Christianity & Culture with Kierstyn St. John

Tier ranking every major Christian denomination

• Kierstyn St. John of Zoetic • Season 1 • Episode 12

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Today I’m going to attempt the impossible: ranking every denomination that calls themselves “Christian”. I make a lot of disclaimers, but I do think this podcast is important so that people can hear the differences between these denominations and make the best choice for themselves based on that. 

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Kierstyn St. John:

I am prepared to make literally everyone mad at me today. Okay, today I'm going to attempt to do what I think is kind of impossible, which is ranking all major Christian denominations, and I have quite a few disclaimers to make about that before we get going. First of all, these are most of the major denominations that would consider themselves Christians. Now, that doesn't mean I think all of these denominations are within Orthodox Christianity, but I am ranking them based on how close I think they are to the theology and the practice of the early church. That doesn't mean that I think any of these do that perfectly, but I'm kind of ranking them based on that. What would an ideal denomination look like and what is further from that ideal? The only tier that is straight up heretical is F tier, and so what is considered heresy? A denial of some part of the ecumenical creeds. So that would be the Apostles' Creed, the Nicene Creed, the Athanasius Creed. These creeds lay out the foundation and the basic beliefs of the Christian faith, and so if your church explicitly denies any part of that, you aren't a Christian church, right? So I want to be clear the only tier that I think really falls into that category is this F tier down here. I'm also not ranking these denominations based off of their liberal branches. Okay, also not ranking these denominations based off of their liberal branches, okay. So just because a denomination may have a super liberal branch you know, liberal, theologically right, so a branch that endorses, like, lgbtq pastors and things like that, I'm not taking that into consideration, okay, I'm ranking them based on their religiously conservative branches, basically. And the other thing I want to say and this should be pretty clear, but this is just ranking the denominations themselves, basically how the denominations are structured. I'm not ranking individual Christians within them. So just because you are in a C or a D tier denomination doesn't mean you are a C or D tier Christian. That should be. That should be really clear.

Kierstyn St. John:

And this next disclaimer is just personal for me. I recently converted to Anglicanism after being non-denominational. My whole life and most of my friends and family are still non-denominational, so I've been a little bit worried about making this video. Emma, for instance, the singer of Zoetic we have different viewpoints on this because she is still going to a non-denominational church. It's actually a pretty good church and I've converted to Anglicanism, so we have different viewpoints on this. My viewpoint isn't necessarily hers and this is kind of a tough video to make because of that. So the last thing I want to do is explain why I'm doing this.

Kierstyn St. John:

The reason why I'm doing this isn't just to do like a controversial clickbaity thing. I want to provide clarity on different denominations. People often leave Christianity altogether, when maybe they just need to switch denominations to something that makes a little more sense for them, and so I want to provide clarity on why a lot of these differ, because that's not clarity that I had for a very, very long time, and so I think this is important and it's also gonna be really, really fun. I want to recommend a channel called Ready to Harvest that does much more of an unbiased look at these different denominations that I'm going to do today. I'm going to be pretty biased, right. This channel is much less biased. I also want to recommend RedeemZoomer and his video on ranking the denominations. He's Presbyterian, I'm not, so he's going to have a different ranking for this than I am. I also want to recommend Holy Heretic. He's an Anglican, he's not a heretic and young anglicans tier rankings, if you want something a little more similar to mine. And there's even a guy named redneck, catholic and he he tier ranks and obviously he's catholic, I'm protestant, so we're going to have different opinions, but there are obviously different viewpoints on this and you should hear multiple, not just mine.

Kierstyn St. John:

All right, without further ado, let's get going. So we have five tiers A, b, c, d and F, which is the only tier. Like I said, that is heretical. The reason I don't have an S tier is because I don't think that any of these denominations are perfect. So I want to make that really, really clear. But we are going to start up in the A tier and we're going to go down from that point. And the only denomination that I are going to start up in the A tier and we're going to go down from that point and the only denomination that I'm going to put up in the A tier is my current denomination. They're the only one that's going to go up there and that's Anglican. So I'm going to put that up in the A tier and I want to explain a little bit as to why.

