Development vs. Reversal

Doctrine Over Time

Pick a belief. See what each tradition teaches today, and the dated moments that shaped it, including the times a church formally reversed itself.

What each tradition teaches today

Who is God: one God in three persons, or something else?

Roman Catholic: One God in three persons, as confessed at Nicaea and Constantinople. The Latin Church professes that the Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son (filioque) as from one principle, and calls this complementary to the Eastern wording.
Eastern Orthodox: One God: the Father, with the Son eternally begotten and the Spirit proceeding from the Father, the one source. The Creed is recited as written in 381, without the filioque. God is truly met in his uncreated energies while his essence stays beyond knowing.
Protestant: Lutheran, Reformed/Presbyterian, Anglican, Methodist, Baptist and most Pentecostal churches confess one God in three persons and Christ as true God and true man, as at Nicaea and Chalcedon. Oneness Pentecostals are the main exception.
The Latter-day Saints (LDS): God the Father, Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost are three separate beings who are “one in purpose and doctrine.” The Father and the Son have glorified bodies of flesh and bones; the Holy Ghost is a personage of spirit.
Jehovah’s Witnesses: Jehovah’s Witnesses teach that the Bible does not teach the Trinity. Jehovah alone is Almighty God; Jesus is God’s Son, a created being and not Almighty God; the holy spirit is God’s active force, not a person.

Which books belong in the Bible?

Roman Catholic: 73 books: 46 in the Old Testament, including Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch and 1–2 Maccabees, and 27 in the New. The Church discerned the list through apostolic Tradition and Trent defined it.
Eastern Orthodox: The Old Testament follows the Septuagint and includes books such as Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach and Maccabees, often called anagignoskomena (“books to be read”). No single pan-Orthodox list fixes their exact number or standing.
Protestant: Protestant churches use a 66-book Bible. Reformed/Presbyterian, Baptist, Methodist and Pentecostal churches exclude the Apocrypha from the canon; Anglicans read it “for example of life” but not for doctrine; Lutherans hold a similar middle view.
The Latter-day Saints (LDS): The standard works are the Bible (“as far as it is translated correctly”), the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants and the Pearl of Great Price. The canon stays open: God “will yet reveal many great and important things.”
Jehovah’s Witnesses: Jehovah’s Witnesses accept 66 books: 39 “Hebrew-Aramaic Scriptures” and 27 “Christian Greek Scriptures.” The Apocrypha is not counted as inspired. They mainly use their own New World Translation.

Who has the final say in teaching: Scripture, Tradition, or a church office?

Roman Catholic: Scripture and Tradition form one deposit of God’s word, which the Magisterium (the pope and the bishops in communion with him) serves and authentically interprets. The pope teaches infallibly when he defines a doctrine ex cathedra.
Eastern Orthodox: Authority rests in Holy Tradition, the Spirit-led life of the Church, in which the Bible holds first place. Its clearest voice is the Seven Ecumenical Councils, whose authority rests on reception by the whole Church. No single bishop is infallible.
Protestant: Protestants hold Scripture as the final authority over popes, councils and tradition. Lutherans and Anglicans give the creeds and confessions a strong subordinate role; Reformed churches bind officers to confessions; Baptists and Pentecostals rely less on formal tradition.
The Latter-day Saints (LDS): Authority rests on priesthood restored through Joseph Smith and on living prophets. The Church President is sustained as prophet, seer and revelator, the only person who receives revelation for the whole Church; the First Presidency and Twelve are also sustained as prophets.
Jehovah’s Witnesses: Jehovah’s Witnesses teach that the Bible is the authority and that Christ appointed “the faithful and discreet slave” in 1919 to give spiritual food. Since 2012 that slave is identified as the Governing Body, deciding as a group.

How is a person saved: by grace, by faith, by works, or by some combination?

Roman Catholic: Justification is God’s free gift, received in faith and conferred in Baptism. It forgives sin and renews the person inwardly, who freely cooperates with grace. Faith alone, understood as excluding hope and love, is rejected.
Eastern Orthodox: Salvation is theosis: union with God by grace, through Christ in the Holy Spirit, lived in the Church’s Mysteries. Grace leads and the person freely cooperates (synergy); we are justified “through faith which works through love,” not faith alone.
Protestant: Protestant churches teach justification by grace through faith in Christ, not by merit, with good works as fruit. Reformed/Presbyterian churches hold unconditional election; Methodists, many Baptists and Pentecostals hold Arminian views; Lutherans hold neither system.
The Latter-day Saints (LDS): All may be saved through Christ’s Atonement by obedience to gospel laws and ordinances. Nearly all receive a degree of glory; exaltation, becoming like God, requires faith, repentance, ordinances and covenants, all received through Christ’s grace.
Jehovah’s Witnesses: Jehovah’s Witnesses teach salvation through Jehovah’s undeserved kindness and Jesus’ ransom, shown by obedient faith. A limited 144,000 go to heaven; the “great crowd” hope for everlasting life on a paradise earth. No date ends the heavenly call.

