Who Believes What
Thirteen traditions, the same nine questions, and roughly how many people are in each
Most comparison charts are built by one side and grade the others. This one asks every tradition the same nine questions and reports the answer that tradition would recognise as its own, including where the answer is "we are divided about that." Read down a single question across the whole page and the pattern that emerges is the useful part: how much is shared, and how narrow the actual fault lines are.
Four cautions before the numbers. Membership counts are estimates and they are not measuring the same thing: some bodies count the baptized, some count attenders, and some do not count at all. The largest figures in the Pentecostal and nondenominational rows overlap other rows, because charismatic Christians sit inside Catholic, Anglican and Baptist bodies too. Within every tradition there is a spread wider than any summary line, and a devout member may sit far from their body's official statement. And where a tradition has no official position, this page says so rather than inventing one.
Each confession quoted or summarised here is linked, in the body's own publication, on the companion page: Read Them Yourself.
On a wide screen the whole comparison appears first as one table, and every tradition is then set out in full below it. On a phone the table is hidden and only the full entries show.
| Tradition | Size (est.) | Authority | Salvation | Baptism | The Table | Security | Grace / will | Millennium | Rapture | Israel & church |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Roman Catholic | about 1.4 billion | Scripture and sacred tradition, interpreted by the magisterium; the pope as universal pastor. | By grace, received in baptism and sustained through the sacraments; faith formed by love. Grace can be lost by grave sin and restored through confession. | Infant baptism, regenerative. | Transubstantiation: the substance becomes the body and blood, the appearances remain. The Mass is the one sacrifice re-presented, not repeated. | Real but conditional. No assurance of final perseverance is normally claimed. | Grace goes first and is genuinely resistible; the will cooperates. | Amillennial in effect. No official millennial timetable; millenarianism as a political kingdom is rejected. | No pre-tribulation rapture. One return. | One people of God; the church does not replace Israel, and the Jewish covenant is not revoked. |
| Eastern Orthodox | about 220 million | Scripture within holy tradition, the seven ecumenical councils, the consensus of the Fathers. No single earthly head. | Theosis: salvation as the healing and transformation of the whole person, sharing God's own life. Juridical language is present but never the frame. | Infant baptism by immersion, with chrismation and communion given at once. | A real change, affirmed without a scholastic mechanism. The word transubstantiation is used by some and avoided by most. | Conditional. The Orthodox speak of the whole life as repentance. | Grace and will cooperate throughout; synergy is the standard term. | Amillennial. The councils never set a timetable. | None. One return. | One people; the question is not framed the Western way. |
| Oriental Orthodox | about 50 million, the Ethiopian Tewahedo the largest at roughly 36 million | Scripture and tradition, the first three councils only. Rejected Chalcedon's wording in 451, not its intent. | As the Eastern Orthodox, with strong ascetic and liturgical emphasis. | Infant baptism. | A real change, expressed in the language of mystery. | Conditional. | Cooperative. | Amillennial. | None. | One people. The Ethiopian church keeps an unusually broad canon and an ancient Judaic layer in its practice. |
| Anglican | about 85 million in the Communion | Scripture as supreme, with tradition and reason; the Thirty-nine Articles and the Book of Common Prayer. | Justification by faith, stated in Reformation terms in the Articles, held with a wide range of emphasis in practice. | Infant baptism. | Real presence affirmed, transubstantiation explicitly rejected in Article 28. Beyond that, deliberate breadth. | Varies by churchmanship, from Reformed assurance to a conditional view. | Both readings exist within the Communion; the Articles lean Augustinian. | Amillennial as the historic default. | None historically. Some evangelical Anglicans hold it. | Historically one people. |
| Lutheran | about 75 million in the Lutheran World Federation | Scripture alone as norm, the Book of Concord as the correct exposition of it. | By grace alone through faith alone, the article on which the church stands or falls. | Infant baptism, regenerative. | Sacramental union: the true body and blood in, with and under the bread and wine. Rejects both transubstantiation and mere symbol. | Assurance rests on the promise attached to baptism, not on introspection. Faith can be lost. | Monergistic in conversion, and Lutherans decline to draw the further inference that God elects any to damnation. | Amillennial. The Augsburg Confession condemns the expectation of an earthly millennial kingdom by name. | None. Lutheranism has no rapture doctrine, and Augsburg Article 17 rules out the earthly millennial expectation it usually travels with. | One people. |
