Pastor John
I became curious to know how many christian denominations there are. We often use the number 1,000 but I wondered.
First problem seems to be to define a denomination. That seems somewhat hard to do.
This link (Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary – World Christian Database) http://www.worldchristiandatabase.org/wcd/about/denominations.asp suggests there are over 9,000 denominations but if you go here http://www.bringyou.to/apologetics/a106.htm they get to suggesting there were 33,000 in the world in the Year 2000.
If you go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Christian_denominations you can scroll down the page and be staggered at the lists of denominational names. There a couple of charts showing the history of division in christianity as well. Really, it defies description. It is confusion. Which is how I got to this.
I had looked up the word Babylon wanting to check its meaning. What I found interested me.
In Hebrew it is from babel apparently meaning confusion, but this word comes from another word balal.
The definitions for this word were interesting.
1) to mix, mingle, confuse, confound
It showed me that Babylon is confusion but it is confusion arising from a mixing or mingling. Mixing believers with unbelievers, life with ceremonies, truth with error and superstition. That is a perfect description of God’s people in Babylon. Just one reason why coming out of her is the only way to deal with it.
Damien