What is the Church, and what do its sacraments (rites such as baptism and Communion) do?

Roman Catholic: Seven sacraments instituted by Christ. In the Eucharist the whole substance of bread and wine is changed into Christ’s Body and Blood (transubstantiation), so that he is truly, really and substantially present.
Eastern Orthodox: The Church celebrates the Holy Mysteries, usually counted as seven, while holding that all of the Church’s life is sacramental. In the Eucharist the bread and wine truly become Christ’s Body and Blood; how this happens is a mystery not explained by reason.
Protestant: Most Protestant churches keep two sacraments, Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Lutherans teach Christ’s real bodily presence; Reformed a real spiritual presence; Baptists and many Pentecostals speak of “ordinances,” a memorial, and believer’s baptism.
The Latter-day Saints (LDS): Ordinances are sacred acts done by priesthood authority. Baptism, confirmation, Melchizedek Priesthood ordination (for men), the temple endowment and temple sealing are essential to exaltation. Members take the sacrament each week.
Jehovah’s Witnesses: Jehovah’s Witnesses baptize by full immersion as a symbol of dedication to Jehovah. They observe the Lord’s Evening Meal once a year; only those professing to be anointed partake, and others attend as observers. The emblems are symbols.

What place do Mary and the saints have in Christian faith and prayer?

Roman Catholic: Mary is Mother of God and ever-virgin, conceived without original sin and assumed body and soul into glory. She and the saints are honored and asked to intercede; this veneration differs in kind from the adoration owed to God alone.
Eastern Orthodox: The Theotokos is honored above all saints as Mother of God and Ever-Virgin, free of personal sin. She truly died and was raised by her Son into his kingdom (the Dormition). The saints are venerated and asked to pray; worship belongs to God alone.
Protestant: Protestant churches honor Mary as the Lord’s mother and the saints as examples, but do not pray to them: Christ is the one Mediator. Lutherans and Anglicans keep Marian feasts; on her perpetual virginity views vary, and most evangelicals deny it.
The Latter-day Saints (LDS): Latter-day Saints honor Mary as the virgin mother of Jesus, “a precious and chosen vessel” (Alma 7:10). They hold no Marian dogmas and pray only to Heavenly Father in the name of Jesus Christ, not to Mary or the saints.
Jehovah’s Witnesses: Jehovah’s Witnesses honor Mary as a faithful woman to imitate, not venerate. They pray to Jehovah alone through Jesus, never to Mary or saints, use no images, and hold that Mary had other children after Jesus.

What happens after death, and how will the world end?

Roman Catholic: At death each person is judged: heaven, hell, or, for those who die in grace but not fully purified, purification first (purgatory). The Church helps the dead by prayer, the Mass, alms and indulgences. The Last Judgment follows the resurrection.
Eastern Orthodox: Heaven and hell are real, begun after death and fulfilled at the Last Judgment. The Church prays for the departed, above all at the Liturgy, trusting that these prayers truly help them, but rejects the Latin teaching of purgatorial fire and satisfaction after death. Beyond this, the intermediate state is largely left undefined.
Protestant: Protestant churches teach heaven and hell as the final destinies and reject purgatory. Some Anglicans and Lutherans pray for the departed; on the millennium, Reformed and Lutheran churches are mostly amillennial, while many evangelicals are dispensational.
The Latter-day Saints (LDS): Nearly all people will be resurrected and receive a kingdom of glory: celestial, terrestrial or telestial. Sons of perdition receive no glory. Exaltation in the highest celestial degree requires eternal marriage; the worthy will have that chance in this life or the next.
Jehovah’s Witnesses: Jehovah’s Witnesses teach that the soul is not immortal: the dead are unconscious, awaiting resurrection, and “hell” is the common grave, not torment. They teach that Christ began ruling invisibly in heaven in 1914, starting the “last days.”

What does each tradition teach about marriage and birth control?

Roman Catholic: Each marriage act must stay open to life, so contraception is wrong in itself. For serious reasons couples may space births by periodic continence, limiting intercourse to infertile times.
Eastern Orthodox: Orthodox churches condemn abortion and abortifacient methods and call selfish refusal of children a sin. The Russian Church does not equate non-abortive methods with abortion, asking spouses to decide with a spiritual father; others are stricter. No pan-Orthodox definition.
Protestant: Most Protestant churches now leave contraception within marriage to couples’ conscience, following Lambeth 1930, while rejecting methods that end a life after conception. A minority of conservative Reformed and evangelical Protestants still object to it.
The Latter-day Saints (LDS): Decisions about birth control “rest solely with each married couple,” made prayerfully. The Church teaches that children are a blessing not to be delayed for selfish reasons, opposes elective abortion as birth control and discourages elective sterilization.
Jehovah’s Witnesses: Jehovah’s Witnesses teach that the Bible does not condemn birth control, so a married couple’s use of a non-abortive method is their personal decision. Methods that appear to be abortive, and abortion itself, are rejected.