Kierstyn St. John:

Ok, so there are basically three components to Anglicanism at least conservative Anglicanism, that are super appealing, and we kind of call them the three streams, or the three components of Anglicanism. You have the evangelical stream, the liturgical stream and the charismatic stream and basically what Anglicanism tries to do is incorporate the best of other Christian traditions. So the evangelical component or stream emphasizes the authority of scripture, holds scripture as authoritative, and we are Protestant, so we believe in sola scriptura, which means that scripture is the ultimate authority. But we still place a lot of importance on church tradition. There's a necessity for personal faith in Jesus Christ and the importance of evangelism. So that actually reminds me a lot of Baptists and non-denominationals, right, which is where I came from.

Kierstyn St. John:

But there's also a liturgical stream which emphasizes the importance of worship through liturgy. So that means kind of saying the essentials of our faith all together in church sacraments and the historic practices of the church. We get our liturgy, which we repeat all together every Sunday, from the Book of Common Prayer, which was written by Thomas Cramner in, I believe, 1549. It is deeply biblical, it is based off of scripture, it is subject under scripture, right. We also celebrate and hold to the historic church calendar, which I think is really, really cool. So we are really deeply rooted in church history. We also can claim apostolic succession, so that means that our bishops go all the way back to Bible times.

Kierstyn St. John:

It is really cool that we are trying to structure our church based off of how the early church was structured, which is, you know, you have deacons and then you have presbyters, which are considered pastors over that, but then you also have bishops, and bishops are basically pastors of pastors, and that's important because, you know, christianity has grown so much, and so if you have a bishop, you basically have a pastor, quote unquote, or a presbyter over an entire region, and so there's a really clear authority structure. But, however, there isn't just like one pope, there isn't just one person at the top, so it's a good balance of power, and so that's like more of the liturgical historical stream. And then, finally, we have the charismatic stream of Anglicanism, which emphasizes the work of the Holy Spirit spiritual gifts, prophecy, healing and, speaking in tongues, most Anglicans are continuationists, which means that we believe that the gifts of the Spirit continue, and that, to me, is the best component of Pentecostalism. However, it does all of these things in a very structured and biblical way, so it isn't reckless, right. And so these three components make Anglicanism a really rich and full denomination.

Kierstyn St. John:

We have a very high view of the sacraments. Usually, we believe in real presence in communion, so not just a symbolic view of communion, which we believe is historical. That's the historical view. Anglicans also believe in something called baptismal regeneration view. Anglicans also believe in something called baptismal regeneration, which means that baptism is an essential part of the normative salvation process. That doesn't mean that God can't save without baptism, but it means that God commands you know, jesus commands people to get baptized, repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of sins. So baptism is an essential part of that conversion, and so that's going to be a different, more high church view than what you're going to get with some of these other denominations. The other thing is that we are a very big tent tradition, so what does that mean? It means that Anglicans agree on the essentials and we are a little more high church, and so we're going to agree on some of the liturgical structural practices.

Kierstyn St. John:

But we can disagree on secondary issues. So, for instance, I'm Anglican and I'm complementarian and I believe that that is the best way to look at scripture. That is the most accurate way. I have a very close friend who's Anglican and she's egalitarian, and so I disagree with her immensely on that. But we can still worship together within Anglicanism and so we're not. We Anglicans really realize what is a secondary issue and what isn't. You can get some confusion, like you can get some bishops who are more complementarian, for instance believing in different roles for men and women, and you can get some bishops who are more egalitarian, and how does that all work together? That's, it's kind of difficult, but Anglicans don't believe in schisming over things like that. So because of that, sometimes you just get a lot more disagreement within the denomination than what you would have in other denominations. And so, yeah, there are drawbacks, but I think for the most part it is incredibly faithful to the historic early church and it holds the Bible as the not the only authority, but the supreme authority over all.

