The document discusses the origins and persistence of denominations in Christianity. It summarizes that denominations arose from disagreements during the Protestant Reformation but finding unity was difficult and led to conflict and bloodshed. This entrenched divisions and territorial compromises allowed denominations to continue. The denominational theory later emerged, recognizing differences of opinion as inevitable but not involving fundamental beliefs, and that no single group has a full grasp of truth. Overall, the document provides historical context for how denominations developed out of the Reformation period and became an accepted part of Christianity.

1. UNWILLING TO DIE FOR AN OLD
IDEA
DENOMINATIONLISM
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2. DENOMINATIONS
• Denominations have been called, “a
blight, factionalism, a caste system” but they remain
the hallmark of modern Christianity.
• Why? Denominations divide Christians of our day into
small religious groups, that enter a united world with a
divided Christ. The reason why they will never
disappear is because it give Christians the freedom to
differ in their opinions. The cost to remove them is
greater than most Christians want to pay.
• The Age of the Reformation (1517-1648) did not
suddenly end and the Age of Reason and Revivals
(1648-1789) began, it took time, and the tragedy and
bloodshed that the church suffered was enough to
keep denominations around until Christ returns.
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3. SUPPRESSION OF THE
NONCORFORMIST
• Reformers were eager as Catholics to suppress
nonconformity. That was because both camps believed
that Christian truth held societies together.
• In 1540s and 1550s Lutheran princes fought Catholic
Imperials forces to a stalemate in Germany. In the
Peace of Augsburg (1555) both sides agreed to stop
fighting only after adopting the territorial principle.
• In 1562 to 1598 France suffered a series of civil wars
between Roman Catholics and French Calvinists
(Huguenots). When both sides were exhausted they
reached a territorial compromise in the royal Edict of
Nantes (1598.)
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4. FIGHT FOR INDEPENDENCE
• The principle of territorialism was the herald of
the approaching death of Christendom. If one
Christian prince with a small territory can lay
down the law of one religion for his subjects, and
another miles away of another religion, division is
eminent.
• In the Netherlands (1560-1618) the Calvinistic
Dutch fought a war of independence from
Catholic Spain and won. Belgium remained
Catholic and did not gain their independence
until much later.
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5. THE THIRTY YEARS WAR
• The Thirty Years War (1618-1648) this conflict
began primarily as a religious struggle with
political overtones and ended as a barbarous
political power struggle with religious overtones.
• One of the glaring weaknesses of the Peace of
Augsburg was it completely ignored the
Calvinists. Preparations for war were laid early in
the seventeenth century when Protestants
formed a league of German princes and Catholics
created the same Catholic League. Fighting
started in 1618.
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6. THE THIRTY YEARS WAR CONT.
• Ferdinand II was named king of Bohemia, and he
attempted to uproot Protestantism from Bohemia and
impose Catholicism upon his subjects.
• Bohemian nobles mostly Protestants rose in revolt and
offered their crown to Frederick V. in 1620 near Prague
the Catholic Imperial forces surge forward to the cry
“For the Virgin Mary.” crushed the Bohemians and
confiscated most of the estates of the insurgents.
• King Christian entered the fight but was routed in 1626.
King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden entered the fight
and won victories that carried him as far south as
Munich. He died in Lutzen in (1632).
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7. THE NEW WAY IN AMERICA
• In the seventeenth century both England and France had
sent courageous explorers to North America searching in
vain for the Northwest Passage to China. The London
Company landed it first colonist in Jamestown Virginia in
1607, and ten years later the Massachusetts Bay Company
began to gather thousands of frustrated Puritans.
• Quakers came to Pennsylvania, Catholics to
Maryland, Dutch reformed to New York, Swedish Lutherans
and French Huguenots, English Baptist, Scottish
Presbyterians. They came because of the general policy of
religious toleration.
• In New England the Puritans ruled by a policy of religious
conformity. Failure to attend church services, denial of
Christ’s resurrection, or infant baptism, and irreverence for
the Bible could bring severe punishment.
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8. THE IDEA OF DENOMINATIONS
• Denominationalism is the opposite of sectarianism. A
sect claims authority of Christ for itself alone. It
believes that it is the true body of Christ, all truth
belongs to it and to no other religion.
• Denominationalism- denomination is an inclusive term.
It implied that the Christian group called or
denominated by a particular name was but one
member of a larger group the church to which all
denominations belong. The true church cannot be
identified with any single ecclesiastical structure. No
denomination claims to represent the whole church of
Christ. The true succession is not of bishops but of
believers.
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9. DENOMINATIONAL THEORY
• The real architects of the denominational theory of the
church were the seventeenth century Independents
(Congregationalists). These Dissenting Brethren of
Westminster articulated the denominational theory:
• 1. man’s inability to always see the truth clearly, differences
of opinion about the outward form of church are inevitable.
• 2. differences do not involve fundamentals of the
faith, they are not matters of indifference. Every Christians
is obligated to practice what he believes the Bible teaches.
• 3. no church has a final and full grasp of divine truth. The
true church cannot be defined by a single ecclesiastical
structure.
• 4. the mere fact of separation does not of itself constitute
schism. It is possible to be divided on points and still be
united in Christ.
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