| Presbyterian and Reformed | roughly 80 to 100 million | Scripture alone; Westminster, or Belgic, Heidelberg and Dort on the continent. | By grace alone through faith alone, within an unconditional election. | Infant baptism as covenant sign, not regenerative. | Real spiritual presence: Christ is truly received by faith, and the elements do not change. | Perseverance of the saints. The truly elect cannot finally fall. | Monergistic. Grace is effectual and not finally resistible. | Amillennial or postmillennial, historically. Historic premillennialism is a minority. | None. The rapture and the return are one event. | One people of God across every age; covenant theology. |
| Baptist | about 50 million in the Baptist World Alliance, more counting all bodies | Scripture alone. Confessions are voluntary and no body binds another. | By grace through faith, personally professed. | Believer's baptism by immersion, symbolic in most bodies. | Memorial in most bodies. The 1689 confession itself teaches a real spiritual feeding, which surprises many Baptists. | Split down the middle. Reformed Baptists hold perseverance; much of the wider Baptist world holds once saved always saved; a minority holds it conditionally. | Both Calvinist and Arminian streams, in the same denominations. | Widely dispensational premillennial in America since the twentieth century; amillennial and historic premillennial elsewhere and earlier. | Pre-tribulation rapture is common in America, and is largely absent from Baptist life before about 1900. | Frequently two peoples in the dispensational stream; one people in the Reformed stream. |
| Methodist and Wesleyan | roughly 60 to 80 million | Scripture, with tradition, reason and experience; Wesley's Articles, Sermons and Notes. | By grace through faith, with prevenient grace enabling the response, and a real expectation of holiness afterwards. | Infant baptism in most bodies. | Real spiritual presence; Wesley took the Table far more seriously than his heirs generally have. | Conditional. A believer can make shipwreck. | Grace goes first and is resistible; the will genuinely answers. | Amillennial historically; premillennialism entered through revivalism. | None historically, common in some Holiness and Pentecostal descendants. | One people. |
| Pentecostal and Charismatic | the broadest counts reach 600 million across every tradition | Scripture, with a strong appeal to present-day experience of the Spirit. | By grace through faith, usually with a distinct subsequent experience of the Spirit. | Believer's baptism in most classical bodies. | Usually memorial. | Usually conditional. | Usually Arminian in shape. | Overwhelmingly dispensational premillennial. | Pre-tribulation rapture is the default expectation in most of the movement. | Frequently two peoples, inherited with the dispensational system. |
| Restorationist and Churches of Christ | several million | Scripture alone, with a stated aim of restoring the New Testament church and no creed. | By grace through faith, with baptism understood as the point at which forgiveness is received. | Believer's baptism by immersion, for the remission of sins. | Memorial, weekly. | Conditional. | Free will emphasised. | Amillennial in the mainstream. | None in the mainstream. | One people. |
| Anabaptist, Mennonite and Brethren | roughly 2 million | Scripture read through the Sermon on the Mount, in a community of disciples. | By grace through faith, expressed in discipleship, nonviolence and separation from coercive power. | Believer's baptism. | Memorial, with strong emphasis on the shared meal. | Conditional. | Free will emphasised. | Varies; not a defining question. | Not a defining question. | One people. |
| Seventh-day Adventist | about 22 million | Scripture, with the writings of Ellen G. White regarded as a continuing prophetic gift subordinate to it. | By grace through faith, with obedience including the seventh-day Sabbath. | Believer's baptism by immersion. | Memorial. | Conditional. | Free will emphasised. | Premillennial, with a distinctive historicist reading of Daniel and Revelation and an investigative judgment. | None. One visible return, explicitly against the pre-tribulation view. | One people, with a remnant motif. |
| Nondenominational and independent evangelical | hundreds of millions, poorly counted by design | Scripture alone; each congregation states its own doctrine. | By grace through faith, usually with an emphasis on a decision. | Believer's baptism in most. | Memorial in most. | Usually once saved always saved. | Both streams present, often unexamined. | Usually dispensational premillennial where the question is addressed at all. | Pre-tribulation rapture is the common assumption. | Frequently two peoples, inherited rather than argued. |
Scroll the table sideways if your window is narrow. Entries are shortened here; the full wording for each tradition is below.
