The Modern Church
Where modern beliefs came from
A lookup table - find a modern belief, see where and when it actually began, and follow the link to the full story.
Many beliefs held by modern Christians are assumed to be what the apostles taught and the early Church practised. This table records where each one actually entered the Church's life, so far as the historical record shows.
Two cautions. A date of origin is not by itself a verdict: a belief is not wrong merely because it is recent, and some of these movements were reacting against real failings. But when a practice claims to be apostolic and cannot be found anywhere in the Church for fifteen or eighteen centuries, the claim needs explaining. Second, some beliefs had forerunners - an earlier writer here, a fringe group there. Where that is so, the row says so, and the topic page gives the detail.
Search by keyword, or narrow the list to one stream of movements.
54 beliefs
| The belief | Where it actually came from | When | Read more |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Spirit speaks directly to me, apart from Scripture and the sacramentsAncient precursor: the Montanist "New Prophecy" of the 2nd century, rejected by the Church. | The Zwickau Prophets and Thomas Müntzer's "inner word", Wittenberg and Allstedt | 1521-24 | The Radical Reformation |
| The Lord's Supper is only a memorialRejected by Luther at Marburg (1529), by Calvin, by Trent, by the Anglican Articles and by the Orthodox. | Huldrych Zwingli in Zürich, following Cornelius Hoen's reading of "is" as "signifies" | 1524-25 | Zwingli, the Puritans and the first Baptists |
| Only believers should be baptisedIsolated medieval precursors (e.g. Peter of Bruys, 12th century), but no church practised it before 1525. | The Swiss Anabaptists - Grebel baptises Blaurock in Zürich | 1525 | The Radical Reformation |
| The Church is a voluntary gathering of true believers, separate from the world | The Anabaptists; the Schleitheim Confession | 1525-27 | The Radical Reformation |
| The true Church was lost and has now been restored | Anabaptists (1520s); then Campbellites, Latter-day Saints (1830), Brethren, Pentecostals, Latter Rain and many others | from the 1520s | Restorationists and date-setters |
| Baptism and the Supper are "ordinances" of obedience, not means of grace | Zwingli; then the Baptists | 16th-17th century | Zwingli, the Puritans and the first Baptists |
| Nothing may be done in worship unless Scripture commands it | Zwingli and the Reformed; the Puritans; Westminster Confession 21.1 | 1520s-1647 | Zwingli, the Puritans and the first Baptists |
| Each local congregation is independent, under no wider church | The English Separatists and the first Baptists | 1580s-1612 | Zwingli, the Puritans and the first Baptists |
| Baptism must be by full immersionImmersion was common in the early Church, but the Didache (c. 100) also allows pouring; immersion as the only valid form is a later Baptist position. | The English Particular Baptists | c. 1641 | Zwingli, the Puritans and the first Baptists |
| Christmas and the church year are unbiblical | The Puritans; abolished by the English Parliament | 1640s | Zwingli, the Puritans and the first Baptists |
| A second blessing of instant entire sanctification | John Wesley's Christian perfection; simplified by Phoebe Palmer | 1760s-1843 | Revivalism and the "second blessing" |
| No creed but Christ | Barton Stone and the Campbells' Restoration Movement | 1804-09 | Restorationists and date-setters |
| The Church is in ruins; no one can ordain ministers | J.N. Darby and the Brethren, Dublin and Plymouth | 1827-1830s | The Plymouth Brethren and dispensationalism |
| The Lord's Supper led by any brother, without clergyThe weekly Eucharist itself is ancient; celebrating it without an ordained minister is not. | The Dublin and Plymouth Brethren | 1829 | The Plymouth Brethren and dispensationalism |
| Tongues and prophecy restored before the end | The Clyde and Regent Square, Edward Irving's circle | 1830-31 | Edward Irving and the Catholic Apostolic Church |
| The date of Christ's return can be calculated from prophecyEvery date set since has passed - 1844, 1914, 1975, 1977, 1988, 2011. | William Miller's calculation from Daniel 8:14 | 1831-44 | Restorationists and date-setters |
| The pre-tribulation (secret) rapturePrecise origin disputed; no Christian writer taught it before the 18th century. | Darby and the overlapping circles of Irving, Powerscourt and the Brethren | early 1830s | The Plymouth Brethren and dispensationalism |
| God is restoring apostles and prophetsLater: Dowie (1904), the Latter Rain (1948), the New Apostolic Reformation (1990s). | The Catholic Apostolic Church (Irving's circle) | 1832-35 | Edward Irving and the Catholic Apostolic Church |
| Revival comes by using the right methods; the altar call | Finney's "new measures" and the anxious bench | 1820s-35 | Revivalism and the "second blessing" |
| We do not inherit a sinful nature; sin is only a voluntary choiceRestates Pelagianism, condemned at Carthage (418) and Orange (529). | Charles Finney | 1830s-40s | Revivalism and the "second blessing" |
| Salvation is a dateable decision made at a meeting | 19th-century revivalism, from Finney to Moody | 1830s-1890s | Revivalism and the "second blessing" |
| History is divided into dispensations; Israel and the Church are separate peoples | Darby; popularised by the Scofield Reference Bible | 1830s-1909 | The Plymouth Brethren and dispensationalism |
