Christian Denominations

All denominations in Christianity believe that Jesus is the Son of God and became the sacrificial Lamb of God.

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

John 3:16

Christianity is divided into many different groups called denominations. The first Church was not an organization, but Jesus' apostles and friends. He said in Matthew 18:19-20: "Again I say unto you, that if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven, for where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them."

The first Christian organization was the Catholic Church, which eventually broke into different denominations especially in the 1500s as a result of Martin Luther and John Calvin. Christianity is divided between Eastern and Western theology. In these two divisions there are six branches: Catholicism, Protestantism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Anglicanism, Oriental Orthodoxy, and Assyrians. Restorationism is sometimes considered the seventh branch.

The major Protestant denominational families are:

Adventists

Baptists

Congregationalists

Lutherans

Methodists

Pentecostals

Presbyterians

The diagram below shows the way the Christian churches split from one another.

A Diagram of Christian Denominations
courtesy of Wikipedia

Protestant denominations are separate from each other and have split several times. Theology of each denomination is determined by the local church councils or governing bodies.

There has always been a group of Jewish believers, Jews by birth who have accepted Jesus as Messiah, who continue to practice some of their Jewish religious customs while worshipping as Christians.

The chart below shows interesting facts about the major Christian denominations:

Catholic

Orthodox

Lutheran

Reformed/ Presbyterian

Methodist/ Wesleyan

Anglican/ Episcopalian

Date Founded 1054 AD (Great Schism) in the Western Roman Empire 1054 AD (Great Schism) in the Eastern Roman Empire 1530 (Augsburg Confession) in Germany c. 1520 during the Reformation in Switzerland and in Scotland
1787 in England 1534
(King Henry's Act of Supremacy) in England

Founded by
St. Peter Patriarch Michael Cerularius Martin Luther,
Philip Melanchthon Ulrich Zwingli, John Calvin, Theodore Beza, John Knox John Wesley King Henry VIII, Queen Elizabeth I, Thomas Cromwell, Thomas Cranmer, Hugh Latimer, Nicholas Ridley

Number of Adherents
1.5 billion 225 million worldwide 66 million 2.5 million 8.3 million 75 million

Language
Latin Greek German French English English

Worship Guide
Book of Concord Directory for Worship Book of Discipline Book of Common Prayer

Denominations