Should the state protect freedom of religion, and how should church and state relate?

Roman Catholic: Every person has a civil right to freedom from coercion in religious matters, within just limits. The Church also teaches that people and societies have a moral duty toward the true religion, which it says subsists in the Catholic Church.
Eastern Orthodox: There is no pan-Orthodox definition. The ideal of symphonia, Church and state cooperating without intruding on each other, remains influential. The Russian Church accepts the secular state and freedom of conscience as a legal framework while criticizing their secular roots.
Protestant: Protestant churches today generally affirm religious liberty and reject state coercion in matters of faith. American Presbyterian churches use the 1788 revision of Westminster XXIII.3; Baptists have taught church–state separation since the 1600s.
The Latter-day Saints (LDS): Latter-day Saints claim the right to worship “according to the dictates of our own conscience” and allow all others the same. Their scripture holds that governments must protect free exercise of conscience and should not prescribe rules of worship.

Which calendar should the Church use to keep its feasts?

Eastern Orthodox: A matter of practice, not doctrine, and it varies. Constantinople, Greece, Romania and others keep fixed feasts on the Revised Julian (“new”) calendar; Russia, Serbia, Georgia, Jerusalem and Mount Athos keep the Julian. Nearly all keep Pascha on the Julian reckoning.

How should the Orthodox Church receive Christians baptized in other churches?

Eastern Orthodox: Practice varies by church. Most, including the OCA and the Russian Church, receive people baptized in the name of the Trinity, Catholics included, by chrismation or confession, not baptism. Others, appealing to the 1755 Oros, baptize them.

What happens to infants who die without baptism?

Roman Catholic: Limbo was never defined as dogma and remains a permitted theological opinion. The Church entrusts unbaptized infants to God’s mercy and sees serious grounds to hope they are saved, while still teaching that Baptism is necessary.

Can women be ordained as pastors or priests?

Protestant: Protestant churches are divided. The Episcopal Church, Church of England, ELCA, United Methodists, PC(USA) and many Pentecostals ordain women; the Southern Baptist Convention, Missouri Synod Lutherans and the PCA limit the pastorate to men.

May divorced Christians marry again?

Protestant: Protestant churches do not treat marriage as a sacrament. Reformed and many evangelical churches allow divorce for adultery or desertion; Anglican, Lutheran and Methodist churches mostly permit church remarriage of the divorced at pastoral discretion.

Why were Black members barred from the LDS priesthood, and what changed?

The Latter-day Saints (LDS): All worthy members may receive priesthood and temple blessings regardless of race. The Church disavows past theories that black skin signified a curse or premortal unrighteousness, and condemns all racism, past and present.

Did the LDS Church teach plural marriage, and what changed?

The Latter-day Saints (LDS): Monogamy is “the standard of the Church today.” Members are not authorized to enter plural marriage, and an adult involved in it needs First Presidency approval to be baptized. The revelation on plural marriage (D&C 132) remains in the canon.

How did the LDS health code (the Word of Wisdom) become a requirement?

The Latter-day Saints (LDS): Members abstain from alcohol, tobacco, tea and coffee and avoid harmful or addictive substances, legal or illegal. Keeping the Word of Wisdom has been a condition of a temple recommend since 1921.

Which teachings from Brigham Young’s era did the LDS Church later disavow?

The Latter-day Saints (LDS): The Church denounces the Adam–God theory as false doctrine and says “blood atonement” is not its doctrine, affirming the all-encompassing atonement of Jesus Christ. Neither teaching was ever canonized.

What is LDS baptism for the dead, and has it changed?

The Latter-day Saints (LDS): Members perform proxy baptisms for the dead in temples worldwide. The dead remain free to accept or reject the ordinance, and its validity depends on their acceptance.

What dates did Jehovah’s Witness leaders give for the end, and how were they revised?

Jehovah’s Witnesses: Jehovah’s Witnesses teach that the last days began in 1914 and the end is near, but set no date. “This generation” means anointed ones alive in 1914 whose lives overlap with anointed ones who will see the great tribulation begin.

What do Jehovah’s Witnesses teach about blood transfusions and medicine?

Jehovah’s Witnesses: Jehovah’s Witnesses refuse transfusions of whole blood and its four main components, as a religious matter (Acts 15:29). Blood fractions and organ transplants are left to each person’s conscience. They accept other medical care.

Who are the “superior authorities” of Romans 13 in Witness teaching?

Jehovah’s Witnesses: Jehovah’s Witnesses teach that Romans 13’s “superior authorities” are human governments, owed relative subjection: they obey laws, pay taxes and stay politically neutral, unless a law conflicts with God’s law.

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