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What is the Church? The following “family tree” timeline is based on historic schisms due to theological disagreements, reformation, or geo-political relocation.
What is the Church? The denominational families listed on the timeline below only represent what some refer to as the “visible” church which is defined by ecclesiology of liturgy, polity, tradition, architecture, culture, sight, sound, experience etc. – this chart in no way answers the question What is the Church? At least, not from the Biblical historical perspective.
The true church which has been called by some the “Invisible Church” as it is only seen to God Himself, is comprised of those who have actually cried out to God for the forgiveness of their sins (Acts 2:21 & Romans 10:13) and have put their faith in His Son Jesus as the one-and-only Saviour of their sins (John 14:6; 5:24). This is a response to the redeeming work of the Son of God and has absolutely nothing to do which denomination we are a part of. Those who have put their faith in Jesus are known as those who have been born again (John 3:3-16) and these can come from any of the denominational families listed below.
This is not rank ecumenicalism whereby sound truthful doctrine is sacrificed on the altar of convictionless unity but rather it is a Bible-based declaration that salvation has nothing to do with the visibly fragmented appearance of the “church” which is seen in my chart.
You can click on this denominational family tree chart to open a new tab with a family tree flowchart page which includes an interactive chart that provides more information on the specific denominations and cults (in black) which I have listed on this chart.
What is the Church? There are seven main families of denominations which comprise the visible/earthly organizational Christian “church”. These 7 families are:
I have put together a timeline with overview information for each of these ‘visible’ families of the ‘visible’ church below. Click the “read more” buttons on each family entry to open a page with more detailed information about that specific denominational family.
Not to be confused with the Eastern Orthodox denominations - the Oriental Orthodox churches broke off in the earliest of schisms in Church history. Some were Nestorians, others were "monophysites"...
The Eastern church had already begun to operate independently of Rome (Western Church). The final spark occurred with the addition of the filioque (from the Son) to the Nicene creed which led to the "Great Schism" of 1054 AD...
This group emerged distinctive at the point of the Great Schism in 1054, but had been forming for hundreds of years due to an east west divide of Roman culture, language and authority. There was a clear departure from the Biblical-historical Christian faith in favor of the dogma of church tradition, sacerdotalism, Roman and Papal Primacy etc".
These are the groups of believers which broke from Roman Catholic oppression prior to Luther's German Reforms: Waldensians and Moravians/Unity of the Brethren (Hussites)
Started by Martin Luther and although some Lutheran pastors have left to join or start other movements, Lutherans have tended to produce other varieties of Lutherans but there have been no other significant denominations that broke from the Lutheran tradition and subsequently trace their roots to Luther.
Began as a British-Romano church mentioned as early as the third century. Then coalesced into the Western (not yet 'Roman Catholic) Church at the Synod of Whitby in 664 - effectively Roman Catholic until 1531 when state issues, not doctrinal issues, caused King Henry VIII to "secede" from Roman Papal authority, declaring himself as "Head of Church and State". Eventually, reformers like Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury and later the Puritans would bring about more of a reformed distinction from Roman Catholicism for this branch of the visible Christian church. Most denominations trace their roots to this branch: Episcopalean, Baptists (separatists), Methodists, Pentecostals, etc
Begun primarily by Ulrich Zwingli and John Calvin, the Swiss Reformation resulted in a large number of denominations considering the Swiss Reformation (Reformed Church) as their historical foundation: Presbyterians, Amish, Evangelical Free, and Christian and Missionary Alliance.
To see a flowchart of how the denominations above came into existence and inter-relate to one another, visit our interactive Denomination Family Tree page.
No one receives eternal life and eternal presence with God, from who all good things come (James 1:17), by belonging to the right church or denomination. Rather only those who trust in the Jesus preached by the Apostles in the Bible for their own sin. We will not trust in a Savior for sins that we either don’t believe we have or that we think aren’t deserving of hell.But the Bible says that ALL have sin and the wages of our sin is eternal separation from God (death). The Bible says that you can know that YOU have eternal life. Click the button below to see if you are genuinely saved from your sins according to the Bible: