Originally there was just one Christian church. Unity was an overriding concern, and for a thousand years this was sufficient to hold the Church together. With the Reformation began a process of fragmentation that continues to this day. The disputes that caused the establishment of new or breakaway churches were seen in their day as profound and irreconcilable, but now they can appear minor compared with the common ground between the denominations. From the twentieth century onward, strenuous efforts have been made at ecumenism—promoting reconciliation and reunion between the various churches—but Christian history continues to accommodate a number of numerically small but distinct groupings.
The Plymouth Brethren The original Protestants rejected Roman Christianity on the grounds of its attachment to worldly power and riches. As each of the Protestant denominations that grew out of the Reformation became more established, however, a fresh minority would object to its loss of radicalism and biblical authenticity. Such was the origin of the Plymouth Brethren in the 1820s. Disillusioned at the worldliness of their Nonconformist churches, members were attracted to a movement that began in Dublin, but which established its largest base in the English port of Plymouth. Spiritually elitist, exacting over Bible study, and rejecting all ornament, the Plymouth Brethren eschewed even displaying the cross in their meeting halls. No instruments could accompany singing, and women were required to shave or cover their heads. The Brethren believed that they were reviving the spirit of holy, pure fellowship that had existed among the original apostles. The movement has suffered many divisions since, notably over who to admit and who to exclude. There are an estimated 2.9 million Brethren worldwide.
“The three ‘S’s’ best expressed the way in which the Army administered to the ‘down and outs:’ first, soup; second, soap; and finally, salvation.”
William Booth, 1829–1912
The Quakers George Fox (1624–91), an apprentice shoemaker from Leicestershire, founded the Society of Friends (better known as the Quakers) in 1652, after he had despaired of finding God in any existing denomination. His new movement was an association rather than a church, and was dedicated to revealing an inner truth or light. The Society has no ministers and no sacraments. Meetings are conducted largely in prayerful silence, with participants “waiting upon God” and speaking only when prompted by the Holy Spirit. Quakers are notable for their work for social justice, especially in prisons. There are 300,000 members of the movement worldwide.
The Salvation Army Founded in 1878 by William Booth, a former Methodist minister, and his wife Catherine, the Salvation Army rejects the rituals of mainstream Christianity in favor of a simple living-out of the faith in the most trying of situations. In late Victorian Britain it was regularly attacked and ridiculed as the “Skeleton Army,” but it has grown to attract widespread admiration for its charitable work, if not a rush of converts. Its mission is characterized by outdoor evangelism, complete with brass bands, and a quasi-military organization and dress code. It meets in citadels rather than churches and dedicates itself to social action with the most needy sections of the community—drug users, the homeless and prostitutes. It has no sacraments and sees every meal as a recreation of Jesus’s Last Supper. There are 2.6 million members in 118 countries around the globe.
Christian Scientists In her 1875 book Science and Health, Mary Baker Eddy described how she suffered half a century of ill health before she was cured by placing her faith completely in God. Her followers, known as Christian Scientists, endorse her conviction that humans are spiritual rather than physical beings and therefore her belief that God, not medicines and doctors, is the key to being healed of worldly maladies. Baker Eddy founded the First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, and there are today some 1,800 branches of the Christian Scientist movement around the world.
Millennialists Millennialist movements within Christianity preach that the end of the world is nigh. They take as their inspiration the final book of the Bible, Revelation, which prophesies the second coming of Jesus to rule over an earthly paradise for a thousand years. The Jehovah’s Witnesses, founded in 1884 and claiming a following of seven million worldwide, believe this will happen imminently. They are best known for their doorstep evangelism but otherwise tend to shun the rest of society in favor of fellow Witnesses. Seventh-Day Adventists, another millennialist group, engage by contrast in much social activity, especially in the field of health care. They number around 14 million, pay special regard to the prophecies of the American visionary Ellen White, and believe that the Lord’s Day should be marked on Saturday rather than Sunday.
Ellen White
Although in her lifetime Ellen White (1827–1915) rejected the label of prophet, her many admirers in the Seventh-Day Adventist Church and beyond find Christian inspiration in her accounts of her visions. In one of the best known of these, White saw an “Advent people” being guided along a dangerous path by the light of Christ toward a “new Jerusalem.” She was a prolific writer as well as a preacher, and her 40 devotional works have made her the most widely translated non-fiction female author in history. Her subjects included her own beliefs, mysticism, health and lifestyles (she was a keen advocate of vegetarianism). Originally a Methodist, she found a ready audience for her output in the 1860s in the Sabbatarian Adventists, the movement that grew to become the Seventh-Day Adventists, and among whose membership her writings now have the status of holy books.
Mormons Another nineteeth-century breakaway movement within Christianity was Joseph Smith’s Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, which today has 12 million members worldwide, with its headquarters in Salt Lake City. They are better known as the Mormons, so called because they use the Book of Mormon alongside the Bible in teaching and study. They believe that this tells the story of God’s dealings with the ancient inhabitants of the American continent, including a visit to them by the risen Jesus. The movement maintains that Mormon was an American prophet who compiled the history of the ancient civilization from old records and inscribed it on plates of gold, which Smith discovered in 1823 buried in New York State. He published their contents in 1830. For Mormons, this is the unaltered word of God.
The Book of Revelation
The Book of Revelation, also called the Book of the Apocalypse, tells of an extraordinary and vivid battle in heaven between God and Satan. It has contributed significantly to both fear of the Devil and millennialist speculation within Christianity. Some believe that the book’s authors, in around CE 100, were creating an allegory about the suffering of the Jews under the “evil” overlordship of the Roman Empire, but many Christians have taken literally its talk of the beast 666, dragons, serpents, the four horsemen of the apocalypse and a final Armageddon. The closing promise of Revelation is that God will triumph over evil. Jesus will return, banish Satan and initiate a thousand years of messianic rule on earth.
the condensed idea
There are many ways to follow Christ
| timeline | |
|---|---|
| 1652 | First Quaker meeting |
| 1820s | Plymouth Brethren gather |
| 1830 | Book of Mormon published |
| 1875 | Mary Baker Eddy’s Science and Health |
| 1878 | Salvation Army summoned |
| 1884 | Jehovah’s Witnesses founded |