Link to my cover video:
Jay Dyer: The Great End Times Religious Deception
The Alex Jones Show Mar 29, 2024
Sunday is Easter. A day in which Christians around the world celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and the grave. For most Christians this is the most important day of the year.
Easter has also been celebrated as a paganistic religious holiday as well. How did the two become intertwined? And why?
As a Christian my intent is not to offended or attack anyone’s personnel beliefs. I strongly believe that what you believe, or don’t believe, is your induvial god given right. I am not attacking Christianity nor the Christain Church either.
However, I just as strongly believe that we have a major problem in today’s Christian Church world. A huge one at that! Why are there some 45,000 divisions of the Christian Church now? Do you really believe that this is what Jesus intended for his followers and believers?
I don’t.
Jesus only created one group of followers and believers. In my humble opinion something has gone very wrong.
Jack Dyer does a pretty good job of breaking down the roots of the historical divisions and causes in the cover video. Some may not like or agree with his assessments. He also hits the nail on the head with his summarization that the Globalists use these church divisions against us.
Like it or not but many churches and religious organizations have been infiltrated by these Satanic Globalists. We easily can see this by looking at the Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO’s) that are funding, sponsoring, aiding, and promoting the massive illegal invasion of America across our borders. Especially our southern border.
There is an all-out campaign by the Globalists to instill fear throughout America and the world now. They are doing their level best to scare us into submission. They are using the divisions within Christianity in part to further their agenda. Instilling fear in order to control us is one of their strongest weapons.
I also think he is on to something in pointing out all of these so called end times prophets (see the vast number of YouTube prophesy videos) that are predicting the end of the world, and the battle of Armageddon this year.
Do I believe that real genuine prophets of God exist today? Yes of course I do. I just don’t believe that the true prophets are on YouTube, and other social media outlets, and in many churches hawking their prophesies for profit.
In my humble opinion what our world needs more than anything right now is not another church, another split/division, another so called prophet of god, but a closer individual, personal relationship with God our father, and Jesus his resurrected eternal son. The one that hung on the cross of shame and paid the ramson for all.
Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Jesus didn’t say come unto the church, or join the church, or become a member of the church to find your peace and rest. Nope. “He said “come unto me.”
And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
How Many Denominations Of Christianity Are There In 2024?
By Amanda Williams Updated on January 14, 2024
With over 2 billion followers globally, Christianity is the world’s largest religion. It’s also incredibly diverse, encompassing dozens of denominations with different beliefs, practices, and interpretations of scripture.
If you’re short on time, here’s a quick answer to your question: there are approximately 45,000 different Christian denominations worldwide as of 2024.
In this comprehensive guide, we’ll explore the origins of Christian denominations, provide an overview of the major branches, discuss the challenges in determining an exact count, and more.
The Origins and Growth of Christian Denominations. The Split Between Catholic and Orthodox Churches:
In the early centuries of Christianity, there was essentially one unified church. However, tensions began to emerge between the churches in the East (centered in Constantinople) and the West (centered in Rome).
These tensions culminated in 1054 CE with the “Great Schism,” when the churches formally split into the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox denominations. The primary divides were over language (Greek vs. Latin), papal authority, and whether leavened or unleavened bread should be used in the Eucharist.
Since then, the Catholic and Orthodox churches have continued operating independently while maintaining similar rituals and doctrines. There have been periodic efforts to reunite them, including the Second Council of Lyon (1274) and the Council of Florence (1439), but the schism remains to this day.
Currently, the Catholic Church has around 1.3 billion adherents worldwide, while there are estimated to be around 200-300 million Orthodox Christians.
The Protestant Reformation:
The next major split came in the 16th century with the Protestant Reformation. This was led by reformers like Martin Luther, John Calvin, and King Henry VIII who protested various Catholic doctrines and practices.
Two of the main issues were objections to the selling of indulgences and the vast corruption within the Catholic Church’s hierarchy. Other concerns included denying the authority of the Pope and advocating for translating the Bible into local common languages.
Many new Protestant denominations emerged from the Reformation, including Lutherans, Calvinists, Anglicans, Anabaptists, and Arminians. Catholics and Protestants fought extended religious wars, but ultimately Protestantism took hold and spread across Northern Europe.
Globally, there are estimated to be around 900 million Protestants today, making up nearly 40% of all Christians worldwide.