Roman Catholic
Size, estimated. about 1.4 billion
Authority. Scripture and sacred tradition, interpreted by the magisterium; the pope as universal pastor.
Salvation. By grace, received in baptism and sustained through the sacraments; faith formed by love. Grace can be lost by grave sin and restored through confession.
Baptism. Infant baptism, regenerative.
The Table. Transubstantiation: the substance becomes the body and blood, the appearances remain. The Mass is the one sacrifice re-presented, not repeated.
Security. Real but conditional. No assurance of final perseverance is normally claimed.
Grace and the will. Grace goes first and is genuinely resistible; the will cooperates.
The millennium. Amillennial in effect. No official millennial timetable; millenarianism as a political kingdom is rejected.
Rapture. No pre-tribulation rapture. One return.
Israel and the church. One people of God; the church does not replace Israel, and the Jewish covenant is not revoked.
Eastern Orthodox
Size, estimated. about 220 million
Authority. Scripture within holy tradition, the seven ecumenical councils, the consensus of the Fathers. No single earthly head.
Salvation. Theosis: salvation as the healing and transformation of the whole person, sharing God's own life. Juridical language is present but never the frame.
Baptism. Infant baptism by immersion, with chrismation and communion given at once.
The Table. A real change, affirmed without a scholastic mechanism. The word transubstantiation is used by some and avoided by most.
Security. Conditional. The Orthodox speak of the whole life as repentance.
Grace and the will. Grace and will cooperate throughout; synergy is the standard term.
The millennium. Amillennial. The councils never set a timetable.
Rapture. None. One return.
Israel and the church. One people; the question is not framed the Western way.
Oriental Orthodox
Size, estimated. about 50 million, the Ethiopian Tewahedo the largest at roughly 36 million
Authority. Scripture and tradition, the first three councils only. Rejected Chalcedon's wording in 451, not its intent.
Salvation. As the Eastern Orthodox, with strong ascetic and liturgical emphasis.
Baptism. Infant baptism.
The Table. A real change, expressed in the language of mystery.
Security. Conditional.
Grace and the will. Cooperative.
The millennium. Amillennial.
Rapture. None.
Israel and the church. One people. The Ethiopian church keeps an unusually broad canon and an ancient Judaic layer in its practice.
Anglican
Size, estimated. about 85 million in the Communion
Authority. Scripture as supreme, with tradition and reason; the Thirty-nine Articles and the Book of Common Prayer.
Salvation. Justification by faith, stated in Reformation terms in the Articles, held with a wide range of emphasis in practice.
Baptism. Infant baptism.
The Table. Real presence affirmed, transubstantiation explicitly rejected in Article 28. Beyond that, deliberate breadth.
Security. Varies by churchmanship, from Reformed assurance to a conditional view.
Grace and the will. Both readings exist within the Communion; the Articles lean Augustinian.
The millennium. Amillennial as the historic default.
Rapture. None historically. Some evangelical Anglicans hold it.
Israel and the church. Historically one people.
Lutheran
Size, estimated. about 75 million in the Lutheran World Federation
Authority. Scripture alone as norm, the Book of Concord as the correct exposition of it.
Salvation. By grace alone through faith alone, the article on which the church stands or falls.
Baptism. Infant baptism, regenerative.
The Table. Sacramental union: the true body and blood in, with and under the bread and wine. Rejects both transubstantiation and mere symbol.
Security. Assurance rests on the promise attached to baptism, not on introspection. Faith can be lost.
Grace and the will. Monergistic in conversion, and Lutherans decline to draw the further inference that God elects any to damnation.
