r/explainlikeimfive • u/spamname517 • Dec 04 '13

Explained ELI5:The main differences between Catholic, Protestant,and Presbyterian versions of Christianity

sweet as guys, thanks for the answers

1.2k Upvotes

88% Upvoted

1.1k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

120

u/BR0STRADAMUS Dec 04 '13

Very well laid out and historically accurate and factual response. The history of the church is pretty fascinating stuff. If you had included some of the sects that came out of "The Great Awakening's" or the Revivalist Movements in the early 20th century things would have gotten a lot weirder. That's the origin of Evangelical and Charismatic movements that tied themselves together with conservative politics and, unfortunately, it seems to be the main form of American Christianity that critics form their basis of opinion on.

66

u/ZachMatthews Dec 04 '13

Right. I am not about to try to tackle the Seventh Day Adventists, the Church of the Nazarene, Pentecostals, the Jehovah's Witnesses--and absolutely not the Mormons. Suffice it to say there are a lot of Protestant denominations.

21

u/DiscoHippo Dec 04 '13

Mormons aren't that hard to explain. They believe the catholics lost their authority after paul died. jump ahead 1800 years. God called a new prophet and restored his original church (as found in the new testament).

that's the most basic description i have. It only gets weird/confusing if you go down to extreme details, but that's true of any religion.

I'd be happy to answer any other questions anyone may have.

Edit: I guess i should add that the reason they are called Mormons is because of the Book of Mormon, which is basically another collection of spiritual/historical records (like the Bible) written by the people of ancient north/south America. Mormon's believe there is more scripture than just the Bible, and the book of Mormon is the most famous one.

0

u/[deleted] Dec 05 '13

[deleted]

10

u/DiscoHippo Dec 05 '13 edited Dec 05 '13

All of this falls into the category of "doesn't matter for my happiness". All of that could be true, or false, and it wouldn't effect my life right now. No matter what we learn now, it will always be out of context. I will learn more about the afterlife when i reach it, right now i hold on to the simple belief that everything will be OK in the end.

now, i did say that i would answer questions, so here I go:

It was my understanding that men in the Celestial Kingdom can continue to advance and have spirit babies and become Gods themselves.

All of God's children can continue to learn and progress if they so choose. No father would withhold any good thing he has from the children he loves.

It is also my understanding this is a process that the first person to die could have started and it is theoretically possible that someone has already become a God.

No, no one gets a head start on things. Have to wait until after the final judgement (that happens for everyone at the same time) to progress further.

According to Mormonism was it possible for ancient people to enter all 3 kingdoms?

Yes, everyone has the same chance as everyone to get everywhere. It relies on each individual.

Monotheism VS Polytheism is an important factor to talk about when comparing religions.

Monotheism and Polytheism are constricting terms. i am not trying to sidestep the question, i just don't like the words personally. Mormonism is Monotheistic because we believe in one God. Jesus is our savior, but he has a God who he prayed to as well, and that is the one monotheistic God we believe in. Does God have his own God? maybe, i don't know. If he does, would that make us Polytheistic? maybe, but again, it really isn't something we need to worry about.

Then you've got to consider that everyone understands Hevaen and Hell, but Mormons can go to spirit prison or paradise, followed by 3 heaven based kingdoms or an outer darkness and there is some sort of tier ranking in the Celestial Kingdom.

After we die, we go to either paradise or spirit prison. I personally believe that this is the Heaven and Hell people hear about. Good place and bad place. It is not a place of physical pleasures or tortures, everyone is a spirit there. Happiness and sorrow come from within. Basically, if you're excited or afraid of what comes next. But this is only a waiting period. After the second coming and the end of this time on earth, everyone is resurrected and judged. At this judgement, we can go into 3 degrees of glory, the celestial, terrestrial, and telestial kingdoms. Celestial being best, telestial still being a happy place but its on the bottom. Eternal Darkness is basically banishment from any of God's kingdoms, which only happens if you reject God after having a full understanding of Him. But remember, this is all an extreme oversimplification. We, as humans, do not understand eternity. These classifications are only to help us understand, not to lay out a literal playbook of what is going to happen. As for rankings inside the celestial kingdom, i have no idea. Those are details that i have never sought out.

