Diversity in Christian Denominations

As the world grows in population, diversity will be everlasting. There will probably always exist many Christian denominations as well. The early Churches began in the 1st century and were already divided. Each Church believed that their interpretation of the early teachings was the correct belief. Even though they were divided, there were still really only two predominant denominations that came from the early split of the Churches.

The early Churches did settle on one fundamental basic that of the Trinity being God, Jesus Christ and Holy Spirit. The first denomination born from this fundamentalism was Catholic. Catholic comes from Latin word for true church. This became the primary denomination for the first 1,000 years along with a secondary denomination called Orthodox. The two different church beliefs were the original two established denominations.

The Orthodox Church became the representing belief of the Eastern World. The various forms of Orthodox was Greek because of their ties to the original language, Eastern because of its connection to the East, following of Jesus Christ and His Apostles, and Oriental which has its continuation from the early church.

The Catholic Church was the predominant belief of the Western churches until the 16th century when the Western church had its first major division. This is where the term protestant was founded. It came from the root to "protest" the actions of the Roman Catholic leaders. Catholicism is still accepted in today's culture as one of the most recognized faiths, but the various denominations of protestants is forever growing, almost too many to keep track.