If you want to know the oldest denomination in Christianity, you will soon realize there is no answer. You need to know that even leading Christians cannot agree on which denomination or branch of Christianity is considered the oldest.
Hey, wait a sec…is the catholic church the first church in the world?
No. The Catholic Church is not the first church in the world. In fact, it is not even the oldest Christian denomination.
The gospel, or good news of Jesus Christ’s life, death and resurrection, spread rapidly through the Roman Empire after his death. By the end of the first century AD, Christianity had become a major religion in many parts of the Roman Empire. It was so popular that even Roman authorities felt threatened by it.
What is the oldest denomination of Christianity? This question came to my mind again while talking to a friend who’s dad is a priest. He said: ‘There are many denominations of Christianity’ with a nonchalant tone, before continuing his previous sentence. I had no words to say except: ‘Oh..’. The most challenging part was to actually choose which church denomination was the oldest. Many sites have multiple answers and even articles you’ve read previously contradict each other (which leaves you very confused if you’re looking for one definitive answer). To solve this issue, I did quite a bit of research and found the answer: Eastern Orthodoxy is the oldest denomination.
The Orthodox Church Is Respected.
The Orthodox Church is the Christian movement that has been around the longest.
The apostle Paul addressed his first letter to the Christians who were residing in the city of Corinth, which is located in Greece, in the year 33 A.D.. The letter explains what it means to be a Christian as well as the manner in which Christians ought to conduct themselves in daily life. This helps to explain why he made the decision to depart from Corinth and go to an another city known as Ephesus.
Before his conversion to Christianity, the Apostle Paul was known by his birth name, Saul, and he resided in Tarsus, Turkey. While traveling throughout the Roman Empire, he supported himself by working as a tentmaker and educating people about Jesus Christ, with the goal of helping them comprehend what it meant to be a Christian. The Romans had him put to death because they disapproved of the fact that he was spreading the word about Jesus Christ and encouraging others to place their faith in him as their savior rather than in the Roman gods and rulers.
After he passed away on the 29th of August, 64 A.D., his followers immediately began disseminating his teachings all over the world by spreading their faith through letters such as this one written by Paul right here in Corinth, which is where they first met together as believers in Jesus Christ our Lord!
The Orthodox Church is the one that has been around the longest of all Christian sects. It can trace its ancestry back to Jesus Christ and has origins that go all the way back to the first century after Christ.
The Orthodox Church was established by a group of Jewish Christians who were unhappy with what they saw as the increasing corruption inside the Roman Catholic Church. This led to the founding of the Orthodox Church. They held the belief that they should be able to practice their religious beliefs in any way that they chose, without being subject to the authority of the Roman Catholic Church or the doctrines that it promulgated.
This sect severed their ties with Rome for theological disagreements and established their own independent church in the year 1054 AD. Because of this tragedy, relations between Catholics and Orthodox Christians deteriorated throughout the course of several centuries. Although there are still a great deal of disagreements between these two groups in the modern day, relations have significantly improved after the end of World War II.
The Orthodox Church is a confederation of autonomous churches that are bound together by a shared commitment to the same doctrines and practices of spirituality.
The Orthodox Church is a confederation of autonomous churches that are bound together by a shared commitment to the same doctrines and practices of spirituality. It has the distinction of being the church that has been in existence the longest.
Orthodox Christians are those who hold the belief that the Church is the kingdom of God here on earth. They believe that Jesus Christ founded His Church on earth approximately 2,000 years ago, and that it has persisted up until the present day.
St. Andrew, one of Jesus’ disciples, is credited with spreading the gospel in Scythia (what is now Russia) and Greece, as well as founding the first Christian community in Byzantium. This is how the Orthodox Church can trace its roots back to Jesus (now Istanbul). St. Constantine proclaimed Constantinople the capital of the Roman Empire in the year 325 A.D., at the same time that he established Christianity an official religion across the Roman Empire (now Istanbul). Because this was the location where Saint Andrew gave the first sermon about Jesus Christ, people from all over the world, particularly from Greece and Asia Minor, moved there to make their homes (Turkey).
Over the course of time, these individuals evolved into various subcultures within their communities. Some of them became Eastern-rite Catholics, while others became Eastern-rite Orthodox. Others became Catholics, while others became Protestants, and so on. However, they all had a lot of respect for one another! And because each group believed that their particular approach to worshiping God was the most appropriate, they continued to perform their religious rites in the same manner as in the past.
