Ancient Christian Witness

Quote:
Originally Posted by iron_jae
There are so
many different denominations in the Christian faith. Can someone describe the
differences of a few? Especially the more popular ones like Baptist, Methodist,
Pentecostal, Foursquare, etc....

shooting from the hip, I would say:

Baptists came from English Separatists. I forgot the dates....but I would say somewhere in the 16 hundreds. I could be wrong about that.

Some might argue this point, but I think the General Baptists were the first breed of Baptists. Most other Baptists came from the Particular Baptist brand.

There may have been some cross-breeding with other English Separatists and Mennonites/Ana-Baptists, but over here in the United States there was a man in New England.

I forgot his name...Roger....uhm....It might come to me later, but he was kicked out of the Boston area...Massatuechits(I know it's spelled wrong).

But he was kicked out and he formed the state known as "Rhode Island". He is pretty much looked at as forming the first American Baptist Church.

Now.....I don't know what year that was. I'm not looking at anything, and it's been a long time since, I looked over the history of the Baptists.

But as you know they split into alot of different sub-denominations over the years.

You have Primative Baptists, General Baptists, Southern Baptists, American Baptists, Free will Baptists, Reformed Baptists, .........ect.


In general the Baptists are Congregational in government. Now in saying this you might find some that are not. I personally think they were Congregationalists because they started out as English Separatists....who were also Congregational in church governmant.

They believe in Adult Baptism only. They may have gotten this from the Mennonites.

Back then ....they also were against State Churches. They may have gotten this from the Mennonites as well.

Outside of the general Baptists and Free will Baptists, most Baptists have a Calvinistic foundation. This may be due to the fact that they came from "English separatistism".

Most English separatists were Pretty much in agreement with the Puritans in regards to Calvinism. There was alot of cross-breeding between the Puritans and English Separatist groups.

Later in time, most Baptists in North America started to hold a half-way position between Arminianism and Calvinism. They want to believe in free will, unlimited Atonement, but they also want to believe in Once saved always saved.

And this is pretty much the dominate view right now among Baptists.


From the Baptists, you have alot of nondenominational Bible churches, fundementalist churches, The seventhday Adventist church (because they were started by a 7nth day Baptist)......ect.




The Methodhists came from John Wesly, Charles Wesly, and George Whittefield. I might be wrong, but I think it started as a Bible club at Oxford University.


They had a method of daily, prayers, fasts, scriptural readings......ect.

At Oxford, they were called "the Holy Club". That was the put down used by other students....and maybe teachers.

John Wesly was raised in a more "high church" form of Anglicanism, and his mentor was William Law.

But anyway, George Whitfield tought Wesly how to do Open air preaching and over a period of time both John and George split into different groups.

John Wesly's theology slightly changed when he met a set of Morovians on a boat back to England. And at some camp meeting while reading Luther's intro to the book of Romans he felt his heart get warm, and this is where Wesly says he was born again.

This is known as the "Altergate experience".

John Wesly stayed an Anglican all his life, but because of the American Revolutionary war with Great Britan,. John Wesly had to ordain...or maybe he had another priest ordain...his American Methodhist followers.

the Methodist movement became it's own denomination after the death of John Wesly.


It belives in elected Bishops.....so the church government is ran by bishops.

Like the Baptist, it came from England.

Outside of George Whitfield's branch of Methodism......which is very tiny. Most of Methodism is Arminian in theology.

From them, came the Holiness Movement, the Pentecostal Movement, and the later Charismatic movement.......it all comes from this line of Protestantism.



Pentecostalism came from a mixture of Holiness Churches that went to Azuza Street. It was called the Azuza street Revival. This was about 1906. Now there is a short history before that time between a White Holiness Preacher and a black preacher name Semor.....but I forgot all the details, so I'm not gonna talk about it ...at this time. I'm shooting from the hip.

But it started as a revival and it spread from that.

From it you have:

P.A.W.

U.P.C.I.

C.O.G.I.C.

A.O.G.

Foursquare Gospel


and hundreds more.





So it all started from England, with Anglicanism

And From Anfglicanism you had various splits of Puritans, and Seperatists.

And from the Puritans you have. Congregationalists(like the church where Rev.Jeriamiah wright use to preach at)

And Prespyterian. The Prespyterian thing is kinda weird, because this group of Puritans in America linked up with the church of scotland.....so they have a scotish cross-breeding.

But you have alot of differant groups of Prespyterians in America.



And from the Congregationalists you have Baptists.

From the Prespyterians you have Church of Christ

From Anglicanism you have Methodism, and Episcopalism(in America)


And from the Methodists you have the Holiness movement.

And from the Holiness movement, you have the Pentecostal movement.

And from the Pentecostal movement you have the Charismatic movement.



I think, I will stop at this, but part of the problem is "Freedom of Religion" in our country. For most of the splits happened over here in America.




JNORM888