鉁濓笍 Bible and History
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Church history 路 Module 80

馃晬 Church History, Part B: Denominations

The Protestant families one by one, from the end of the Reformation to 2026, each in its own words and then by the record: the Lutherans and their synods (LCMS, WELS, ELCA and the others) and why they differ, the Reformed and Presbyterians from Westminster to the PCUSA, PCA and OPC, Calvinism and Arminianism point by point, the Anglicans and Episcopalians and the ACNA, the Congregationalists and Puritans, the many kinds of Baptists, the Methodists and the Holiness churches, the Mennonites, Amish, Hutterites and Brethren, the Quakers, the Restoration Movement, mainline and evangelical bodies with their own membership counts, dominion theology, Reconstructionism and the New Apostolic Reformation in their writers' own words and their critics', and a short orientation to the Pentecostal, Orthodox and Catholic bodies.

14 lessons 路 about 12.5 hours 路 about 151,400 words 路 Updated October 28, 2026 路

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How to read this module

This is a study of the record, not an argument for one church. Each denomination is described first in its own words, from its own confessions, statements of faith, constitutions and records (quoted from public domain translations, named in the notes), then by the historical record (dates, documents and what happened), then by how named scholars read that record. Where a claim is disputed, the sides are given and the lesson says which one the evidence supports, or that it is still open.

Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant readings of disputed events (the splits between and within the denominations, and the votes on doctrine and ministry) are each set out in each body's own words and best case. Movements other churches reject (for example Christian Reconstructionism and the New Apostolic Reformation) are described from their own writers' texts first, then by the named critics who reject them. Numbers name their source; legends are rated in each lesson's "Claims checked" section.

The site does not pick a theological winner; it reports what each body says and what the documents show.

Status: built and fact checked October 28, 2026. Every lesson was checked by an independent checker against the bodies' own documents and primary sources; quotations were matched word for word against the editions named, and every membership number gives its year and source. Each lesson ends with a short "Still being checked" list of points not yet confirmed. Part A, Beginnings to the Reformation comes before this module and Part C, American Movements, Calvary Chapel and Vineyard comes after it.