The millennium. Amillennial. The Augsburg Confession condemns the expectation of an earthly millennial kingdom by name.
Rapture. None. Lutheranism has no rapture doctrine, and Augsburg Article 17 rules out the earthly millennial expectation it usually travels with.
Israel and the church. One people.
Presbyterian and Reformed
Size, estimated. roughly 80 to 100 million
Authority. Scripture alone; Westminster, or Belgic, Heidelberg and Dort on the continent.
Salvation. By grace alone through faith alone, within an unconditional election.
Baptism. Infant baptism as covenant sign, not regenerative.
The Table. Real spiritual presence: Christ is truly received by faith, and the elements do not change.
Security. Perseverance of the saints. The truly elect cannot finally fall.
Grace and the will. Monergistic. Grace is effectual and not finally resistible.
The millennium. Amillennial or postmillennial, historically. Historic premillennialism is a minority.
Rapture. None. The rapture and the return are one event.
Israel and the church. One people of God across every age; covenant theology.
Baptist
Size, estimated. about 50 million in the Baptist World Alliance, more counting all bodies
Authority. Scripture alone. Confessions are voluntary and no body binds another.
Salvation. By grace through faith, personally professed.
Baptism. Believer's baptism by immersion, symbolic in most bodies.
The Table. Memorial in most bodies. The 1689 confession itself teaches a real spiritual feeding, which surprises many Baptists.
Security. Split down the middle. Reformed Baptists hold perseverance; much of the wider Baptist world holds once saved always saved; a minority holds it conditionally.
Grace and the will. Both Calvinist and Arminian streams, in the same denominations.
The millennium. Widely dispensational premillennial in America since the twentieth century; amillennial and historic premillennial elsewhere and earlier.
Rapture. Pre-tribulation rapture is common in America, and is largely absent from Baptist life before about 1900.
Israel and the church. Frequently two peoples in the dispensational stream; one people in the Reformed stream.
Methodist and Wesleyan
Size, estimated. roughly 60 to 80 million
Authority. Scripture, with tradition, reason and experience; Wesley's Articles, Sermons and Notes.
Salvation. By grace through faith, with prevenient grace enabling the response, and a real expectation of holiness afterwards.
Baptism. Infant baptism in most bodies.
The Table. Real spiritual presence; Wesley took the Table far more seriously than his heirs generally have.
Security. Conditional. A believer can make shipwreck.
Grace and the will. Grace goes first and is resistible; the will genuinely answers.
The millennium. Amillennial historically; premillennialism entered through revivalism.
Rapture. None historically, common in some Holiness and Pentecostal descendants.
Israel and the church. One people.
Pentecostal and Charismatic
Size, estimated. the broadest counts reach 600 million across every tradition
Authority. Scripture, with a strong appeal to present-day experience of the Spirit.
Salvation. By grace through faith, usually with a distinct subsequent experience of the Spirit.
Baptism. Believer's baptism in most classical bodies.
The Table. Usually memorial.
Security. Usually conditional.
Grace and the will. Usually Arminian in shape.
The millennium. Overwhelmingly dispensational premillennial.
Rapture. Pre-tribulation rapture is the default expectation in most of the movement.
Israel and the church. Frequently two peoples, inherited with the dispensational system.
Restorationist and Churches of Christ
Size, estimated. several million
Authority. Scripture alone, with a stated aim of restoring the New Testament church and no creed.
Salvation. By grace through faith, with baptism understood as the point at which forgiveness is received.
Baptism. Believer's baptism by immersion, for the remission of sins.
The Table. Memorial, weekly.
Security. Conditional.
Grace and the will. Free will emphasised.
The millennium. Amillennial in the mainstream.
Rapture. None in the mainstream.
Israel and the church. One people.
Anabaptist, Mennonite and Brethren
Size, estimated. roughly 2 million
Authority. Scripture read through the Sermon on the Mount, in a community of disciples.
Salvation. By grace through faith, expressed in discipleship, nonviolence and separation from coercive power.
Baptism. Believer's baptism.
The Table. Memorial, with strong emphasis on the shared meal.