Kierstyn St. John:

Okay, and so because of that, I'm going to move forward to our B-tier denominations. So the first B-tier denomination this may not surprise people that I'm going to put in B-tier is Lutheran, and if I wasn't Anglican, I probably would be Lutheran. To be honest with you. You know they're a historic denomination that came straight out of the Reformation, just like Anglicans did. They also have a very high view of the sacraments, a very similar view to Anglicans. They often have beautiful churches. I don't think that that is necessary, but I think that that is a plus, that they really care about their churches being holy spaces right, they have good liturgy.

Kierstyn St. John:

But here's the thing about Lutherans they are not a very big tent tradition. You have to agree with Lutherans on pretty much every point of their theology. So if I don't agree with them on their very specific view of communion, which I believe is something called consubstantiation, I can't be Lutheran. Right, they don't triage issues very well. So that's an issue that I have with Lutheranisms where you can't just disagree with them on some things and still be Lutheran. You really have to buy in all the way. So, yeah, their theology can also be somewhat confusing. It appeals to mystery a lot and it's like, yeah, the Bible is mysterious, but I think quite a bit more is plain in Scripture than maybe what they would say. But these are both minor things and I really love Lutherans and I agree with them on a lot. I don't know how much they like Anglicans, but yeah, I really think Lutherans are awesome.

Kierstyn St. John:

Now I'm going to move on to the second denomination in B tier, which would be Methodist, and I actually kind of am ranking these within their tier as well. So I would rank Lutheran a little higher than Methodist. They broke off from Anglicanism and I'm not really quite sure why. They believe in this weird theology called entire or complete sanctification, which means that essentially you can achieve perfection before heaven, you can achieve perfection with the power of the Holy Spirit before heaven. But I just don't see that as scriptural. Particularly I think that that is an added theology, so I'm not a big fan of that.

Kierstyn St. John:

Most of them are Arminian in their sociology. Some can be Calvinist, but I haven't met very many Calvinist Methodists and I am not Calvinist personally, so for me that's kind of a plus, but they just don't emphasize theology enough, in my opinion. You just don't hear Methodists being as passionate about Methodist theology as you will hear Lutherans being passionate about Lutheran theology. Right, they're mid-church and so they're just not as high church as either Lutheran or Anglican, you know, and so that's a little bit of a drawback, but I still think they're really good. They do a lot of work in the community, so that's a little bit of a drawback, but I still think they're really good. They do a lot of work in the community, so that's really awesome, and they've done a lot for the kingdom of God. So that's Methodist. I want to move forward.

Kierstyn St. John:

Okay, so people are going to think that this placement is wild of this next denomination and B tier. I'm going to explain why, but I think a lot of people are going to disagree with this. But that's okay. The next one I'm going to put up here is actually Church of Christ, if it'll let me. They emerged in the 19th century as part of the Restorationist movement, so they weren't one of the original denominations to come out of the Reformation. So why would I put this so high if it's not one of the original denominations?

Kierstyn St. John:

Well, I like their theology. I think it's quite interesting actually. So they are one of the only later church denominations coming out of the 19th century that do believe in baptismal regeneration, that baptism is a normative part of salvation, it's an essential part of salvation. So they believe in baptismal regeneration, but they don't believe in infant baptism, which is super fascinating. I think that that might be because of a different view of original sin, which I actually don't necessarily have as much of an issue with. And they also really prioritize celebrating the Lord's Supper weekly. They take communion weekly, which I think is very, very important. It's important to emphasize what Jesus emphasized, and if Jesus makes communion important. So should we, because it's a way to connect with him, the most powerful way to connect with him. They are not Calvinist and again, I already said that that's a plus for me, because I'm not Calvinist and I can't go into a ton of detail as to why I don't believe that's the biblical view today, but at some point I will.