Continued Splintering and Denominational Growth:
Even after the Reformation, Christendom continued fracturing into many different branches with subtle distinctions in doctrine and practice. As people moved to different regions and adopted localized traditions, new denominations proliferated.
Some, like Baptists, Methodists, and Presbyterians, grew quite large globally. Others remained smaller regional denominations, like Mennonites, Amish, Quakers, and Moravians.
In addition to these divisions, totally new forms of Christianity developed in the 19th-20th centuries, including Adventism, Mormonism, Pentecostalism, and Christian Science. This rapid splintering means there are now over 45,000 different Christian denominations worldwide.
Yet all still trace their roots back to the original unified church founded nearly 2,000 years ago.
The Major Branches of Christianity. Catholicism:
Catholicism is the largest denomination of Christianity, with approximately 1.3 billion followers globally as of 2022, according to the Catholic News Agency. The Catholic Church is led by the Pope and bishops.
Distinctive Catholic doctrinal and liturgical beliefs include apostolic succession, the sacraments, veneration of saints, Marian devotion, and papal primacy.
Protestantism:
Protestantism originated in the 16th century Reformation, breaking off from the Catholic Church. As of 2022, there are estimated to be between 800 million and 1 billion Protestants worldwide, making up the second largest branch of Christianity after Catholicism, according to the Center for the Study of Global Christianity.
Some key Protestant beliefs include salvation through faith alone, the authority of scripture over tradition, and the priesthood of all believers.
Orthodoxy:
The Eastern Orthodox Church split from the Roman Catholic Church in 1054 AD and has over 250 million followers worldwide as of 2022. The Orthodox churches are a communion of autocephalous churches, each governed by a Holy Synod of bishops headed by a patriarch.
Distinctive Orthodox Christian beliefs include an emphasis on liturgy and sacraments, veneration of icons, a married priesthood, and the idea of theosis or union with God.
Other Notable Denominations:
Some other significant Christian groups and denominations worldwide include:
Anglicanism – 85 million followers globally
Non-denominational evangelical churches – 72 million
Methodism – 60 million
Lutheranism – 76 million
Baptists – 47 million
Pentecostalism – 280 million
While exact statistics vary, Christianity remains the world’s largest religion with over 2.5 billion followers globally, making up almost one-third of the world’s population. The faith continues to diversify into new denominations and movements.
Challenges in Determining an Exact Number:
Disagreements Over What Constitutes a Distinct Denomination
There is no consensus among scholars and religious statisticians on what constitutes a distinct Christian denomination. Some argue that denominations must differ substantially in doctrine and practice to be considered truly distinct.
Others use more inclusive definitions that consider even relatively minor differences in worship style, church governance, or social views as warranting separate denomination status.
This disagreement leads to varying totals when counting denominations. More expansive definitions produce totals numbering in the tens of thousands globally. Stricter definitions still count thousands of distinct denominations.
Overlapping Classifications:
In many cases, the boundaries between denominations blur and overlap. Some denominations share the same origins and doctrines but operate as independent organizations for administrative purposes. Others have split due to ideological divides within the faith, resulting in multiple denominations still following the same essential teachings.
This prevalence of overlapping classifications creates challenges in clearly differentiating denominations. Simply counting organizational units risks either over-counting groups that are essentially aligned or under-counting subdivisions of larger faith traditions.
New Denominations Continually Forming:
The decentralized and dynamic nature of Christianity allows for new denominations to continually emerge. As theological innovations arise or administrative needs prompt reorganization, new branches sprout from the tree of the faith.
While many of these new denominations remain small and limited in scope, some grow to substantial size and influence. For example, over 105 million Christians worldwide were affiliated with denominations that originated in the 20th century or later, according to a 2011 Pew Research study.
With new denominations frequently forming while longstanding divisions merge or dissolve, an exact count at any point in time is elusive. The total can only convey a reasonable approximation of this complex, shifting landscape.
Conclusion:
With centuries of schisms, reformations, and theological disputes, Christianity has fractured into a wide array of denominations. While an exact count is elusive, most experts estimate there are around 45,000 different Christian denominations globally as of 2024.