| The baptism of the Holy Spirit is a second experience after conversion | The Holiness movement; then the Pentecostals | 1860s-1901 | Topeka and Azusa Street |
| The modern state of Israel is the key to Bible prophecy | 19th-century premillennialists (Darby, the Niagara conferences); popularised after 1948 and 1967 | 19th-20th century | The Plymouth Brethren and dispensationalism |
| Healing is guaranteed in the atonement - claim it now | The faith-cure movement: Cullis, Boardman, Gordon, A.B. Simpson | 1870s-1885 | The healing movement, 1870s-1910s |
| Being "slain in the Spirit" | Camp meetings; Maria Woodworth-Etter's trances; popularised by Kathryn Kuhlman | 1800s-1970s | The healing revival, 1947-58, and after |
| Going to a doctor shows a lack of faith | John Alexander Dowie and others in the healing movement | 1880s-1900s | The healing movement, 1870s-1910s |
| Speaking in tongues is the initial evidence of the Spirit | Charles Parham's Bible school, Topeka, Kansas | 1 January 1901 | Topeka and Azusa Street |
| Tongues are real foreign languages given for missionary preachingAbandoned by most Pentecostals by about 1910, after missionaries found it did not work. | Parham, building on 1890s Holiness hopes | 1901 | The history of tongues |
| Tongues are a private prayer language for every Spirit-filled believer | Pentecostal reinterpretation after missionary tongues failed; the charismatic renewal | c. 1907-1960s | The history of tongues |
| Sanctification is complete at conversion ("Finished Work") | William Durham, Chicago | 1910 | Topeka and Azusa Street |
| God is one person; Jesus is the Father, Son and Spirit (Oneness)Revives 3rd-century modalism (Sabellianism). | Frank Ewart after the Arroyo Seco camp meeting | 1913-14 | Oneness Pentecostalism |
| Baptism must be "in Jesus' name" only; Trinitarian baptism must be repeated | Oneness Pentecostals | 1914 | Oneness Pentecostalism |
| What I confess, I possess (positive confession) | E.W. Kenyon; then Kenneth Hagin | 1910s-1970s | Word of Faith and the prosperity gospel |
| Jesus died spiritually and was born again in hell | E.W. Kenyon; adopted by Word of Faith teachers | 1910s-40s | Word of Faith and the prosperity gospel |
| Gifts can be imparted by the laying on of hands of prophetic presbyteries | The Latter Rain, North Battleford | 1948 | The New Order of the Latter Rain, 1948 |
| Personal prophecy should guide your decisions | The Latter Rain; later the prophetic movement | 1948 onward | The New Order of the Latter Rain, 1948 |
| Praying the "sinner's prayer" is how you are savedNo standard form is known before the late 19th century. | 20th-century evangelistic tracts, e.g. the Four Spiritual Laws | 20th century | Revivalism and the "second blessing" |
| The Manifest Sons of God will be perfected before Christ returns | Latter Rain teachers | c. 1950 | The New Order of the Latter Rain, 1948 |
| Positive thinking brings successDebt to the 19th-century New Thought movement. | Norman Vincent Peale | 1952 | Church growth, seeker churches and the megachurch |
| Give as a seed and God will multiply it back (seed faith) | Oral Roberts's Blessing Pact | 1954 | Word of Faith and the prosperity gospel |
| God wants every believer to be wealthy | The prosperity preachers: A.A. Allen, Oral Roberts, Kenneth Hagin and their successors | 1950s-1970s | Word of Faith and the prosperity gospel |
| Every believer needs a personal shepherd and spiritual "covering"Its founders later repented of it. | The Fort Lauderdale shepherding teachers | 1970s | The shepherding and discipleship movement |
| Churches grow fastest among people of one race, language and class | Donald McGavran's homogeneous unit principle | 1955-70 | Church growth, seeker churches and the megachurch |
| The Old Testament's civil laws should govern modern nations | R.J. Rushdoony's Christian Reconstructionism | 1973 | The Seven Mountains Mandate and dominionism |
| Believers are "little gods" | Kenyon and Hagin's teaching on the believer's identity; later Word of Faith preachers | 1940s-1980s | Word of Faith and the prosperity gospel |
| Services should be designed for the unchurched (seeker-sensitive) | Willow Creek and the seeker church movement | 1975 onward | Church growth, seeker churches and the megachurch |
| The Church should take dominion over the seven "mountains" of society | Cunningham and Bright's seven spheres (1975), recast by later promoters | 1975; 2000s | The Seven Mountains Mandate and dominionism |
| The Church must establish the kingdom before Christ can returnThe Augsburg Confession (XVII) condemns the godly taking possession of the kingdom of the world before the resurrection. | "Kingdom Now" teachers, drawing on the Latter Rain | 1980s | The Seven Mountains Mandate and dominionism |
| Self-esteem is our deepest need; sin is what robs us of it | Robert Schuller | 1982 | Church growth, seeker churches and the megachurch |
| Signs and wonders should accompany evangelism ("power evangelism") | John Wimber and the Third Wave | 1980s | The Third Wave, the Vineyard and the Kansas City Prophets |
| Territorial spirits rule cities and nations and must be mapped and bound | C. Peter Wagner and the spiritual warfare networks | 1990s | The New Apostolic Reformation and the "five-fold ministry" |
| Holy laughter and the Toronto manifestations | Toronto Airport Vineyard | 1994 | The Third Wave, the Vineyard and the Kansas City Prophets |
| The five-fold ministry: apostles and prophets govern the Church today | The New Apostolic Reformation (and the Latter Rain before it) | 1990s | The New Apostolic Reformation and the "five-fold ministry" |