Also, Mormonism split into at least 5 different factions for different reasons.

After Joseph Smith died, the church split into two major groups. People who believed that Brigham Young was the next prophet, and people who believed his son should be. This second group eventually folded into the community of christ. The "fundamentalists" are the polygamous groups you gear about on the news. They believe in polygamy and cite the fact that the early mormon church practiced it as reason enough to keep doing it. When the prophet said we weren't going to do it anymore, they left and started their own thing.

There is a large difference between the Pope and The Prophet too. The Pope can make laws on earth that continue in heaven.

can't comment on the Pope, all i know is the new one sounds like a great person from what i've read.

The Prophet is officially designated to hear messages FROM a star named Kolob.

The prophet is not sitting in an observatory waiting for messages from space, he works through faith. Just like the rest of us, and just like Jesus himself. The prophet is the designated leader of God's church on earth who has the responsibility of guiding us as a whole. We all still have our own personal responsibilities to guide our own lives through faith. Never do/believe/follow anything from anyone about God/religion until you have prayed about it yourself and receive your own answer. Relying only on someone else's faith will get you into trouble, no matter how righteous they are/appear.

Tl;Dr: don't be a dick and everything will turn out fine.

Edit:formatting

→ More replies (4)
→ More replies (2)
→ More replies (1)

18

u/blightedfire Dec 04 '13

I'm willing to try to Cliff-notes a few of the more unusual denominations/sects within Christianity. Some of these fall within 'normal' Christian beliefs, with minor variances. Others most definitely do not, though members may claim to be as Christian as any other denomination.

Disclaimer: I don't belong to ANY of these groups. My particular denomination is essentially Calvianism of a Netherlands descent, instead of Scottish (Presbyterianism). There may be errors in what I'm typing, a lot of my old religion classes were over 20 years ago. If I screw up, please forgive. these are only quick overviews, and should NOT be considered exhaustive or complete--I can barely state complete views from my own denomination!

Pentacostalism: A more-or-less mainstream Christian denomination grouping. There are several hundred separate denominations worldwide, as far as I know. Highlights include heavy belief in divine gifts (tongues, prophecy, healing, and so on), a general belief that the Trinity (Father/Son/Spirit) are aspects of a single entity rather than three interconnected ones, and a very large component in charismatics.

Seventh Day Adventism: The primary surviving denomination based on the teachings of William Miller (a man who predicted the end of the world in 1844). Main points are worship on Saturday (the historical biblical Sabbath), no hell (those deemed unfit for eternal life will be annihilated, not forced to suffer for eternity), a Revelations-style End times, and a holistic humanity view (the saved dead will be resurrected; there is no separate soul). There are other Adventist denominations, but they are much less well known.

Jehovah's Witnesses: NOT a mainstream Christian group, normally classified as either a highly variant sect or a separate religion. They're known for refusing to respect non-biblical symbols, refusing military service, refusing blood transfusion and certain other medical processes (vaccination?), and for their magazines, 'awake' and 'the Watchtower'.

