from author Eric Shuster
SECTION 1: WHO ARE
THE CHRISTIANS?—a History
Chapter 4: They were
Reformed and Scattered (1500 to the Present)
The final segment of Christian history
covers the year1500 to the present and is called the Reform and Denominational
Proliferation period. During this period individuals came forward to challenge
the established Christian Church to reform itself from corruption. When reform
did not go far enough more schisms took place leading to the formation of the
33,820 Christian denominations we have today (Word Christian Encyclopedia).
This period is marked by five major
activities including the carryover of corruption, the emergence of refiners,
reformers and restorers, Christian movements and influencers, the propagation
of published scripture and the proliferation of denominations.
The corruption of the former period
continued in ongoing nepotism, immorality, greed, and arrogance. Alexander VI,
perhaps the most corrupt pope in history prolonged his crooked reign with more
appointments of cardinals for money, arrangements of marriages of his children
for financial gain, and the famous Banquet of Chestnuts in 1501 where the
pontiff hosted prostitutes for sex on display among his guests. These acts of
corruption were not isolated to Catholicism alone.
Exhausted by the state of affairs there
came forward three types of individuals calling for an end of church
corruption: Refiners—those who sought to change the Church from within (e.g.
Saint Francis of Assisi); Reformers—those
who sought to change the Church through public debate and open accusation (e.g.
Luther, Calvin, Tyndale, Wesley, etc.); and Restorers—those who believed the corruption of the established
Christian Churches and its doctrinal base had become so contaminated that a
complete restoration to that of the original Church of Jesus Christ was
necessary (e.g. Campbell, Stone, Smith, Russell, etc.).
Movements marking this period included the
First and Second Great Awakenings in the Americas along with other movements such
as the Charismatic, Evangelicalism, Free Grace, Holiness, Methodism, and
Pentecostalism. These movements, along with the Protestant Reformation, could
not have succeeded without the establishment and availability of the scriptures
into local languages—a dynamic that has led to there being 92 translations of
the Bible into English alone.
All of this activity led to the
explosion of Christian denominations from one in Roman Catholicism around AD
1000 to nearly 34,000 ten centuries later. The World Christian Encyclopedia categorizes the sects of Christianity
today into seven segments: 1) Orthodox,
2) Roman Catholic, 3) Catholics (Reformed Catholics, New Apostolic, etc.), 4)
Anglicans, 5) Protestants (Lutherans, Methodists, etc.), 6) Marginal Protestants
(Unitarians, LDS/Mormons, etc.), and 7) Non-White Indigenous Christians. The
stories and motives behind this proliferation are critical to understanding
Christianity today and are covered by the author.
Modern-day Christians are influenced by
the past and are products of their own history. It is a history that produced
the best and worst of humanity over a 2,000 year period. Our faith walk today
is affected by and reflects these four periods of Christian history. Having a
better understanding of where we came from as a Christian people we are now
ready for the next leg of our journey taking on the question: “What is a Christian?”
Go to www.findyourchristianity.com to
watch the book trailer, find out what type of Christian you are, and to order
the book.
Where are the
Christians? The Unrealized Potential of a Divided Religion
by Eric Shuster
Coming May 2013!
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