Universalis

The History of all Christian Denominations

What is the History of Your Church?

By Nick Teo


Church Year Established Founder Where Established

Catholic 33 Jesus Christ Jerusalem

Orthodox 1054 Schismatic Catholic Bishops Constantinople

Lutheran 1517 Martin Luther Germany

Anabaptist 1521 Nicholas Storch & Thomas Munzer Germany

Anglican 1534 Henry VII England

Mennonites 1536 Menno Simons Switzerland

Calvinist 1555 John Calvin Switzerland

Presbyterian 1560 John Knox Scotland

Congregational 1582 Robert Brown Holland

Baptist 1609 John Smyth Amsterdam

Dutch Reformed 1628 Michaelis Jones New York

Congregationalist 1648 Pilgrims and Puritans Massachusetts

Quakers 1649 George Fox England

Amish 1693 Jacob Amman France

Freemasons 1717 Masons from four lodges London

Methodist 1739 John & Charles Wesley England

Unitarian 1774 Theophilus Lindey London

Methodist Episcopal 1784 60 Preachers Baltimore, MD

Episcopalian 1789 Samuel Seabury American Colonies

United Brethren 1800 Philip Otterbein & Martin Boehn Maryland

Disciples of Christ 1827 Thomas & Alexander Campbell Kentucky

Mormon 1830 Joseph Smith New York

Methodist Protestant 1830 Methodist United States

Church of Christ 1836 Warren Stone & Alexander Campbell Kentucky

Seventh Day Adventist 1844 Ellen White Washington, NH

Christadelphian (Brethren of Christ) 1844 John Thomas Richmond, VA

Salvation Army 1865 William Booth London

Holiness 1867 Methodist United States

Jehovah's Witnesses 1874 Charles Taze Russell Pennsylvania

Christian Science 1879 Mary Baker Eddy Boston

Church of God in Christ 1895 Various churches of God Arkansas

Church of Nazarene c. 1850-1900 Various religious bodies Pilot Point, TX

Pentecstal 1901 Charles F. Parkham Topeka, KS

Aglipayan 1902 Gregorio Aglipay Philippines

Assemblies of God 1914 Pentecostalism Hot Springs, AZ

Iglesia ni Christo 1914 Felix Manalo Philippines

Four-square Gospel 1917 Aimee Semple McPherson Los Angeles, CA

United Church of Christ 1961 Reformed and Congregationalist Philadelphia, PA

Calvary Chapel 1965 Chuck Smith Costa Mesa, CA

United Methodist 1968 Methodist and United Brethren Dallas, TX

Born-again c. 1970s Various religious bodies United States

Harvest Christian 1972 Greg Laurie Riverside, CA

Saddleback 1982 Rick Warren California

Non-denominational c. 1990s various United States

How did this phenomenon come about? All stem from Jesus, but yet all so different...

1 comment:

ChrisYeo said...

"How did this phenomenon come about? All stem from Jesus, but yet all so different..."

You ask a simple question, and perhaps there is a simple answer. Let's just look at the first four 'denominations':

1. The Orthodox Church - The Church's split into East and West was mainly political but also geographical. They had different cultures and languages, and different power bases. The Eastern and Western patriarchs split apart because they didn't see eye-to-eye on certain matters, and not much could be done because of the geo-political distance. However, theologically we are the same and in many ways we are still one church.

2. Lutherans - Martin Luther was a monk and priest who, in an atmosphere of a corrupt clergy, posted his famous Ninety-five Theses, chiefly aiming to abolish the abuse of indulgences (the practice of giving money to the church in exchange for absolutions). His views were heretical but the German princes, tired of control by Rome, decided to rally behind Luther and formed a new 'protesting' church.

3. The Anabaptists, who had been around for a very long time, believed that we could only be baptised through belief and rejected infant baptism. They must have saw that is someone else could form a new church they could too.

4. The Anglicans - King Henry VII, not given the permission divorce his wife and remarry, simply decided that Rome couldn't control him and made himself head of the church of England, thus forming the Anglican church.

Please feel free to add to or correct me as these are only my personal summaries of what I have read.

You can see that by now the floodgates had opened for all who wanted to form their own church. The only common thing these protestant churches have is their reliance on the bible as the only source of truth, and their opposition to the Catholic church. You can also see that the initial reasons for the splits were somewhat political. But there are lessons here. The Catholic church administration had become so powerful and corrupt and maybe even arrogant that the people were willing to form new churches. We would do well to continue to avoid these ills. Perhaps then, this was all for the better?

How should we act or think of protestants? Personally I feel that we should be firm in our theological grounding, but be fully loving and accepting of our brothers and sisters. We have to break down the walls between us in order to build up the Church, but I might add that the Catholic church is the rock and the firm foundation.