Security. Conditional.
Grace and the will. Free will emphasised.
The millennium. Varies; not a defining question.
Rapture. Not a defining question.
Israel and the church. One people.
Seventh-day Adventist
Size, estimated. about 22 million
Authority. Scripture, with the writings of Ellen G. White regarded as a continuing prophetic gift subordinate to it.
Salvation. By grace through faith, with obedience including the seventh-day Sabbath.
Baptism. Believer's baptism by immersion.
The Table. Memorial.
Security. Conditional.
Grace and the will. Free will emphasised.
The millennium. Premillennial, with a distinctive historicist reading of Daniel and Revelation and an investigative judgment.
Rapture. None. One visible return, explicitly against the pre-tribulation view.
Israel and the church. One people, with a remnant motif.
Nondenominational and independent evangelical
Size, estimated. hundreds of millions, poorly counted by design
Authority. Scripture alone; each congregation states its own doctrine.
Salvation. By grace through faith, usually with an emphasis on a decision.
Baptism. Believer's baptism in most.
The Table. Memorial in most.
Security. Usually once saved always saved.
Grace and the will. Both streams present, often unexamined.
The millennium. Usually dispensational premillennial where the question is addressed at all.
Rapture. Pre-tribulation rapture is the common assumption.
Israel and the church. Frequently two peoples, inherited rather than argued.
What the columns actually show
Read across and three things stand out.
First, the creed is not in dispute anywhere on this page. Every tradition listed confesses the Trinity, the incarnation, the bodily resurrection and the return of Christ. The divisions are downstream, in the mechanisms built to explain those things.
Second, the pre-tribulation rapture is the newest item in the whole comparison and the most confidently held where it appears. It is absent from every ancient tradition, absent from every Reformation confession, and absent from Baptist and Methodist life until the modern period. That is not an argument against it by itself, but it is a fact worth knowing before calling it what the Bible plainly says.
Third, on the Table, the outlier is the memorial view, not the real presence. Catholic, Orthodox, Oriental, Lutheran, Anglican and Reformed all affirm that something is genuinely given, differing over the mechanism. The purely symbolic reading is a minority position globally, though it is the majority in the American churches most of this site's readers grew up in.
The same table, read the other way
Read across the rows and you see what a tradition holds. Read down the columns and you see something the rows hide: which questions actually divide the Body, and how badly. Counting the thirteen traditions above, question by question, as fairly as the cells allow.
| The question | How divided | Where the weight sits |
|---|---|---|
| How a man is saved | Not divided. 13 of 13. | Every tradition says by grace, through faith. Rome adds "received in baptism," the Orthodox frame it as theosis, the Reformed say "alone." The disagreements are about where grace is received and what accompanies it, not about whether it saves. |
| Scripture's authority | Not divided in first place. 13 of 13. | Every row begins with Scripture. |
| What stands beside Scripture | Divided, and this is the real fight | A magisterium, seven councils, three councils, the Book of Concord, Westminster, Wesley's Notes, Ellen White, present-day experience of the Spirit, or nothing at all. |
| Who is baptized | Split 7–6 | Infant: Catholic, both Orthodox families, Anglican, Lutheran, Reformed, Methodist. Believer's: Baptist, Pentecostal, Restorationist, Anabaptist, Adventist, independent. |
| What is on the Table | Three ways | A real change (4), a real spiritual presence (3), a memorial (6). The 1689 Baptist Confession itself teaches spiritual feeding, which most Baptists today do not. |
| Can a believer be lost | 9 conditional, 2 not, 2 split | Conditional across Catholic, both Orthodox, Lutheran, Methodist, Pentecostal, Restorationist, Anabaptist, Adventist. Unconditional in the Reformed and the independents. Anglicans and Baptists divided internally. |
| Grace and the will | Cooperative in most | Monergistic in the Reformed and, in conversion only, Lutheran. Cooperative or free-will elsewhere. Baptists and independents carry both streams inside the same bodies. |
| The millennium | Amillennial in most | Premillennial mainly in American Baptist, Pentecostal, independent and Adventist bodies, the last with its own historicist reading. |
| A pre-tribulation rapture | 3 of 13, and recent | Absent from Catholic, both Orthodox, Lutheran (Augsburg Article 17 rules it out), Reformed, Restorationist, Anabaptist and Adventist, which opposes it explicitly. Common in American Baptist, Pentecostal and independent circles. |
| Israel and the church | 10 one people, 3 two | The two-peoples reading appears in the dispensational stream, and the table's own wording for two of those three is "inherited rather than argued." |
What the columns show that the rows do not. The Body is unanimous on how a man is saved and unanimous that Scripture rules. It divides over the sacraments, over what is admitted alongside Scripture, and over the end times. And the historic splits not on this table at all — church government, images and veneration, the saints, the filioque, how worship is regulated, who may be ordained, whether the gifts continue — belong to the same family. Not one of them is a question about how a man is saved.