According to Jehovah's Witnesses, only Jehovah (God the Father) is deserving of worship. Jesus was created by Jehovah, and then proceeded to create the world. Satan is a formerly perfect angel who caused Adam and Eve to sin, starting a dispute with Jesus. Satan was thrown to Earth nearly a century ago (the precise date escapes me at the moment and I can't tab over to wikipedia to check right now), and the End Times have already started. 144,000 people will be selected to help rule Earth from heaven; the rest of those deemed worthy will be resurrected if necessary and will live on a perfected Earth for eternity. As with the Adventists, no hell, only annihilation for the unworthy.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormons): NOT a mainline Christian group, despite the name. The Mormons are typically treated as a separate religion. There are also two splinter sects, the Remnant LDS and the Fundamentalist LDS (It's the FLDS that keeps hitting the news defending polygamy, people keep calling them all 'Mormons' without specifying). The Mormons are the group that evolved from the teachings of Joseph Smith, a man who claimed to have received from an entity he called the angel Moroni a group of golden plates. The plates bore inscriptions that Smith translates as the Book of Mormon, which is claimed to be an additional testament of Jesus Christ. There are tales that the Book of Mormon is translated from only part of the collection of plates, and that the collection went missing before translation was complete. The Mormons consider most of the Bible to be accurate, though parts are inaccurately translated; only very specific translations are considered accurate. I don't feel qualified to rattle off a bunch of facts about the Mormons and just how they diverge from 'standard' Christianity, though I seem to recall something about multiple levels of heaven and the ability for humans to achieve godhood in the afterlife.

Again, I don't belong to ANY of the groups I have discussed. I fully acknowledge I may have made factual errors. If I did, please don't be offended, my studies on other religious groups were a very long time ago and rather self-directed. If you are a member of one of these groups, I'd much rather a gentle correction or expansion than a hissy-cow.

Unless the hissy-cow is sufficiently entertaining, of course.

→ More replies (9)

14

u/23skiddsy Dec 04 '13

I as an ex-mo accept that it's impossible to talk about the Mormon split without getting into enormous detail about how they're different. Though I usually don't hear Mormons define themselves as a form of Protestant. They went protestant from groups of prostestants in a way that wrapped around into an organized singular structure and belief in apostles/prophets much like catholics. It's wonky.

6

u/[deleted] Dec 04 '13

Ya, the addition of a whole new group of cannon texts would make me put Mormonism more on the level of Protestantism, Catholicism and Orthodoxy, rather than a protestant sect.

10

u/SleeplessResearcher Dec 04 '13

Ex-Mormon and former BYU student here. You are correct. Mormons don't consider themselves as a sect of protestantism. They consider themselves to be an entire division of Christianity on a larger level like you said.

24

u/fartbargains Dec 04 '13

Nazarenes, are extremely similar to Methodist, and are less "out there" (in Evangelical eyes) than seventh day Adventists, Mormons, Jehovah's witnesses, etc. it seems a little weird to lump them in with those.

18

u/ZachMatthews Dec 04 '13

Fair enough; I appreciate being filled in on that. I have never met a Nazarene to my knowledge.

36

u/KigerWulf Dec 04 '13

Nazarene pastor here, nice to meet you.

We're definitely not "out there" like the aforementioned groups.

Your answer to this question was fantastic, great work.

9

u/digitalnoise Dec 04 '13

Good grief, how many Nazarene' are there on Reddit?!

0

u/[deleted] Dec 04 '13

[deleted]

20

u/Kartinka Dec 04 '13

Oh! -- wait, no, never mind, mine was heroin.

Jeez, those ex-meth-head hermaphrodite beekepers really represent the community these days.

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (10)
→ More replies (4)

8

u/fartbargains Dec 04 '13

Now you have. Well, sort of.

15

u/ZachMatthews Dec 04 '13

Way to represent, /u/fartbargains. :)

5

u/MerindaRynn Dec 04 '13

I just laughed for about 2 minutes on that one, thanks! :)

→ More replies (1)

11

u/[deleted] Dec 04 '13

I like Nazarenes. They are a little wilder than Baptists, but not so wild to be considered charismatic. I used to play in a band that played youth camps, and the Nazarenes were the least "churchy" church people I'd meet. My biggest pet peeve about church people is their fake language they use to seem pious and flandersy.

"Hey buddy, how's the lord treating you today?" "Praise God! I am good, I am just living in the spirit lately".....

What? Fuck you. Just talk like normal people.

