How Old is Your Church?


If you are a Lutheran, your denomination was founded by Martin Luther, an ex-monk of the Catholic Church, in the year 1517.

If you belong to the Church of England, your denomination was founded by King Henry VIII in the year 1534 because the Pope would not grant him a divorce with the right to re-marry.

If you are a Presbyterian, your denomination was founded by John Knox in Scotland in the year 1560.

If you are a Protestant Episcopalian, your denomination was an offshoot of the Church of England founded by Samuel Seabury in the American colonies in the 17th Century.

If you are a Congregationalist, your denomination was originated by Robert Browne in Holland in 1582.

If you are a Methodist, your denomination was launched by John and Charles Wesley in England in 1744.

If you are LDS or "Mormon" (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints), Joseph Smith Jr. started your religion in Palmyra, NY, in 1829.

If you are a Baptist, you owe the tenets of your denomination to John Smyth, who launched it in Amsterdam in 1605.

If you are of the Dutch Reformed Church, you recognize Michaelis Jones as founder, because he orgininated your denomination in New York in 1628.

If you worship with the Salvation Army, your sect began with William Booth in London in 1865.

If you are a Christian Scientist, you look to 1879 as the year in which your religion was born and to Mrs. Mary Baker Eddy as its founder.

If you call yourself a Mennonite, your movement was named after Menno Simons, a Catholic priest for 12 years, who left the Church to join the conservative Anabaptist wing.

The Amish, started by Jacob Amman around 1693, are just one of the many different church bodies within the Mennonite community in the U.S.

If you belong to one of the religious organizations known as "Church of the Nazarene", "Pentecostal Gospel", "Holiness Church", "Pilgrim Holiness Church", "Jehovah's Witnesses", your denomination is one of the many thousands of new sects and religions founded by men within the past several hundred years.

If you belong to the Truth Fellowship (a.k.a. The Friends & Workers, 2x2s, etc.), your sect was founded on the man William Irvine in Ireland in the late 19th Century.

If you are Jewish, Abraham became the first Jew when God promised him: "I will make you a great nation..." Your religion was founded by God in the Jewish calender year 2049 (1711 B.C.) over 3700 years ago. God revealed Himself to Jews through the Prophets and promised to send a Messiah. Jesus Christ, a Jew from the House of David, came to this world as His only begotten Son in fulfillment of the Scriptures.

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