Denominations of Christianity ✞☨♱

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Catholics also believe that the apostles need to be replaced when they die (apostolic succession):

Judas Iscariot was hanging around, so he was replaced with Matthias; so it's interpreted that the twelve apostles must be replaced when they die. Therefore, as Peter was the leader - or pope - of the apostles, his successors will logically be the leaders of all Christians.

The last key ;) piece is, since Peter died in Rome (his bones were found there), all the bishops of Rome will be the popes of the Universal Church.

But, how about Mary? Don't Catholics worship her? NO.

Catholics render "hyperdulia" and not worship to Mary, which as it sounds, implies more prayers, respect and devotion.

Besides, they have four Marian dogmas, which are ideas of Mary that Catholics must believe:

1- Mary is the Mother of God.

2- Mary was always a virgin

3- Mary's body was assumed into Heaven. Infallibly declared by the Pope in 1950.

4- Mary was conceived without original sin (Augustinian view), so she never sins. Infallibly recognised by the pope in 1854.

Also why not, she cooperates uniquely in salvation, intercedes for us and is revered as Queen of Heaven.

Baptism! Catholics baptize babies, just as 90% of denomination

They do so to declare the baby a son of God, to erase the Original Sin of their body, and to open them the possibility of salvation.

When you're baptized (according to Catholics), you enter a state of grace that ends with apostasy/sin: so if you die immediately after being baptized, you WILL go to Heaven.

The celebration of Mass is really important, to the point that skipping Mass without a good reason is considered sinful!

Catholic worship style is not unified, since there are 24 rites (liturgies (ways of worship)). The most common and well-known one is the Roman Rite, followed by the Byzantine one. However, all rites focus the sacraments and rituals of the Church.

Something interesting about their liturgy are relics.

Relics are stuff like parts of the Saints' bodies, their belongings, or important artifacts to the faith. An example is the tomb of Saint James the Apostle (the writer of James, according to Jerome), which is in the city of Santiago de Compostela; many people peregrinate there to seek intercession and miracles.

Another thing that people peregrinate to see are Eucharistic Miracles, where it's believed that the bread and wine sensory qualities are also annihilated. There are several well documented cases, and a famous one occurred in Buenos Aires, Argentina!

What's Purgatory?

Purgatory is the place where saved souls that sinned badly will go. In Purgatory, according to Catholics, the fire will purge the remaining sin and make the souls worthy of being in Heaven.

"Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life" (Apocalypse 21:27)

Catholics also believe that prayers for the dead can help them burn their sin faster, so they pray for them, as seen in 2 Maccabees 12:46.

"Thus he made atonement for the dead that they might be absolved from their sin."

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"All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work."

(2 Timothy 3:16-17)

"Manasseh also sacrificed his own son in the fire. He practiced sorcery and divination, and he consulted with mediums and psychics. He did much that was evil in the Lord’s sight, arousing his anger."

(2 Kings 21:6)

Lutherans also think that salvation comes through faith alone, is gifted by grace alone, given to Christ alone, and is all for the Glory of God alone.

(Sola Fide - Sola Gratia - Solus Christus - Soli Deo Gloria)

"For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast."

(Ephesians 2:8-9)

Luther intended to reform the Catholic Church, yet the harshness with which Roman authorities responded was the reason the Reformation ended in a involuntary schism.

The eucharist in Lutheranism is really special, since they think Jesus Christ is in, within, and under both bread and wine: the bread and wine won't stop being bread and wine, yet Christ is truly and substantially present in them.

"He took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, 'This is my body given to you; do this in remembrance of me' 

20 In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.' "  (Luke 22:19)

So when Jesus said 'this IS my body', He meant it!

They also believe this is one of the two sacraments. Where are the other five? Welp, they define sacrament as something necessary for salvation, and explicitly commanded by Christ.

Lutherans were the ones who stopped treating the Deuterocanon as canonical and started to include it just as an appendix.

This wasn't merely just 'cause they didn't support Luther's theology (maybe), but weren't considered since they aren't as quoted as other books.

The Orthodox don't believe that Hell and Heaven are physical places, but different perspectives from where we perceive God's glory!

The salvation science (soteriology) of theirs says that Salvation is a process of cooperation with God:

It starts with the baptism, continues within the life of the believer, and ends with the final glorification.

If the person denies this relation with God, they will be apart from God for eternity. However, if the person cooperates with God, this person will become one with God and with His Christ: this is called Theosis.