The Ancient Pagan Origins of Easter
UPDATED 9 APRIL, 2020 - 13:23 JOANNA GILLAN
Easter is a festival and holiday celebrated by millions of people around the world who honor the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, described in the New Testament as having occurred three days after his crucifixion at Calvary. It is also the day that children excitedly wait for the Easter bunny to arrive and deliver their treats of chocolate eggs.EASTER REBIRTH: How Rabbits and Eggs Came to Symbolize New Life
Ancient Origins April 17, 2019
Easter is one of the most misunderstood and varied holidays celebrated today. How did a story of resurrection become associated with rabbits and chocolate eggs? The pagan origins of these ancient traditions may surprise you! This is Ancient Origins, and today we'll be exploring the surprising origins of the Easter celebration. Check out one of our Easter articles on our Ancient Origins website: https://www.ancient-origins.net/myths... Visit our Ancient Origins website.
The date upon which Easter is held varies from year to year, and corresponds with the first Sunday following the full moon after the March equinox. It occurs on different dates around the world since western churches use the Gregorian calendar, while eastern churches use the Julian calendar.
While Easter, as we know it today, was never a pagan festival, its roots and many of its traditions have associations with ancient pagan customs and beliefs.
According to the New Unger’s Bible Dictionary: “The word Easter is of Saxon origin, Eastra, the goddess of spring, in whose honor sacrifices were offered about Passover time each year. By the eighth century Anglo–Saxons had adopted the name to designate the celebration of Christ’s resurrection.” However, even among those who maintain that Easter has pagan roots, there is some disagreement over which pagan tradition the festival emerged from. Here we will explore some of those perspectives.
Resurrection as a Symbol of Rebirth:
One theory that has been put forward is that the Easter story of crucifixion and resurrection is symbolic of rebirth and renewal and retells the cycle of the seasons, the death and return of the sun.
According to some scholars, such as Dr. Tony Nugent, teacher of Theology and Religious Studies at Seattle University, and Presbyterian minister, the Easter story comes from the Sumerian legend of Damuzi (Tammuz) and his wife Inanna (Ishtar), an epic myth called “The Descent of Inanna” found inscribed on cuneiform clay tablets dating back to 2100 BC. When Tammuz dies, Ishtar is grief–stricken and follows him to the underworld. In the underworld, she enters through seven gates, and her worldly attire is removed. "Naked and bowed low" she is judged, killed, and then hung on display. In her absence, the earth loses its fertility, crops cease to grow and animals stop reproducing. Unless something is done, all life on earth will end.
After Inanna has been missing for three days her assistant goes to other gods for help. Finally one of them Enki, creates two creatures who carry the plant of life and water of life down to the Underworld, sprinkling them on Inanna and Damuzi, resurrecting them, and giving them the power to return to the earth as the light of the sun for six months. After the six months are up, Tammuz returns to the underworld of the dead, remaining there for another six months, and Ishtar pursues him, prompting the water god to rescue them both. Thus were the cycles of winter death and spring life.
Dr. Nugent is quick to point out that drawing parallels between the story of Jesus and the epic of Inanna “doesn't necessarily mean that there wasn't a real person, Jesus, who was crucified, but rather that, if there was, the story about it is structured and embellished in accordance with a pattern that was very ancient and widespread.”
The Sumerian goddess Inanna is known outside of Mesopotamia by her Babylonian name, "Ishtar". In ancient Canaan Ishtar is known as Astarte, and her counterparts in the Greek and Roman pantheons are known as Aphrodite and Venus. In the 4th Century, when Christians identified the exact site in Jerusalem where the empty tomb of Jesus had been located, they selected the spot where a temple of Aphrodite (Astarte/Ishtar/Inanna) stood. The temple was torn down and so the Church of the Holy Sepulcher was built, the holiest church in the Christian world.
Dr. Nugent points out that the story of Inanna and Damuzi is just one of a number of accounts of dying and rising gods that represent the cycle of the seasons and the stars. For example, the resurrection of Egyptian Horus; the story of Mithras, who was worshipped at Springtime; and the tale of Dionysus, resurrected by his grandmother. Among these stories are prevailing themes of fertility, conception, renewal, descent into darkness, and the triumph of light over darkness or good over evil.
Easter as a Celebration of the Goddess of Spring:
A related perspective is that, rather than being a representation of the story of Ishtar, Easter was originally a celebration of Eostre, goddess of Spring, otherwise known as Ostara, Austra, and Eastre. One of the most revered aspects of Ostara for both ancient and modern observers is a spirit of renewal.
