Why did Christianity branch off into different faiths within one faith?

[JohnWestberg]

Why do we have to seperate ourselves to different branches of religion? Lutherans, Protestants, Catholics all believe in Jesus Christ but each branch has something different about it. I was wondering why Christians won’t unite to have a bigger influence in the world?

 

[Genesis315]

As St. Augustine said, where there is virtue, there is unity–where virtue is lacking, there is division.

The Catholic Church greatly seeks the unity of all who profess Christ, but we also know that unity can not be make-believe, but must be a unity in truth. A compromise in truth is contradictory to God, who is truth and who reveals all the truth he has for us to believe for our good. The Catholic Church professes that this unity in truth subsists in the Catholic Church and always will and therefore seeks that all Christians (and the whole human family for that matter) partake of this unity that Christ has bestowed on His Church.

Here is what the Second Vatican Council said on the matter:
vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_decree_19641121_unitatis-redintegratio_en.html

 

[Hisalone]

I have to agree with Augustine the centuries prior to the Reformation the Catholic Church was lacking in virtue.

 

[kenmd]

because religion is human and is therefore, political. once someone chooses a side they normally don’t care about what the other guy says and will resist any attempt at compromise.

 

[pyropam]

The Catholic Church is the one “true” church of Christ Jesus!

THE GATES OF HELL WILL NOT PREVAIL AGAINST IT!

Saddly, everytime someone decided that they had a better idea than the one Jesus set up for us, they would just break away.

Where the Catholic faith has remained true to the original word of God, the other faiths continue to break and split.

I have seen one Baptist Church split into 4 churches with 4 different names.

The problem with protestant churches is that they have no authority figure(s) to go to when they have a disagreement.

Their preachers preach the way they understand it, then if someone doesn’t like it or believes the preacher is wrong, they just go off and start their own church and preach it their way.

They are lost and don’t even realize it.

 

[reteeks21]

The Catholic Church is the one “true” church of Christ Jesus!

THE GATES OF HELL WILL NOT PREVAIL AGAINST IT!

Saddly, everytime someone decided that they had a better idea than the one Jesus set up for us, they would just break away.

Where the Catholic faith has remained true to the original word of God, the other faiths continue to break and split.

I have seen one Baptist Church split into 4 churches with 4 different names.

The problem with protestant churches is that they have no authority figure(s) to go to when they have a disagreement.

Their preachers preach the way they understand it, then if someone doesn’t like it or believes the preacher is wrong, they just go off and start their own church and preach it their way.

They are lost and don’t even realize it.

“Lost” in what sense?

 

[ljprevo]

“Lost” in what sense?

Lost in a sense that if they don’t agree that they just leave and start it the way THEY think it is and not necessarily the truth!

They are all off preaching their own versions.

Humm since the reformation, over 30,000 protestant religions, who is correct?

 

[reteeks21]

Lost in a sense that if they don’t agree that they just leave and start it the way THEY think it is and not necessarily the truth!

They are all off preaching their own versions.

Humm since the reformation, over 30,000 protestant religions, who is correct?

I agree that some of the bickering is crazy, but has your church ever been wrong?

 

[ljprevo]

I agree that some of the bickering is crazy, but has your church ever been wrong?

It is not for me the individual to determine or question. I am faithful and follow the church Jesus Christ himself established.

 

[chrisb]

Why do we have to seperate ourselves to different branches of religion? Lutherans, Protestants, Catholics all believe in Jesus Christ but each branch has something different about it. I was wondering why Christians won’t unite to have a bigger influence in the world?

In a word, sin… that spiritual deposit has evil been made to great shame and pity.

Lord, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.

 

[reteeks21]

It is not for me the individual to determine or question. I am faithful and follow the church Jesus Christ himself established.

You have no desire to question and learn on your own? It never crosses your mind that your priest may be wrong on something?

 

[ljprevo]

You have no desire to question and learn on your own? It never crosses your mind that your priest may be wrong on something?

If your parent says stay out of the fridge are you curious enough to disobey them and get in it anyway? Thus start your own fridge with what ever you want in it right?

