Ancient Christian Witness

quote:
"what's the difference between christian, baptist,
lutheran and all the different types?

Baptist, Pentecostal, Lutherian, Methodist, Grace Centers, Episcopal....ect. Would all be called "Denominations" of the Christian Religion.

Christianity started out in the middle East with Jesus and His Disciples. From there His Disciples traveled all over spreading the message, teachings, and ways of Jesus. In Antioch, the followers of Jesus were first called Christians by the people of that city. In the middle East, Christians were called by the name "Nazerines". Another early name that was used by christians or was used by those in talking about christians was the tern "The Way". Or people of "The Way". But since most of the North Eastern African, Middle Eastern, and South Eastern Europian areas spoke greek, the term "Christian" stuck. And so Christians started to use that word for themselves. It was a word first used by nonchristians to describe what those who followed Jesus did. So nonchristians called them "Christians" which is a greek word which means "to follow Christ" or "a follower of Christ".

So the name stuck, and christins started to embrace the term.

Saint Paul traveled to what is now Modern day Turkey, Greece, Italy and maybe Spain/France.

The Apostle Mark traveled to Egypt and maybe Ethiopia

Saint Peter traveled to modern day Turkey, and from there to Italy.

Saint Thomas traveled to modern day INDIA.

Saint John traveled to modern day Turkey and maybe Syria.....I could be wrong about that.

Saint Andrew traveled to modern day Greece

And Saint James stayed in Judea.....modern day ISRAEL/ Palinstine.

I forgot where some of the others went, but these were the general places where Christianity spread to. And before the Apostles died, they appointed honorable men to replace them as Bishops in the cities they were in. The Apostles were both Apostles and Bishops, so when they died that Apostolic succesion passed on to the next generation of men. To lead and guide the flock.

At first there were three seas. Rome, Alexandria, and Antioch.

A few hundred years later the three turned into five.

Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem.

Around the year 1054 A.D. was when Roman Catholicism was "officially" formed.

The Bishop of Rome claimed universal supremecy in Jurisdiction over all other Bishops. Most of the Eastern Bishops said no, because the rule of faith was always that every Bishop was equal, and that any difference was only in honor, respect.....ect.

So the Roman sea split herself off from the other seas. Around 1054 A.D. she was officially called "Roman Catholic". And the Christian East kepted the name "ORTHODOX".

Some five hundred years later. A Roman Catholic monk named Martin Luther nailed 95 thesis to a wall in the year 1517 A.D.

He protested some of the things in Roman Catholicism, and thus Lutherianism was formed. Shortly after that the Dutch Reformed was formed. The Church of England (Anglican/Episcopal) was formed. The Church of Scotland(Prespyterian) was formed. And the Anabaptists(Ahmish/Mennonite) were formed.

When England came to Colonize North America the Pilgrims were part of what was called the English Separatists. And the English Separatists came from the Puritans.

The Puritans were part of the Church of England(Anglican/Episcopal)

In the Church of England you have what is called a Low wing, and a high wing. The Puritans were part of the Low Anglican wing.

And from them came your Congregationalists, American Prespyterians, Baptists, Shakers, Quakers, And from your Congregationalists came your Uniterians and Uniterian Universalists.

From the Prespyterians came the Disciples of Christ, Church of Christ, Christian disciples. And from the Church ofChrist came the international churches of Christ.


From the Baptists, came many more sub-Baptist groups, fundementalist groups, Bible church groups, and some self professed nondenominational groups. As well as the Seventhdy Adventists.

They came from a Seventh day Baptist group, which later spawned what was called "Adventists(first day), and Seventh day Adventists, and from them came your Jehovia witnesses, and World Wide church of God groups.


From the Anglicans came...like I said before, your Puritans, your Methodhists, and from the Methodhists came the Holiness Churches, Like your Salvation Army, the Church of the Nazerine, Church of God, Weslyian...ect.

And from the Holiness movement came the Pentecostal movement. In 1906 there was a Revival in California at a place called Azuza street.

And from that you have your groups like Church of God in Christ, Pentecostal Assemblies of the World, Assemblies of God, Pentecostal Church International (or something like that) Four square Gospel, and a slew of other Pentecostal groups.

And from your Pentecostal groups came your Charismatic groups, and this was around the 1960's. This is where you have Oral Roberts, your Binny Hinns....ect. Alot of the modern self-professed nondenominational groups come from this. Like your Jesus movement, Calvery Chapel, Vinard, and alot of your modern Word of Faith type churches as well.

Like the Rhema Bible school in Tulsa Oklahoma.



So as where the christian west started to form more and more splinter groups, the christian east pretty much stayed stable......well at least in this regards.

One of the reasons for the rise of more christian splinter groups was because of the formation of America, and thewhole idea of Democracy, religious freedom, and the separation between church and state.

This allows the type of atmosphere for splinter groups to form, and form quickly.


I'm sorry for the rambling. Please forgive me. If you want me to go into more detail about each group and why they differ or why they are similar, I'll try to do that.....but you will have to pin point specific groups.




JNORM888