Celebrated at Spring Equinox on March 21, Ostara marks the day when light is equal to darkness, and will continue to grow. As the bringer of light after a long dark winter, the goddess was often depicted with the hare, an animal that represents the arrival of spring as well as the fertility of the season.
According to Jacob Grimm’s Deutsche Mythology, the idea of resurrection was ingrained within the celebration of Ostara: “Ostara, Eástre seems therefore to have been the divinity of the radiant dawn, of upspringing light, a spectacle that brings joy and blessing, whose meaning could be easily adapted by the resurrection-day of the Christian's God.”
Most analyses of the origin of the word ‘Easter’ agree that it was named after Eostre, an ancient word meaning ‘spring’, though many European languages use one form or another of the Latin name for Easter, Pascha, which is derived from the Hebrew Pesach, meaning Passover.
Easter and Its Connection to Passover:
Easter is associated with the Jewish festival of Passover through its symbolism and meaning, as well as its position in the calendar. Some early Christians chose to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus on the same date as Passover, which reflects Easter having entered Christianity during its earliest Jewish period. Evidence of a more developed Christian festival of Easter emerged around the mid-second century.
In 325 AD, Emperor Constantine convened a meeting of Christian leaders to resolve important disputes at the Council of Nicaea. Since the church believed that the resurrection took place on a Sunday, the Council determined that Easter should always fall on the first Sunday after the first full moon following the vernal equinox. Easter has since remained without a fixed date but proximate to the full moon, which coincided with the start of Passover.
While there are distinct differences between the celebrations of Pesach and Easter, both festivals celebrate rebirth – in Christianity through the resurrection of Jesus, and in Jewish traditions through the liberation of the Israelites from slavery.
The Origins of Easter customs:
The most widely-practiced customs on Easter Sunday relate to the symbol of the rabbit (‘Easter bunny’) and the egg. As outlined previously, a hare was a symbol associated with Eostre, representing the beginning of Springtime. Likewise, the egg has come to represent Spring, fertility, and renewal. In Germanic mythology, it is said that Ostara healed a wounded bird she found in the woods by changing it into a hare. Still partially a bird, the hare showed its gratitude to the goddess by laying eggs as gifts.
The Encyclopedia Britannica clearly explains the pagan traditions associated with the egg: “The egg as a symbol of fertility and of renewed life goes back to the ancient Egyptians and Persians, who had also the custom coloring and eating eggs during their spring festival.” In ancient Egypt, an egg symbolized sun, while for the Babylonians, the egg represents the hatching of the Venus Ishtar, who fell from heaven to the Euphrates.
So where did the tradition of an egg-toting Easter Bunny come from? The first reference can be found in a German text dating to 1572 AD: “Do not worry if the Easter Bunny escapes you; should we miss his eggs, we will cook the nest,” the text reads. But it wasn’t until the tradition made its way to the United States via the arrival of German immigrants, that the custom took on its current form. By the end of the 19th century, shops were selling rabbit-shaped candies, which later became the chocolate bunnies we have today, and children were being told the story of a rabbit that delivers baskets of eggs, chocolate and other candy on Easter morning.
In many Christian traditions, the custom of giving eggs at Easter celebrates new life. Christians remember that Jesus, after dying on the cross, rose from the dead, showing that life could win over death. For Christians, the egg is a symbol of the tomb in which the body of Jesus was placed, while cracking the egg represents Jesus' resurrection. In the Orthodox tradition, eggs are painted red to symbolize the blood Jesus shed on the cross.
Regardless of the very ancient origins of the symbol of the egg, most people agree that nothing symbolizes renewal more perfectly than the egg – round, endless, and full of the promise of life.
While many of the pagan customs associated with the celebration of Spring were at one stage practiced alongside Christian Easter traditions, they eventually came to be absorbed within Christianity, as symbols of the resurrection of Jesus. The First Council of Nicaea (325 AD) established the date of Easter as the first Sunday after the full moon (the Paschal Full Moon) following the March equinox.
Whether it is observed as a religious holiday commemorating the resurrection of Jesus Christ, or a time for families in the northern hemisphere to enjoy the coming of Spring and celebrate with egg decorating and Easter bunnies, the celebration of Easter still retains the same spirit of rebirth and renewal, as it has for thousands of years.
By Joanna Gillan
Updated on April 9, 2020.The Truth Is Stranger Than Fiction!
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Easter & The Myths Surrounding It & The Great End Times Religious Deception!