The Church of Christ Is and must be only ONE (Rom. 12:5, 1 Cor. 10:17, 12:13

Jesus established only one Church, not a collection of differing churches (Lutheran, Baptist, Anglican, and so on). The Bible says the Church is the bride of Christ (Eph. 5:23–32). Jesus can have but one spouse, and his spouse is the Catholic Church.

His Church also teaches just one set of doctrines, which must be the same as those taught by the apostles (Jude 3). This is the unity of belief to which Scripture calls us (Phil. 1:27, 2:2).

Although some Catholics dissent from officially-taught doctrines, the Church’s official teachers—the pope and the bishops united with him—have never changed any doctrine. Over the centuries, as doctrines are examined more fully, the Church comes to understand them more deeply (John 16:12–13), but it never understands them to mean the opposite of what they once meant.

According to "The Christian Sourcebook" (1986 pg.326), there were "21,000 denominations in 1986, with 270 new ones being formed each year." All of these are Protestant. As of January, 1997, there were more than 28,000 Protestant denominations. Each of these denominations are certain that they are the only group that understands God's revelation, and that no one else in the last 2,000 years has found the true teaching of Jesus.

The Protestant Churches Have Not Unity. In the sects taken all together or individually there is no unity because there is no common teaching and ruling authority to which members must submit. Hence, there is no bond of unity. All the sects together do not form one society. They differ widely and marvelously in faith, and are independent of each other.

Each sect taken by itself has no unity. The members do not know what to believe, and in following the principle of private judgment they have lost the very principle of unity.

In ruling they have no unity. The rule of the leaders in each sect is little respected, easily rejected, and advisory rather than a legislative, judicial and coactive power.

Such must be the type of the only possible leadership or rule which is left them, for the members of each sect guide themselves, not by what the rulers say or direct, but only by their own private judgment. This is the foundation of Protestantism and renders obedience to authority, and even the very existence of authority, impossible. If each individual can judge what he is to believe, an how he is to guide himself according to those individual beliefs, how can any central authority direct individual beliefs, how can any central authority direct individual? If private judgment is the norm for each individual, no other authority can exist. "Baptism, the Eucharist, Penance, Marriage, the sacrifice of the Mass, the historicity and inspiration of the Scriptures, the Resurrection of the Christ Our Lord, His very Divinity—and we might add almost indefinitely to the list—are all doctrines on which an approved and acknowledged member of the Church of England may believe almost anything he chooses. And he is free to do so because he has no authoritative teacher to whom all must listen. No doubt, there are the Holy Scriptures, the early Councils and tradition, which many Anglicans hold in unquestioning reverence. But where is the living authoritative interpreter? Who is to apply the dead rule to present issues? As matters stand, it must be each man’s private judgment. Synods and Convocations, whether or York or Canterbury, of Ireland, or the United States, or even or all the Anglican Churches, make no claim to an infallible authority. Formularies are dead things; and there is no living judge of controversies. No wonder that the very foundation of the Faith are so uncertain, that there is such diversity of belief, and such vital and never-ending differences. And no wonder we fail to find in such a Church that Kingdom of Christ on earth, which He promised should be ever on in faith, in worship and in government."

BELLOW WE LIST THE SUBDIVISIONS AND SPLINTER GROUPS OF SEVERAL MAJOR PROTESTANT SECTS

Lutherans

Reformed Church
Anglicans
Presbyterians
Baptist
Methodist


Lutheran: The name of an heretical sect founded by Martin Luther, who was born at Eisleben, Germany, Nov. 10, 1483; attended a Catholic Latin school at Mansfeld, and in 1497, when fourteen years old, entered another Catholic University of Erfurt in Thuringia, in 1501, where he became a Master of Philosophy at the age of twenty. On July 17, 1505 he entered the Augustinian monastery at Erfurt, and in 1507 was ordained a Catholic priest. In 1508 he was made professor of philosophy at the new Catholic University of Wittenberg, visited Rome in 1510 or 1511 on business of his Order, and sometime after his return began to lecture on the Scriptures. On Oct. 31, 1517 he nailed his 95 theses against indulgences to the door of the church in Wittenberg. On Sept. 21, 1520 he was excommunicated by Pope Leo X. Later he married an ex-nun, Catherine von Bora, and finally died in 1546.