Yeah there have been things that I have questioned about the church, but do I blatantly go against the church and defy them? NO! Just like a unjust law, I will follow and obey the law and live with it. i.e. Seat belt laws. I don’t like the fact that I have to wear a seat belt, but I do because it is the law. Why don’t I? I don’t have use of my right hand and I have a very hard time getting the beat on and off. I scares me that if trapped I would not be able to get out of it. I have a friend that was in an accident that was trapped and was being strangled by the seat belt.

In short the church is our parent and they know what is best for us. We don’t have the knowledge or experience to determine it on our own. We need to follow truth and not an opinion, which is what all the other 30,000 protestant religions have, they are all opinions, so which one is the truth?

I have know priest who have went against the Holy See or the bishop and I either report them to diocese or find another catholic church, I don’t go and start my own church, I am not qualified.

That is where all these protestant churches came from, someone disagreed with teaching and jumped on a high horse and said “THEY ARE WRONG” I know the truth. Then someone in that new church says the same about the 2nd church and starts a 3rd, then a 4th, and a 5th and so on and so on. See what we mean about being lost.

The Catholic church’s doctrine is the same from the beginning until now. I am not talking about traditional changes. I am talking doctrine.

 

[reteeks21]

If your parent says stay out of the fridge are you curious enough to disobey them and get in it anyway? Thus start your own fridge with what ever you want in it right?

Yeah there have been things that I have questioned about the church, but do I blatantly go against the church and defy them? NO! Just like a unjust law, I will follow and obey the law and live with it. i.e. Seat belt laws. I don’t like the fact that I have to wear a seat belt, but I do because it is the law. Why don’t I? I don’t have use of my right hand and I have a very hard time getting the beat on and off. I scares me that if trapped I would not be able to get out of it. I have a friend that was in an accident that was trapped and was being strangled by the seat belt.

In short the church is our parent and they know what is best for us. We don’t have the knowledge or experience to determine it on our own. We need to follow truth and not an opinion, which is what all the other 30,000 protestant religions have, they are all opinions, so which one is the truth?

I have know priest who have went against the Holy See or the bishop and I either report them to diocese or find another catholic church, I don’t go and start my own church, I am not qualified.

That is where all these protestant churches came from, someone disagreed with teaching and jumped on a high horse and said “THEY ARE WRONG” I know the truth. Then someone in that new church says the same about the 2nd church and starts a 3rd, then a 4th, and a 5th and so on and so on. See what we mean about being lost.

The Catholic church’s doctrine is the same from the beginning until now. I am not talking about traditional changes. I am talking doctrine.

The Pharisees were also given authority and they blew that pretty bad. Look, every church has its faults, and even the early reformers did not like how people abused the reforms they were trying to accomplish. In fact, they wanted to remain Catholic; they just wanted the church to get back to Christ and not to man’s abuse of it. The RCC is a wonderful thing; I have loads of respect for it. I just don’t think it is the end-all for Christianity. No disrespect intended. That is just my opinion.

 

[strngrnrth]

Christianity split in the Middle Ages because of the issues of nepotism and concentration of property in priests’ and bishops’ families. Problem: If priests can be married, then either they can abuse their position economically or they can be kept from having very much, which wouldn’t be fair to their families.
Eastern solution: Let them be married; deal with the consequences. Western solution: Require celibacy.
Christianity split in the Reformation because a few people, especially in the cold (and cooling) mountainous central and northern European countries. felt alienated from the Church. They had little protection from abuses such as the sale of indulgences, and often weak Latin knowledge, and thus didn’t understand the Mass. Literacy was low. The toll on the population caused by the ongoing Crusades, failed crops, cold and robbers running freely in the hills where laws were scarcely enforced, left some people thinking if their clergy and religious could marry it might save them from their culture dwindling away. Then a scattered handful of men had various issues with doctrine and tied their disagreements in with the complaints of some of their people, and the rest is, of course, history.

 

[jmcrae]

Why do we have to seperate ourselves to different branches of religion?

We don’t have to - every non-Catholic Christian alive right now could become Catholic by next Easter, if they wanted to.

The original divisions were based on politics; theology got into it afterwards, as a rationale for the political splits.