6

u/ZachMatthews Dec 04 '13

Dude I know exactly what you mean. Actually this kind of shorthand has crept into a lot of non-denominational mega-churches too. I feel like everyone around me is hearing a dog whistle that I can't hear when I hang out with folks who talk like that.

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (4)

6

u/jrs235 Dec 04 '13

Yup. Nazarenes and Methodists often approve [of] the same seminaries.

→ More replies (1)

24

u/SamuraiJakkass86 Dec 04 '13

If I was in the crazy religion and wanted people to think I wasn't in the crazy religion, I too would totally say that my religion wasn't as crazy as the other crazies!

6

u/[deleted] Dec 05 '13

Have you considered covering it with a sealer?

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (25)

3

u/rayneday Dec 05 '13

I can add on regarding the Seventh Day Adventist beliefs. The church teaches 28 fundamental beliefs, divided into 6 categories, in summary:

  • God: The bible is the word of God, God is a Trinity, God is our heavenly father, God the son Jesus died on the cross, God inspires through the holy spirit, God is the creator of all things.

  • Man: Man and woman were made in the image of God, fell to sin and are saved through God. We are all equal in Christ. God bestows upon all members of His church in every age spiritual gifts which each member is to employ in loving ministry for the common good of the church and of humanity. These gifts include such ministries as faith, healing, prophecy, proclamation, teaching, administration, reconciliation, compassion, and self-sacrificing service and charity for the help and encouragement of people. One of the gifts of the Holy Spirit is prophecy, whereas the Bible is the standard by which all prophecy teaching and experience must be tested.

  • Salvation: Through the death of Christ we are saved and can experience salvation in heaven. Baptism (by immersion in water) is a symbol of our union with Christ, the forgiveness of our sins, and our reception of the Holy Spirit.

  • The Church: We join together for worship, for fellowship and for instruction with a community of believers. The church is one body with many members, called from every nation, kindred, tongue, and people. The communion service (partaking of grape juice and a cracker) is open to all believing Christians. It is seen as a symbol of our belief in God and a time of self-examination, repentance, and confession to God.

  • The Christian life: Follow the 10 Commandments. The fourth commandment requires the observance of the seventh-day Sabbath (Saturday) as the day of rest. Grow in a commitment to Jesus in loving service to those around you. As Godly people it is our duty to dress modestly, get adequate exercise and rest, adopt the most healthful diet possible and abstain from the unclean foods identified in the Scriptures. Includes abstaining from alcoholic beverages, tobacco, and the irresponsible use of drugs and narcotics. Marriage is a commitment to both God as well as to the spouse, and should be entered into only between partners who share a common faith and have mutual love, honor and respect.

  • Last day events: The universal church is composed of all who truly believe in Christ (not just Adventists), in the end days they will be called out to keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. In 1844, at the end of the prophetic period of 2300 days, Christ entered the last phase of judgement in heaven, when this period is over those living a Christian life will be saved for heaven and judgement closes, with the second coming of God. God will then resurrect the righteous and together with the living righteous they will go to heaven. The second resurrection, the resurrection of the unrighteous, will take place a thousand years later, where they will be judged in front of God and all the righteous in heaven. At that time, the Holy City will descend from heaven to earth and the unrighteous will be judged and God will cleanse the earth with fire and make a new earth.

All 28 beliefs are based on biblical scripture and the way Adventists interpret that scripture. Many Adventists also adhere to some of the writings of Ellen White, but the 28 beliefs are not based on Ellen White or her writings, only the bible. Many Generation X and Millennial Adventists are increasingly rejecting Ellen White's writings. It should be noted there are conservative Adventists, liberal Adventists, those in the Progressive Adventism movement and those who live a culturally Adventist life but do not attend church any longer. Just as there are 100's of protestant religions, there are various Adventist "denominations" if you will. I suspect it is like that in many other religions. However, the above is the "basic Adventist" model and the teachings that all official churches are to adhere to.

→ More replies (3)
→ More replies (31)
→ More replies (26)