Why are there so many Christian denominations?
Read Dave’s answer
Answer 1
Because pride and apostasy are the natural lot of mankind in our current fallen state.
Splintering and division is our lot in life so long as pride rules the hearts and minds of mankind instead of the love Jesus taught.
Jesus established a Church while he lived here on Earth. Paul wrote that the Church of Jesus Christ was built on a foundation of apostles and prophets, with Jesus being the chief cornerstone. How did Jesus communicate with the prophets and apostles? Well, before He ascended to heaven, He promised that He would send the Holy Spirit to guide them. The purpose of the apostles and prophets was to help the Church achieve a unity of the faith (Ephesians 4) - in other words, to keep the Church united on the strait and narrow path.
That much is in the Bible. What happened afterwards is the beginning of the division of Christ’s Church.
SPLINTERING #1: The apostles and prophets were killed. The remaining Bishops (leaders of congregations in different locations) were left without traveling apostles and their Priesthood authority to keep them unified in faith. Bishops in various cities essentially evolved into variations of the original Church of Christ, e.g. Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Russian Orthodox, etc.
SPLINTERING #2: Eventually, the church became so apparently corrupt that Martin Luther, a Roman Catholic Priest, and other reformers emerged to challenge the corruption. Dissenters began to form Churches, reasoning that if the Catholic Church had lost all authority from God, it must not be necessary. Many churches formed in the years and decades and centuries that followed. Many churches are being formed even today. Although united in some ways, each Christian congregation seems to emphasis different aspects of the Christian experience and different teachings, even about core practices such as baptism or the laying on of hands for the Gift of the Holy Spirit. So this Protestant version of the splintering continues to this day, and results in the vast majority of the sects of today.
RESTORATION: Finally, in 1820, a 14-year old boy entered a nearby wood to pray about which Church he should join. He had a vision in which he was told to join none of them, for they were all corrupt. And thus began the “marvelous work and a wonder” known as Mormonism, of restoring Christ’s Church and all of what it was while Jesus walked the earth. This includes Jesus sending John the Baptist and Apostles Peter, James, and John to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery to bestow upon them the Holy Priesthood of God, lost from earth for over 1700 years.
SPLINTERING #3: Even the Church restored to the Earth in the latter days has seen splintering, as some believe it is necessary to form new sects. But the Priesthood cannot be transferred to these splinter groups.
That is why there are so many Christian sects when only one can actually be true - and that one is the one that bears Christ’s name and has living Apostles and Prophets who guide the Church by the Priesthood authority they have received in an unbroken chain from Jesus through Peter, James, and John and down, while its leaders and members are remarkably unified through revelation and inspiration from the Holy Spirit.
Answer 2
Paul wrote, in his epistle to the Ephesians, 4th chapter:
“So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.”
I take this to mean that the organization of the Church (i.e. “the body of Christ”) that Christ himself established while still on earth, consisted of key elements - apostles, prophets, evangelists/missionaries, pastors/bishops, and teachers - that were important to “build up” the church toward the goal of achieving a “unity in the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God.”
So to answer your question, there are so many Christian denominations because:
the apostles and prophets who were a key part of achieving “unity of faith” were killed and the original Church became splintered as the many local bishops, without critical guidance from the apostles, began to adopt “the philosophies of men” as part of the doctrines they were teaching their local members. By the time the Emperor Constantine declared himself a Christian, the diversity of beliefs was so out of control, that Constantine formed committees - not apostles and prophets - to decide what true doctrine should be. At this point, you had several versions of Christ’s original church - the Roman Catholic, the Greek Orthodox, and so on.
The dark ages (dark because what was missing was the enlightenment of revelation to apostles and prophets) ensued, during which time the church, absent apostles and prophets, was more political than spiritual, and political power became the unifying factor - not revelation through the Holy Spirit to the apostles, prophets, and other key elements of the elusive unity of the faith.
Then, many inspired men and women - notably Martin Luther - began to recognize the many problems that had arisen in the Catholic and Orthodox churches. Even more sects began to form around these various dissenters, and another group of sects - the Protestant sects - arose. Lutheran, Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist, and so on all arose, each emphasizing one aspect of doctrine or practice or another. One church - the Church of England (now the Episcopal Church) - arose out of the desire of the King of England to have his divorce recognized by the Pope so he could have a male heir. Thus did many new sects arise.
In America, many of the earliest successful settlers were Pilgrims seeking religious freedom. So it should not be surprising that America has spawned numerous additional sects and enjoys a religious pluralism that remains to this day. The most successful Christian denomination to be born in America is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, founded in 1830 in New York, based on their claim that Jesus, angels, and three of the original apostles, Peter, James and John, had appeared to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery and gave them the authority to call new apostles and prophets and thus “restore” the ancient church. But even that church has seen splinter groups and multiple denominations arise.
So the final answer? There are so many Christian sects and denominations because God gave us each the freedom to choose what we will believe, and absent guidance from Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit to apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers, new sects constantly arise that let people exercise their God-given freedom of choice by aligning themselves with sects that most closely align with their beliefs.
Eventually, the elect of Christ will come to a unity of the faith as we learn to voluntarily abandon our own pet beliefs and embrace the truth as taught by apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers, and become as one in the body of Christ.
Answer 3
Great question! You’re right - Jesus and the Apostles only talked about One Church, not a bunch of sects. But Paul did talk about a unity of the faith and how to achieve it. See Ephesians 4.
So here’s the easy answer: Departure from the truth, aka apostasy.
A more complete answer follows.
Much of the Old Testament is about how God establishes Israel as a “covenant people,”[1] and how often Israel abandons God (which is the most important meaning of apostasy) and the covenant made with God.
God even compares himself with the husband of Israel and Israel as an unfaithful spouse.[2] The general apostasy of God’s covenant people, and God’s efforts to reclaim them and redeem them, is a constant theme in the Bible.
So it should be no surprise that this pattern of apostasy can be seen in the failure of any sect of Christianity to prevent the apostasy of at least some of its members, who break off an form other churches and sects.
So how are we to identify which of the many sects teaches the truth that Jesus said would make us free?[3]
When Jesus came to earth, He again established a covenant people, which he called His Church. Consider the importance of what this passage in which Jesus mentions His Church:
16 And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.
17 And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.
18 And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
- Matthew 16: 16–18
Before we try to understand this important scripture in depth, consider what Jesus meant when he said “upon this rock I will build my church” by considering this scripture from Ephesians 2:19–20:
19Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God;
20And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone…
Clearly, the Apostle Paul is talking about the Church and its saints - in verse 19, and comparing the Church to a building / house, just as Jesus did.
So it’s easy to conclude that Jesus was talking about building His Church upon the rock (foundation) of apostles and prophets - since Peter (which also means “rock”) was both an apostle and a prophet as the leader of the Church after Christ died. And from the context, it’s easy to see that Jesus is talking about the revelation from God received by Peter, who was at that time an Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ.
That is why so many people were looking for a return of the Apostles in the 19th century and before, and flocked to a new Church in the 19th century when stories of Peter, James, and John appeared as resurrected angels to give the authority of the Priesthood and the keys of apostleship and prophecy to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery. And there was Another Testament of Jesus Christ that people could read as evidence to confirm that God had set His hand again to re-unify His Church, built on a foundation of apostles and prophets, and its doctrines and re-establish a covenant people on earth.[4]
Footnotes
[1] Bible Gateway passage: Exodus 19:5 - King James Version
[2] Bible Gateway passage: Jeremiah 2:23-5:19 - New Living Translation