Said fairly in both directions: that does not make the remaining differences trivial, and the people who hold them are not pretending. A man who believes the bread becomes the body and a man who believes it is a memorial are not describing the same act, and neither is being dishonest. But it does mean the Body has broken fellowship almost entirely on ground where Scripture says least, while agreeing on the ground where it says most. The argument this site makes from that is in Lines Drawn.
One church, forty-five thousand denominations, sixteen questions
The number gets thrown at Protestants constantly, and it is usually thrown wrong. The Center for the Study of Global Christianity counts Christian denominations and rites at about 2,000 in 1900, 13,100 in 1970, 31,000 in 2000, and roughly 45,100 today, with about 53,000 projected by 2050. Anyone using that figure needs to say what it counts: a body is counted once per country it operates in, so one global communion working in a hundred countries adds a hundred to the total. It measures organizational scatter across borders. It is not 45,000 different gospels, and a man who quotes it as though it were has not read the footnote. The Church, One Body, Many Doors lays out the counting method and the sources.
But set the counting argument aside, because it only softens the number, it does not answer it. The trend is real in any method: 2,000 to 45,100 in a century, and the direction is multiplication. So ask the better question. Not how many organizations exist, but how many things are we actually arguing about.
The table above holds nine. The historic splits it leaves out add about seven more: church government, images and veneration, the saints and their intercession, the filioque clause, how worship is regulated, who may be ordained, and whether the miraculous gifts continue. Sixteen questions. That is a generous count, and several of the sixteen are family arguments rather than walls. Two of the nine on the table are not arguments at all: all thirteen traditions say a man is saved by grace through faith, and every one of the thirteen names Scripture first.
Sixteen yes-or-no questions can be answered in 65,536 different combinations. That is not where the 45,100 comes from, and it is not offered as an explanation of it. It is offered to show what kind of number it is. Scatter of that size does not require thousands of disagreements. It requires a few, crossed with each other, multiplied across two thousand years and every country on earth, and hardened each time into an institution with a name and a deed to a building.
Which leaves the thing worth saying plainly. There are perhaps sixteen real questions dividing the visible church, and not one of them is the question of how a man is saved. On that, the thirteen traditions in the table above are unanimous. We did not divide over the gospel. We divided over what to do with the water, what happens on the Table, who holds the keys, and what happens at the end, and then we treated each of those as though it were the gospel. Every Line Drawn Is Another Division follows that out.
Thirteen traditions. One gospel. The body of Christ lives among the denominations, in spite of them.
Related: Did the Gifts Stop? takes up one of the divisions this table leaves out. Read down the columns and two of them collapse: all thirteen traditions say salvation is by grace through faith, and every row begins with Scripture. What that means is taken up in Lines Drawn, Read Them Yourself, Even From Their Own Confessions, Every Line Drawn Is Another Division, Eschatology at a Glance, Covenant Theology vs. Dispensationalism, The Security of Salvation, The Lord's Table, Terms Used on This Site, and The Church, One Story. Doctrinal summaries follow each body's own published confession, linked on the companion page. Membership figures are order-of-magnitude estimates drawn from the bodies' own reporting and standard reference compilations; they vary widely by counting method and should be read as scale rather than as census.