What are spilts have there been in followers of the Bible (eg
Catholic, Greek-Orthodox etc) and where can I find out more about why
these splits came about.

Thanks

keith

Hi, 

I would start with a study of the Gnostics, and work up through there.
I'm not sure it is possible to count all the groups that have been.
There might be a way to get a count of all that are currently
existing, but that would be a trick (act of God?) in itself.

Gnositics or seekers of knowledge were the first groups of Christians,
soon after Christ died. These groups had several differing versions of
what the scriptures meant or didn't mean, and many didn't have a base
belief on the scriptures at all. Remember that at this time, these
aren't really "scriptures" just letters and bits of story here and
there.

Gnostic Society Library
http://www.gnosis.org/library.html

The Gnosis Archive
http://www.gnosis.org/welcome.html


Most of these were killed off by the Romans until the Catholic Church
converted the leader of Rome, (Catholics at this time were just
another Gnostic group) and helped do away with the those that
survived. The Greek Orthodox Church survived even this, and got a
large following as well. There are several documented debates held
between these as to what dogma was truly correct. But that's another
conversation.

Ecclesiology: A study in Church History
http://www.mcauley.acu.edu.au/~yuri/ecc/

The Catholic Encyclopedia
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/

Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church History
http://www.orthodoxchurch.com/history.html

Information on the Orthodox Church
http://grove.ufl.edu/~catholic/orthodox.html

After the Roman Catholic Church began, not all that followed this
dogma believed the same things. Sects of monks and priests and all
kinds of formations took place. The biggest change was of course the
reformation, which was started by Martin Luther

Project Wittenburg
http://www.iclnet.org/pub/resources/text/wittenberg/wittenberg-home.html

Martin Luther was not trying to separate or break up the church, in
fact he was desperately trying to save it from itself. The breaking up
of it was not in his plans and several reports suggest that he was
quite dismayed by the whole thing.

The Church of England was started by Henry the 8th, because he wanted
divorces, several.

Church of England History
http://www.cofe.anglican.org/about/frame_history.html

This caused even more confusion and many sects broke away from all
three of these sets and started their own communities. Quakers,
Methodists, Puritans, all see their start inside this confusing time.

Good luck in your search of this question. I think you will find it
exciting and a rather long endeavor.

webadept-ga

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Request for Answer Clarification by keithyb-ga on 01 Nov 2002 05:42 PST

Thanks for your quick and excellent reply.

So to clarify there is not (for example) about 20 major groups of
people who use the bible as their main guide and reference, but
interpret it differently?

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Clarification of Answer by webadept-ga on 01 Nov 2002 08:42 PST

Hi, to answer that I would need a clear idea of what you considered
"Major Group". Most to them take themselves rather seriously. :-)

webadept-ga

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Request for Answer Clarification by keithyb-ga on 04 Nov 2002 01:44 PST

Hi,

My view would be to be taken seriously the question would need to be
phrased:

"How many groups or organisations that have more than 500,000 members,
use the Bible as their main guide and reference?"

It would be useful do to ask the same question for 100,000, 1, 5, and
10 million.

Let me know if I should submit the above as a new question.

Thanks

Keith

---

Clarification of Answer by webadept-ga on 04 Nov 2002 09:30 PST

Hi, 

Yes, I believe this would be a new question. I may not be the one
answering it, and with my schedule probably won't be, but when you ask
this new question, you may consider raising the bid a bit, so that you
get a fast answer. But that's completely up to you.

webadept-ga

A brilliant and enlightening answer.

You may wish to look at the following web site

http://www.religioustolerance.org

They provide an overview of christianity, as well as detail on about
35 christian sects.

As a side note - The Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) are
probably at one extreem of the list you are looking for.

Keep in mind that your phrase "follow the Bible" can be understood to
include Judaism, which shares with Christianity its sacred respect for
what Christians call the Old Testament; and Islam, which respects what
Christians call both the Old and New Testaments as sacred writings but
considers them not to be the most recent sacred writings.

webadept wrote, "Remember that at this time, these aren't really
"scriptures" just letters and bits of story here and there." Even
today there is no universal agreement as to what writings constitute
"the Bible". When it was released, the King James Version of the Bible
(1611) included works that most 21st century Protestant Christians
consider not to be "in the Bible" and are now excluded from most
bookstore printings of the Bible. Writings that have been considered
to be "in" or "not in" the Bible include what various groups now call
the Old Testament and New Testament "Apocrypha", the "deuterocanonical
books", and the "pseudoepigrapha."

highroute-ga

Thanks - Indeed I do want to bear in mind ANYONE who uses the bible as
their main guide and reference - obviously including Judaism (which is
older and perhaps a kind of parent of Christianity).

Ideally I would like to map out a kind of Ancestry chart or man-o-gram
showing how, when and why each group split from others as this would
not only prove a useful reference, but would help me in my debate with
various Christians today.

One of my points is that I find it hard that these people can accept a
God that allows so many splinter (at least hundreds) groups who
essentially are 'reading from the same script of life'.

If we as a global society, cause so much suffering and harm to our
neighbour who believes in a slightly different interpretation of the
same book (granted different Bibles have more or less writings - nb
the same suffering occurs due to differences across all major
religions eg Islam, Hinduism), what chance do we have of
understanding, being tolerant towards, other cultures and religions.

Although religion does provide a set of morals and values and can
benefit parts of society - it is my opinion that it is responsible for
an amount of world wide suffering as well.

Another question might be - does the increased amount of contact that
we have in today's society (due to travel links and communication and
technology) increase the understanding or increase the lack of
tolerance. Probably some of both.

I believe that due to the current levels of world wide terrorism and
tension that we are literally on a knife's edge and have a
responsibility to our future generations in terms of tipping the
balance towards understanding and tolerance or a slippery slope of
disaster.

There are (plus groups that were) I think, hundreds of major groups
and about a billion minor groups. Every person who reads a few verses,
to the entire bible, has a different slant (which changes over their
lifetime) on the meaning. Others form strong opinions from a wide
variety of sources without actual reading the Bible.  Most of the
groups of 2 or more believers, have an uneasy truce, and a loose
organization, as they have doubtful agreement on some points.
 I belong to one of the smaller of the major groups, about 15 million
members world wide, about 1/3 of them in the USA. The Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints = The Mormons. World heaquarters are in
Salt lake City, Utah. This group has several other scriptures besides
the Bible, but Mormon doctrine follows a litteral interpertation of
more Bible verses than any other group. Further the doctrine is quite
closely defined and protected, which is to say that persons with stong
alternate views on perhaps 10,000 topics are called to repentence
after long and patient explanations are given. There is however a
major group which spilt off about 155 years ago, which has it's
headquarters in Independece, Mosouri. The split occured when the
Saints went the Utah, but the son of the Prophet and his mother stayed
in Independence, Mo. Decendents of the Prophet Joseph Smith served as
the leader of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter=day
Saints until recently, but there is now no living decendent. I think
there are still about 100,000 members, but converts are rare. The Utah
group however has been growing rapidly for about a century, and is
still growing rapidly in some foreign countries. In the USA the Church
attendece has declined slightly for both groups (I think) the last 3
or 4 years.  Neil