Theosis doesn't mean to become a God, but to be a participant of God:

+The Orthodox think that there is an essence/energies distinction, which means that God and the divine nature are different than God's love, beauty, ethics, power, and holiness.

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[Continued]

These things thus I confess and to these I assent, and therefore in simplicity of heart and in uprightness of mind, in the presence of God, I have made the subjoined anathematisms.

Anathema to the calumniators of the Christians, that is to the image breakers.

Anathema to those who apply the words of Holy Scripture which were spoken against idols, to the venerable images.

Anathema to those who do not salute the holy and venerable images.

Anathema to those who say that Christians have recourse to the images as to gods.

Anathema to those who call the sacred images idols.

Anathema to those who knowingly communicate with those who revile and dishonour the venerable images.

Anathema to those who say that another than Christ our Lord hath delivered us from idols.

Anathema to those who spurn the teachings of the holy Fathers and the tradition of the Catholic Church, taking as a pretext and making their own the arguments of Arius, Nestorius, Eutyches, and Dioscorus, that unless we were evidently taught by the Old and New Testaments, we should not follow the teachings of the holy Fathers and of the holy Ecumenical Synods, and the tradition of the Catholic Church.

Anathema to those who dare to say that the Catholic Church hath at any time sanctioned idols.

Anathema to those who say that the making of images is a diabolical invention and not a tradition of our holy Fathers.

This is my confession [of faith] and to these propositions I give my assent. And I pronounce this with my whole heart, and soul, and mind.

And if at any time by the fraud of the devil (which may God forbid!) I voluntarily or involuntarily shall be opposed to what I have now professed, may I be anathema from the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, and from the Catholic Church and every hierarchical order a stranger.

I will keep myself from every acceptance of a bribe and from filthy lucre in accordance with the divine canons of the holy Apostles and of the approved Fathers.

Tarasius, the most holy Patriarch, said: This whole sacred gathering yields glory and thanks to God for this confession of yours, which you have made to the Catholic Church.

The Holy Synod said: Glory to God which maketh one that which was severed.

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Thus the teaching of our holy Fathers is strengthened—that is, the tradition of the Catholic [universal] Church, which has received the Gospel from one end of the earth to the other. Thus we truly follow Paul, who spoke in Christ, and the whole divine apostolic company and the holiness of the Fathers, holding fast to the traditions that we have received. Thus we sing with the prophets hymns of victory to the Church: “Rejoice greatly, daughter of Zion; proclaim, daughter of Jerusalem; delight in your happiness and joy with a full heart. The Lord has taken away the injustices of your enemies; you have been redeemed from the hand of your adversaries. The Lord the King is in your midst; you shall never again see evil, and peace shall be upon you forever.“

Therefore, all those who dare to think or teach otherwise, or who follow the accursed heretics by rejecting the ecclesiastical traditions, or who introduce innovations, or who despise anything entrusted to the Church—whether the Gospel, the figure of the Cross, any form of representational art, or any sacred relic of a martyr—or who devise wicked and perverse prejudices against any of the legitimate traditions of the Catholic Church, or who secularize sacred objects and holy monasteries—we decree that they are to be suspended if they are bishops or clerics, and excommunicated if they are monks or laypeople.

If anyone does not confess that Christ our God can be represented in His humanity, let him be anathema.

If anyone does not accept the representation in art of the evangelical scenes, let him be anathema.

If anyone does not greet such representations as symbols of the Lord and His saints, let him be anathema.

If anyone rejects any written or unwritten tradition of the Church, let him be anathema.

Orthodox use the Deuterocanon as fully canonical, but they also recognize the Letter of Jeremiah, 3 Maccabees, 4 Maccabees, and Manasseh Prayer as part of the canon of Scripture.

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Holy SpiritㅤSon

No filioque

"For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified"

(Romans 8:29-30) ESV

The Reformed theology is often summarized in the famous acronym TULIP, which stands for:

•Total depravity: The human is not capable to free from sin by his own ways, since God is needed.

•Unconditional Election: Just predestination

•Limited atonement: Christ' sacrifice didn't apply to everyone, just to the predestined ones.

•Irresistible grace: God's grace can't be denied; a person will collaborate with God whenever He calls them.

•Perseverance of the saints: A person cannot ultimately lose salvation, but those who appear to be saved may reject grace later, proving they were never saved. Not equal to OSAS btw.