  1. 1Lutherans: The Book of Concord and the Synods (LCMS, WELS, ELCA and the Other Lutheran Bodies)From the Formula of Concord (1577) and the Book of Concord (June 25, 1580) to the American synods: Muhlenberg's Ministerium (1748), the Saxon emigration and the founding of the Missouri Synod in Chicago (April 26, 1847), the Wisconsin Synod (1850), the Synodical Conference and its breakup, Seminex (1974), the 1988 ELCA merger, the 2009 decisions and the bodies that left. Each body's beliefs on fellowship, communion, women and Scripture in its own words, with current membership from its own reports.55 min
  2. 2The Reformed and Presbyterians: Westminster, Scotland and the American Splits (PCUSA, PCA, OPC)Presbyterians are the Reformed churches governed by elders in sessions, presbyteries and assemblies, and most confess the Westminster Confession of Faith (1646 to 1647). This lesson follows them from the Scots Confession of 1560 and the Westminster Assembly through the Disruption of 1843 to the American divisions and reunions: Old Side and New Side, Old School and New School, North and South, the Auburn Affirmation and Machen, the OPC (1936), the PCA (1973), the 1983 reunion that made the PC(USA), and the EPC and ECO. Each body speaks first in its own documents, with membership from its own latest reports.55 min
  3. 3Calvinism in Detail: The Five Points, the Synod of Dort, Arminius and the Westminster ConfessionThe Calvinist and Arminian debate in the words of its own documents: Arminius's Declaration of Sentiments (1608), the five articles of the Remonstrance (1610), the Canons of Dort (1619) and chapter III of the Westminster Confession. The lesson traces where the TULIP acronym came from (first recorded 1913), explains Amyraut's middle way, the Lutheran rejection of both systems in the Formula of Concord and Wesley's evangelical Arminianism, and shows where Presbyterians, Baptists and Methodists stand today.50 min
  4. 4Anglicans and Episcopalians: The Elizabethan Settlement, the Prayer Book and the Modern SplitsHow the Church of England took its lasting shape in the Elizabethan Settlement of 1559, the Thirty-nine Articles and the 1662 Book of Common Prayer, and how the Episcopal Church got its first bishops from Scotland and England after the Revolution. The lesson follows the Oxford Movement, the Lambeth Conference and the Quadrilateral, women's ordination and the 1979 prayer book, and the splits from 2003 to the ACNA, GAFCON's 2026 break with Canterbury and Sarah Mullally's installation, with membership counts from each body's own reports.70 min
  5. 5Congregationalists and the Puritans: From the Mayflower to the United Church of ChristHow English Puritans and Separatists built churches gathered by covenant, carried them to Plymouth (1620) and Massachusetts Bay (1630), and wrote them into the Cambridge Platform (1648) and the Half-Way Covenant (1662). The lesson follows disestablishment in Connecticut (1818) and Massachusetts (1833), the Unitarian break, the mergers of 1931 and 1934, the United Church of Christ (June 25, 1957) and the continuing Congregational bodies, with each body's own words and its own membership figures.60 min
  6. 6Baptists: English and American Roots and the Many Kinds of BaptistsFrom John Smyth's 1609 baptism in Amsterdam and Thomas Helwys's 1612 plea to King James to the Southern Baptist Convention's June 2026 vote on pastors: the General and Particular Baptist lines, the 1689 Confession, Roger Williams, Backus and Leland on religious liberty, the 1845 division over slavery, Landmarkism and the conservative resurgence. The lesson then describes the many kinds of Baptists (Southern, American, National, Independent, Free Will, Primitive, Old Regular, Seventh Day, Reformed and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship), each in its own words, with membership figures and their sources.55 min
  7. 7Methodists and the Holiness Lines: From the Christmas Conference to the 2022 SplitHow Wesley's American societies became the Methodist Episcopal Church at the 1784 Christmas Conference, and how that one body divided and reunited: the AME, AME Zion and CME churches, the Methodist Protestants, the 1844 split over slavery, the 1939 and 1968 unions, the Holiness churches (Wesleyan, Free Methodist, Nazarene, Salvation Army, Church of God), and the 2019 to 2024 United Methodist split that produced the Global Methodist Church. Each body is described in its own words, then the record, with membership numbers and their years.55 min
  8. 8Anabaptists Today: Mennonites, Amish, Hutterites and BrethrenThe churches that grew from the Anabaptist movement after 1527: the Dordrecht Confession of 1632, the Amish division of 1693, the Mennonite settlers at Germantown, the Hutterites' community of goods and the Brethren of Schwarzenau. Each body is described in its own words, with its own counts and their years, through Wisconsin v. Yoder and the divisions of the 2020s.55 min
  9. 9Quakers and the Radical TraditionThe Religious Society of Friends from George Fox's preaching in the 1640s to the branches of 2026: the Light within, silent worship, the peace testimony of 1661, persecution in England and the hangings in Boston, Penn's Pennsylvania, Woolman and the end of Quaker slaveholding, and the Hicksite, Gurneyite and Wilburite separations that produced FGC, FUM, EFCI and the Conservative Friends. With the other radicals of the English Revolution and the Shakers, and membership counts from the bodies' own reports.55 min
  10. 10The Restoration Movement: Churches of Christ, Disciples and Christian ChurchesHow Barton W. Stone's Kentucky "Christians" and Thomas and Alexander Campbell's "Disciples" set out to unite all Christians on the Bible alone, joined in 1832, and then divided over organs and missionary societies (recorded in the 1906 census) and again over the Disciples' 1968 restructure. Each of the three modern streams, the a cappella Churches of Christ, the independent Christian Churches and Churches of Christ, and the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), is described in its own words, with membership counts and their years and sources.55 min
  11. 11Mainline and Evangelical: How the Denominations Divide, With the NumbersWhat "mainline" and "evangelical" mean as researchers and the councils use them, and what the bodies' own records show: the ELCA, UCC, PC(USA), Episcopal Church and United Methodist Church have each lost half or more of their members since their peaks, while the Southern Baptist Convention has declined for nineteen straight years and the Assemblies of God grew until about 2010. The lesson sets the denominational counts beside Pew's surveys of 2007, 2014 and 2023 to 2024, the explanations scholars give (Kelley, Finke and Stark, Hout, Greeley and Wilde, and others), and the votes on Scripture, ordination and marriage that divided the bodies.55 min
  12. 12Dominion Theology, Christian Reconstructionism and the New Apostolic ReformationThree movements often lumped together as "dominionism": Christian Reconstruction and theonomy (Rushdoony, Bahnsen, North), the New Apostolic Reformation named by C. Peter Wagner, and the Seven Mountains framing traced to Loren Cunningham and Bill Bright in 1975. Each is described from its own writers' texts, then answered by the Reformed, evangelical, Pentecostal and charismatic critics who rejected it, in their own words.55 min
  13. 13Pentecostal, Orthodox and Catholic Bodies: An OrientationA short orientation to three large Christian families that the Protestant lessons keep meeting: the Pentecostal bodies (Assemblies of God, Church of God in Christ, Church of God of Cleveland, Foursquare and the Oneness UPCI), the Orthodox jurisdictions in America and the OCA's 1970 autocephaly, and the Catholic Church in the United States with its Eastern Catholic eparchies. Each is described in its own words, then by the record and the numbers, with the year and source of every count.35 min
  14. 14Review: A Chart of the Denominations and Their FamiliesThe whole of Part B on one page: a family tree of the Protestant families from the Reformation to 2026, with the Catholic and Orthodox churches for orientation, and a comparison table of what each body says about authority, baptism, communion, church government and ordination, with its founding date and latest US count (year and source given for every figure). A paragraph reviews each of lessons 01 to 13, and a list shows where each body publishes its own confessions and statistics.40 min

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