Luther denied tradition; the divine authority of the Papacy; that councils were infallible; that original justice was a supernatural gift; that human nature remained essentially the same in its powers after the fall of Adam; that man, after the fall, can produce any good works; held that man sins in whatever he does; that the sins of the just are covered by faith and not done away with; maintained that all works of sinners are sins; denied free-will; all the Sacraments except Baptism and the Eucharist; transubstantiation; the Sacrifice of the Mass; purgatory and the utility of praying to the Saints; he maintained that vows are made to the devil; that concupiscence is invincible; that the sensual instincts are irrepressible, and held that the gratification of sexual propensities is as natural and inexorable as the performance of any of the physiological necessities of our being. Lutheranism in general and all the Protestant sects that developed from it were condemned by the Council of Treat (1545-1563).

1818 - Ohio Lutheran Synod
1930 - American Lutheran Church
1988 - Evangelical Lutheran Church of America
1820 - General Lutheran Synod
1863 - United Synod South
1867 - General Lutheran Council
1918 - United Lutheran Church in America
1962 - Lutheran Church in America
1988 - Evangelical Lutheran Church of America
1847 - Lutheran Church Missouri Synod
1976 - Association of Evangelical Lutherans
1988 - Evangelical Lutheran Church of America
1854 Iowa Lutheran Synod
1930 - American Lutheran Church
1988 - Evangelical Lutheran Church of America
1860 - Swedish Augustana Synod
1962 - Lutheran Church in America
1988 - Evangelical Lutheran Church of America
1872 - American Evangelical Lutheran Church
1962 - Lutheran Church in America
1988 - Evangelical Lutheran Church of America
1890 - Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Church
1962 - Lutheran Church in America
1988 - Evangelical Lutheran Church of America
1896 - United Evangelical Lutheran Church
1960 - American Lutheran Church
1988 - Evangelical Lutheran Church of America
1900 - Church of the Lutheran Brethren of America
1988 - Evangelical Lutheran Church of America
1918 - Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod
1929 - Apostolic Lutheran Church of America


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Reformed Church: Guido de Bres, a Dutch reformer of Brabant, together with others, wrote in 1561 the statement of faith, called the Belgic Confession, which formed the doctrinal foundation of the Reformed Dutch Church.

These heretics believed in predestination; denied the supremacy of the Pope; free-will; the Sacraments; good works; purgatory; the forgiveness of sin, and considered the Scriptures the only rule of faith.

1628 - Dutch Reformed Church
1857 - Christian Reformed Church
1926 - Protestant Reformed Churches of America
1867 - Reformed Church in America
1628 - Puritans/Congregationalists
Evangelical Protestant Church of North America
1931 - Congregational Christian Churches
1957 - United Church of Christ
1790 - Universalists
1961 - Unitarian Universalist Association
1793 - German Reformed Church
1826 - Churches of God in North America
1869 - Reformed Church in the United States
1934 - Evangelical and Reformed Church
1957 - United Church of Christ
1801 - Christians/Churches of Christ
1832 - Christian Church/Disciples of Christ
1807 - Disciples of Christ
1832 - Christian Church/Disciples of Christ
1849 - Evangelical Synod of North America
1934 - Evangelical and Reformed Church
1957 - United Church of Christ

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Anglican Branch: Members of the Church of England, which was founded by Henry VIII and established as the national church of that country in 1534 by an act of Parliament. Henry decided to establish his own church because the Catholic Church would not allow him to divorce his wife and remarry. In his Bull "Apostolicae Curae" published Sept. 18 1896, Pope Leo XIII declared Anglican Order to be invalid.

The Anglicans, as they are commonly called, believe in justification by faith alone ; hold that the Bible is sufficient for salvation and that it is to be interpreted privately; deny the supremacy of the Pope and hold the King supreme in spiritual matters; deny the doctrine of Transubstantiation, purgatory, and condemn the Veneration of the Saints.

1787 - Protestant Episcopal Church
1861 - North Protestant Episcopal Church
1865 Protestant Episcopal Church
1873 - Reformed Episcopal Church
1861 - South Protestant Episcopal Church
1865 Protestant Episcopal Church
1873 - Reformed Episcopal Church

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Presbyterian Branch: A religious denomination that owes its formation to John Knox, who was born at Gifford, East Lothian, Scotland, in 1505. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1530. In 1542 he sided with Protestant movement, and thereafter, until his death at Edinburgh in 1572, was most active in attacking the Catholic Church.