Supralapsarianism:

-God predestined, let the fall happen, and saved the predestined; meaning the wicked are actively denied.

This is often seen as 'mean Calvinism'

Uh, isn't supralapsarianism and hypercalvinism the same?

Not quite, Hyper Calvinists don't think of preaching the gospel to anyone other than to the elect, since they think that's a waste of time (?)

Surprise surprise: they baptize babies! Why? Since it is wanted for the baby to be a citizen of the kingdom of God from day one.

However, the Calvinist Baptists baptize believers who made conscious declarations of faith, yet they're Calvinists pretty much in everything else.

They label their beliefs on baptism as 'Baptismal Efficacy', a lower view than the Catholic and Lutheran ones that says baptism grants both grace and salvation in the moment you start having faith, else neither will ever apply.

"There are three that bear witness in Earth: The water, the blood, and the Spirit; and these three agree" 1 John 5:7-8a

Calvinist Liturgy! How is it?

It is simple and focused on sermons, which may be influenced by the Zwinglian iconoclasm; yet it's well structured and majestic :)

Also, they use to sing Psalms a cappella in their liturgy, with simple background music.

The Dutch, Swiss, and the Huguenots often are more congregational than other Reformed traditions; and really strict regarding their worship, because they follow a stricter version of the Regulative Worship Principle.

They adhere to the Three Forms of Unity or the Helvetic Confessions, and they use to be Kuyperian.

The systematics, or the general framework used to study theology, employed by Calvinists is called 'Covenant Theology'.

Covenant Theology states that all the promises - or covenants - God made to Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, and the Grace (done by Jesus) are the same as the promise He made to Adam, where the offspring of Eve would crush the snake's head.

This explains many Presbyterian views:

A common strawman against Anglicanism is that their church was started by Henry VIII when he wanted a divorce, and that's not true!

During the reformation, Henry wanted to maintain loyal to the Pope, yet broke ties with Rome in 1534 when his divorce wasn't granted, and made himself the Head of the Church. However, he stayed theologically Catholic, persecuted Protestants (killing William Tyndale), and wrote a defense against Luther's 95 theses.

The son of Henry and the new King, Edward VI, wanted to make England Protestant, so he introduced Protestant reforms, dismantled the remaining Catholic doctrine, and made the Church of England clearly Protestant

The next queen, Bloody Mary, wanted England to be Catholic, so she reinstated ties with Rome and persecuted Protestants, killing Thomas Cranmer.

...This is a mess, ain't it?

Finally, in 1559, Elizabeth I wanted to settle the religion of the state permanently, so she decided to reinstate the Supremacy Act (which says the monarch is the supreme governor of the Church), while at the same time imposing a new Book of Common Prayer as mandatory, where she mixed liturgical Catholic elements with Protestant doctrines.

This is the main pillar on Anglicanism: to be eclectic - use the best elements of multiple denominations - while having a great range of beliefs. Some Anglicans are Anglo-Catholic, more are quite Reformed; some hold a Reformed spiritual presence, some even believe in Transubstantiation; some believe in four-point TULIP, and some believe in Arminianism (free will).

But, aren't these differences problematic? Not on their eyes! They think that as long as we agree on the essentials, we can have more liberty on the secondary dogmas.

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Well, the 39 Articles are held by Reformed Anglicans verbatim, but Anglo-Catholics just totally ignore them.

The articles say something like this:

•The trinitarian God, the Incarnation of the Son, the death and resurrection, and the ascension to Heaven of Jesus.

•Harrowing of hell (Jesus descended to Hell)

•The filioque.

•Sola Scriptura and the sufficiency of the Bible for salvation; and the canon of 66 books, with the Deuterocanon being useful yet not for building doctrines.

•Anathematization of whoever rejects the Apostles', Nicene, or Athanasius Creeds.

•The original sin concept, rejection of Pelagianism.

•Sola Fide, Sola Gratia, Soli Deo Gloria & Solus Christus

•Rejection of purgatory, relics, veneration, and indulgences

And more :)

Regarding communion, the official position the 39 Articles take is the spiritual one, yet they don't deny nor anathematize that it might be a real Presence in/within/under the bread and wine.

What they don't accept is Transubstantiation, called by the articles 'an insult to Holy Writ' (Anglo-Catholics don't really care about the Article's emotional support :P )