List of Christian Denominations by Number of Members
Christian denominational families | Members |
Christianity | 2.6 billion |
Catholicism | 1.345 billion |
Independent Catholicism | 18 million |
Protestantism | 900 million–1 billion |
Historical Protestantism | 300–500 million |
Anglicanism | 110 million |
Baptist churches | 100 million |
Lutheranism | 70–90 million |
Reformed churches (Calvinism/Presbyterianism) | 60–80 million |
Methodism | 60–80 million |
Adventism | 22.3 million |
Restorationism | 7 million |
Anabaptism | 4 million |
Plymouth Brethren | 1 million |
Hussites | 1 million |
Quakers | 0.4 million |
Modern Protestantism | 400–500 million |
Pentecostalism | 280 million |
Nondenominational Christianity | 80–100 million |
African initiated churches | 60 million |
Chinese Patriotic Christian Churches | 25 million |
New Apostolic Church | 10 million |
Local churches | 1 to 10 million |
Messianic Judaism | 0.3 million |
Eastern Protestant Christianity | 22 million |
Eastern Orthodoxy | 220 million |
Oriental Orthodoxy | 62 million |
Non-trinitarian Restorationism | 35 million |
Church of the East | 0.6 million |
The First Christian Church, Which Was Established by Jesus Christ and The Apostles of Christ, Is Known as The Orthodox Church.
The phrase “the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church” is another name for this institution.
In the first century, Jesus Christ and His apostles laid the foundation for what would later become known as the Orthodox Church. This church has been in existence ever since. In addition to a handful of autonomous churches, it is made up of 14 autocephalous churches, all of which are in complete communion with one another.
Today, the Orthodox Church can be found in a variety of nations all over the world, such as Greece, Russia, Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria, Georgia, and Albania. It is estimated that there are over 250 million people who are members of this church worldwide.
The first Christian church, which was established by Jesus Christ and the apostles of Christ, is known as the Orthodox Church. It is one of the oldest churches that is still standing in the modern world.
It was Jesus Christ Himself who put it into operation. Peter was the first bishop that Jesus appointed, and he was given the authority to baptize converts, forgive sins, preach the gospel, and govern over the church until Jesus returned (Matthew 16:18).
After Jesus departed from this earth, He delegated authority to his apostles to continue teaching and guiding the church in His stead. They taught that there was only one authentic church, and that it was the Church of God, which had been founded on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2). They referred to themselves as Christians because of this reason.
After a period of time had passed, Christians became the target of persecution because they refused to worship Caesar in the role of a deity. The Roman authorities attempted to coerce them into doing this in order to put an end to their persecution of Christians; however, Christians refused to comply with this demand because they were confident in their salvation through Jesus Christ alone (Acts 4:19-20).
In reaction to this persecution, many people gave up their faith as Christians and returned to paganism or Judaism. On the other hand, some people continued to believe in Christ despite the dangers to their lives and were ultimately killed for their commitment to him (1 Corinthians 11:23-26; 1 Thessalonians 2:14-16).
During this same time period, a number of guys started
Oldest Churches Still in Use
The following is a list of some of the oldest churches that are still in use today and can be found all over the world.
- Hagia Sophia, which was built in the 5th century and is located in Istanbul, Turkey
- The Basilica of Saint Peter in Vatican City, which dates back to the fourth century
- Church of the Nativity, built in the fourth century and located in Bethlehem on the West Bank
- Santa Maria Maggiore, located in Rome, Italy, in the fourth century
- The Basilica of St. John Lateran, which was built in the fifth century and is located in Rome, Italy
To summarize,
The Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church were originally one unified Christian Church, known as the Christian Church or the Early Church, for several centuries after the death of Jesus Christ. The split between the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church occurred much later and was a result of complex historical, cultural, and theological factors.
The Great Schism of 1054 marked the official separation between the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church. The primary causes of the schism were disputes over theological differences, cultural clashes, and disagreements over ecclesiastical authority. The growing influence and power of the Bishop of Rome, who eventually became the Pope of the Roman Catholic Church, and disagreements between the Eastern and Western churches over issues such as the use of icons in worship and the filioque clause in the Nicene Creed, contributed to the division.
At no point did the establishment of the Orthodox Church directly stem from a reaction to the corruption within the Roman Catholic Church. The Orthodox Church has its own unique history, traditions, and theology that developed independently from the Roman Catholic Church.
It’s important to note that while the Orthodox Church is one of the oldest Christian traditions, the earliest Christians did not identify themselves as “Orthodox” in the same way it is understood today. The term “Orthodox” came into use in the context of the Great Schism to differentiate the Eastern churches from the Western Roman Catholic Church.
Final Words
In the end, I am still playing with the subject line, as I do not want to write “the” when it feels like so much more should be added after it. There are lots of ways to say this, but this is my favorite: The Eastern Orthodox Church is one of the oldest denomination of Christianity. I think it is true enough while also saying something very incomplete about this ancient faith that has roots that run deep into the very sand from whence human civilization sprang.