1706 - Presbyterian Church
1741 - New Side Presbyterian Church
1758 - Presbyterian Church
1741 - Old Side Presbyterian Church
1758 - Presbyterian Church
1810 - Cumberland Presbyterian Church
1837 - New School
1870 - Presbyterian Church, U.S.A.
1937 - Orthodox Presbyterian Church
Bible Presbyterian Church
1956 - Bible Presbyterian Church
1965 - Reformed Presbyterian Church, Evangelical Synod
1982 - Presbyterian Church of America
1837 - Old School
1861 - Presbyterian Church, Confederate States
Presbyterian Church in the United States
1973 - Presbyterian Church of America
1983 - Presbyterian Church, USA
1870 - Presbyterian Church, U.S.A.
1937 - Orthodox Presbyterian Church
Bible Presbyterian Church
1956 - Bible Presbyterian Church
1965 - Reformed Presbyterian Church, Evangelical Synod
1982 - Presbyterian Church of America
1752 - Reformed Presbytery
1833 - Reformed Presbyterian Church of No. America (Covenanters)
Associate Presbyterian Church
1858 - United Presbyterian Church of No. America
1958 - United Presbyterian Church, USA
1983 - Presbyterian Church, USA
Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church
1822 - Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church (Covenanters)
1958 - United Presbyterian Church, USA
1983 - Presbyterian Church, USA
1774 - Reformed Presbyterian Church in North America
1965 - Reformed Presbyterian Church, Evangelical Synod
1982 - Presbyterian Church of America

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Baptist Branch: Founded by John Smith, at one time pastor of a church at Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, England, that had separated from the Church of England. About 1606, to escape persecution, he and his flock emigrated to Amsterdam. Smith died in 1612.

Taught only baptism of immersion t be valid; predestination; denied free-will; good works ;purgatory; the Sacraments, and the forgiveness of sin.

1639 - British Separatists
1672 - Seventh-Day Baptists
1727 - Free Will Baptists
1770 - Old Lights
1787 - General Association of Separatists Baptists
1814 - Baptist Missionary Convention
1827 - Primitive Baptists
1845 - Northern Baptist Convention
1932 - General Assoc. of Regular Baptist Churches
1947 - Conservative Baptist Assoc. of America
1950 - America Baptist Convention
1770 - New Lights
1780 - Free Will Baptists (North)
1827 - Primitive Baptists
1910 - Northern Baptist Convention
1814 - Baptist Missionary Convention
1845 - Southern Baptist Convention
1895 - National Baptist Convention of America
1915 - National Baptist Convention of the U.S.A., Inc.
1961 - Progressive Baptist Convention
1905 - American Baptist Association
1895 - Northern Baptist Convention of America
1932 - General Assoc. of Regular Baptist Churches
1947 - Conservative Baptist Association of America
1950 - American Baptist Convention

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Methodist: Founded by John Wesley, who was born at Epworth, Lincolnshire, England, June 17, 1703. He was ordained a clergyman of the Anglican Church in 1728, and in 1736, when he visited Savannah in Georgia, came into contact with Moravian doctrines. He organized the first Methodist Society in 1739. Shortly after he left the Anglican Communion and organized his own church.

The Methodist doctrine is borrowed from the Anglicans and Calvanists. They hold Scripture to be the sole and sufficient rule of belief and practice; teach justification by faith alone, although the practice of good works is commended; condemn works of supererogation; admit only two sacraments; condemn the invocation of the Saints and the veneration of sacred images and relics; and deny purgatory.

1784 - Methodist Episcopal Church
1816 - African Methodist Episcopal Church
1821 - African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church
1830 - Methodist Protestant Church/Bible Protestant Church
1939 - Methodist Church
1946 - Evangelical Methodist Church
1968 - United Methodist Church
1843 - Wesleyan Methodist Church of America
1968 Wesleyan Church
1844 - Methodist Episcopal
1860 - Free Methodist Church
1908 - Church of the Nazarene
1939 - Methodist Church
1946 - Evangelical Methodist Church
1968 - United Methodist Church
1844 - Methodist Episcopal Church (South)
1870 - Christian Methodist Episcopal Church
1897 - Pilgrim Holiness Church
1968 - Wesleyan Church
1800 - Church of the United Brethren in Christ
1946 - Evangelical United Brethren Church
1807 - Evangelical Church
1946 - Evangelical United Brethren Church
1829 - Primitive Methodist Church
1886 - Church of God (Cleveland, TN)
1923 - Tomlinson Church of God
1943 - Church of God (Queens Village, NY)
1953 - Church of God of Prophecy
1957 - Church of God of All Nations
1886 - Church of God
1922 - Original Church of God, Inc.
1886 - United Holy Church of America, Inc.
1898 - Fire-Baptized Holiness Church
1953 - Emanuel Holiness Church
1911 - Pentecostal Holiness Church
1918 - Pentecostal Fire-Baptized Holiness Church
1899 - Pentecostal Holiness Church
1911 - Pentecostal Holiness Church
1901 - Pentecostal Union
1917 - Pillar of Fire
1914 - Assemblies of God, General Council
1914 - Church of God by Faith, Inc.
1914 - Pentecostal Assemblies of the World, Inc.
1924 - Pentecostal Church, Inc.
1945 - United Pentecostal Church, Inc.
Pentecostal Assemblies of Jesus Christ, Inc.
1917 - Pentecostal Church of Christ
1918 - International Church of the Foursquare Gospel
1919 - Pentecostal Church of God of America, Inc.
1919 - International Pentecostal Assemblies
1919 - Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ of the Apostolic Faith, Inc.
1957 - Bible Way Church, World-Wide
1919 - Bible Standard, Inc.
1935 - Open Bible Standard Churches, Inc.
1932 - Open Bible Evangelistic Association
1935 - Open Bible Standard Churches, Inc.
1932 - Calvary Pentecostal Church, Inc.
1947 - Elim Missionary Assemblies


Catholic Apologetics - Joshua

[Catharsis]

"Go into a Protestant church of the extreme Protestant sects, and you will see rows of pews facing a pulpit with a Bible on it. In short, if you take the icon away from any classroom or auditorium*, what you have is a Protestant church. For the Protestants it is as if the Gospel were the work of Christ the Teacher, which has to be studied in order to be a Christian. Thus, Protestantism tries to replace the entire deep river of grace-filled Church life with but a single current, taken separately and in isolation. Having rebelled against the pope (a man), the Protestants have made the Bible into a “paper pope,� and the latter adulation is more bitter than the first." -- New Hieromartyr Hilarion (Troitsky), Archbishop of Verey

[* In pre-Revolutionary Russia it was customary for each classroom in public schools to contain an icon of Christ.]

[Joshua]

Hi thanks for reply. I dont know if your Protestant or Catholic or neither but thanks for reply.

Protestantism tries to replace the entire deep river of grace-filled Church life with but a single current, taken separately and in isolation.

Exactly, they are missing out on the grace of recieving the sacraments of the church, and the traditions that as been passed down by the prophets. ( Divine Tradition)

It is good that they are reading the bible, but only the church as the real truth of what scripture says. Does it not say in the holy scripture that the church is " the Pillar and foundation of truth" - We cannot relate this saying to the bible, why?
Because every human being will have is own image of what it actully says, so this church must been they since the 1st century, and has the true authority to teach the bible. hence why the Catholic church did not let the bible out of the church at first, as you can see people believe in solo scriptura and its ends up with 21,000+ protestant denominations

Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is ONE BODY, AND ONE SPIRIT even as ye are called in one hope of your calling. One Lord, one faith, one baptism, etc.---Eph. 4-3 to 5-3:

His Church also teaches just one set of doctrines, which must be the same as those taught by the apostles (Jude 3). This is the unity of belief to which Scripture calls us (Phil. 1:27, 2:2).

Having rebelled against the pope (a man), the Protestants have made the Bible into a “paper pope,� and the latter adulation is more bitter than the first."

They did not rebel against the pope, he was just a sevent. They rebelled against Christ himself, by rebelling against the chair of Peter that Jesus Christ established. Rebelling against his church.

[Catharsis]

i'm orthodox.

[Abraxas]

Interesting how you, in your analysis, take one branch of Christianity and consider it independently and then lump everyone else into one broad category and condemn them for being disunited. Are the Lutherans fragmented? The Methodists? The <insert church of your choice here>?

It is like saying that since there is one of me and five of you, I am better because everything not me is not all the same. If you select any single individual present, the same argument holds equally valid for all of them. So too, if you take Catholic Church and replace it with, say, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church (my favorite), and then throw Catholics into the everyone else category, you will find they are united and everyone else is fragmented.

Finally, no, the Catholic Church was not the first Christian Church, there are in fact churches older than it still around. Eastern Orthodox Christians, for example, can trace their existence even further back than the Roman Catholic Church can.

[McCulloch]

The Restoration tradition distinguishes itself from the Protestant in that it does not view itself as a protest or a reformation of the Catholic tradition. It believes that the church is made up of those who believe and follow the teachings of Christ as recorded in the NT. They feel that early on, the church adopted teachings and practices not in the original teachings. Thus the church had left its biblical foundation. It is not in need of reform but they started from scratch.

[MagusYanam]

I agree with Abraxas. Roman Catholicism is not the 'original' Christian church, and many Christian communions in fact follow the rules of Apostolic succession, unbroken since the time of the first apostles: the Eastern Orthodox, the Anglican Communion, the Old Catholic churches and the Nestorians, to name a few.

There is also a major, major problem with the Catholic Church, in that it is militaristic with its faith. It seeks to impose an external order on the world through rigid doctrine, force and imperial dominion. If the northern European peasants had not felt imposed upon with heavy burdens by a Church obsessed with turning profits and ever-grander imperial schemes, they would not have been lost to the likes of Martin Luther, Ulrich Zwingli and Jean Chauvin.

Healthier have been the churches which have organically sought horizontal rather than vertical unity (in love for neighbours, in sharing the truth amongst each other, &c.), and therapeutic rather than militaristic outlets for faith. The Orthodox churches are generally the best example of this (at their best), though certain Catholic and Protestant communities have come to this truth independently.

Also, I have to take issue with the Anglicans being lumped together in the Protestant tradition; they differ in several respects. Henry VIII did not 'found' the Anglican Communion; the archbishops of Canterbury and York were ordained properly according to the rules of apostolic succession. They did not follow the doctrines of a charismatic teacher the way Lutherans or Calvinists did; indeed, they kept most Catholic doctrines intact, except the doctrine of the supremacy of the bishop of Rome (who did, after all, try to overthrow the English monarchy by assassination). They do not hold the King as supreme in their faith, nor do they take scripture as the sole authority, nor deny the Real Presence nor condemn the veneration of saints.

[Catharsis]

From what I've read, apostolic succession does not simply mean and imply that a bishop is ordained properly and according to specific rules. This is meaningless and empty ritualistic formality if one does not have Historical and Organic continuity with the early Church. By this simple argument all protestant religions do not have apostolic succession. You can not claim - both apostolic succession and that your faith community is the True Church if you sprang up into existence in 1800AD for example. Who ordained your "first" archbishop? Who ordained archbishop of Canterbury?

No one from a rivalrous faith would ordain a bishop in a new and opposing faith community.

If I woke up tomorrow morning and declared myself Emperor of China would anyone take me seriously?

[Catharsis]

I will give one dogmatic/doctrinal proof that Roman Catholicism is not the original Church.

Roman Catholics do not venerate icons - even though this issue was resolved in 787AD and Pope Adrian I approved it. This was no small issue.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Council_of_Nicaea
http://orthodoxwiki.org/Sunday_of_Orthodoxy

[MagusYanam]

From what I've read, apostolic succession does not simply mean and imply that a bishop is ordained properly and according to specific rules. This is meaningless and empty ritualistic formality if one does not have Historical and Organic continuity with the early Church. By this simple argument all protestant religions do not have apostolic succession. You can not claim - both apostolic succession and that your faith community is the True Church if you sprang up into existence in 1800AD for example. Who ordained your "first" archbishop? Who ordained archbishop of Canterbury?

No one from a rivalrous faith would ordain a bishop in a new and opposing faith community.

If I woke up tomorrow morning and declared myself Emperor of China would anyone take me seriously?

Apostolic succession means, briefly, that a cleric must be appointed by a bishop who has previously been appointed through the laying on of hands. This tradition goes back to the original twelve apostles.

As it happens, the line of Archbishops of Canterbury goes back to S. Augustine of Canterbury, appointed head of the church in Canterbury in 598 AD after his mission to the Jutish king of the region, S. Æthelberht. The Eastern Orthodox Church recognises Augustine's ministry and sainthood, as well as the Roman Catholic Church and (naturally) the Anglican Communion.

The Roman Church unilaterally declared the line of Archbishops null and void in the 1890's for political reasons, but to my knowledge the Eastern Church has not been overly concerned with the successions of the English Church. But I could be wrong there.