Kierstyn St. John:

Ok, now the reason that they go below these other two denominations, lutheran and Methodist. First of all, they're not as connected and rooted to church history as either of the two before them and they also follow they come out of this movement called no Creed but Christ, so they don't like creeds. The funny thing is is that it seems to be that they actually do follow the Apostles Creed and the Nicene Creed. They just don't like it, which is kind of odd. They tend to have this view that it's like no book but the Bible. They can be very fundamentalist and they believe in something I would say that's called sola scriptura, so not sola, but sola, which is not just that the Bible is the ultimate authority, like other things can be authorities, but they have to be judged against the Bible and the Bible is the only infallible authority, which is what so-law scripture is. They believe in so-low scripture, which is the Bible is the only authority. So they don't like anything outside of the Bible. No creed but the Bible, like no book but the Bible. But the thing is is that if these things are based off the Bible, and you know, then they should also be seen as authoritative. They're just subject under the authority of the Bible. So I don't really like that very much. I also don't like that they have a decentralized government structure so each congregation is self-governing, and they also don't allow the usage of instruments in worship, musical instruments, because they don't see that in the New Testament. So because it's not in the New Testament, they don't do it. There's definitely drawbacks. I don't think I would ever join this denomination but honestly, for the less rooted denominations, I think it's probably the best one.

Kierstyn St. John:

Now the last denomination that is going to go in the B tier is going to be Presbyterian, the final denomination that comes out of the Protestant Reformation directly. So why is it kind of low? Well, presbyterians are Calvinists. They hold to reform theology. I could never be Presbyterian. They wouldn't really allow me because that's what their theology is. You know, I do agree with sola scriptura, but not tulip. I'm not deterministic about God's sovereignty, right, I have a different definition of that. I'm not cessationist either, and most Presbyterians are cessationists Now, some of them aren't, but that seems to be the norm. And so, while there are many things about Presbyterians that I, like you, know, they have a higher view of the sacraments and they have a higher view of baptism, and they can have beautiful churches, they can have a liturgy, but I just the Reformed theology is really, really difficult for me. That being said, it's still going to go in B tier, it's just going to go at the bottom. Okay, so now we're going into C tier, and C tier is where I start to have some significant issues with the denominations that are going to go here. So I actually thought about how I want to rank these, because I think all of the denominations in the C tier make serious errors, but it's like which error is worse? So I thought about this a lot.

Kierstyn St. John:

I think the first denomination that's going to go into C tier is Baptist. The roots are traced back to the 17th century. It's not one of the original denominations that came out of the Reformation, but it is a little bit older, which is good. There's a lot of emphasis on Bible study and a personal relationship with Jesus, but they're really low church. They don't have liturgy, and so church doesn't seem very participatory.

Kierstyn St. John:

The point of liturgy, if people are wondering, is that we're all saying what we believe together and that church is something that you don't just go and observe as a consumer, but you participate in. And some Baptist churches do have liturgy, but most of them don't, and they also have a view of the sacraments that I just don't agree with. They have a symbolic view of communion and what that kind of can lead to is just not taking communion very seriously, first of all, not taking it very often. Some Baptist churches just don't take communion that often. Some do take it weekly and I think that's really good, but I don't see that being the norm.

Kierstyn St. John:

I've just been to both Baptist and non-denominational churches and I'll get to that in a little bit where communion is just kind of like almost handed out in a basket at the door, like it's just a very casual treating of the Eucharist, of communion, and to me that is honestly kind of offensive At this point. I've never, even when I was non-denominational, I never really liked the treatment of communion. It was one of the main reasons why I switched into the denomination that I did, and so, yeah, like that's a problem for me. They also don't believe in baptismal regeneration. So what you can get is people who make a private profession of faith but they don't get baptized for years and years and years, and I just don't think that that is the correct practice of a church. So that's like a serious issue, right, and I don't want to beat around the bush about that.

Kierstyn St. John:

They can often be Calvinist, but, unlike Presbyterians who are more openly Calvinist and more completely Calvinist, they're kind of Calvinist in a sneaky way. So some of these churches can kind of sneak in the tenets of Tulip or, you know, sneak in deterministic theology, and I'm not a big fan of that. I feel like if that is your theology, you should be really straightforward about it, and I don't really think that a lot of these Baptist churches are, and so there can be some deceiving going on there. So, yeah, there's just a lack of emphasis on rootedness, on church history, sometimes a lack of emphasis on the creeds, but I have seen some Baptist churches that are better with this than other ones. So because of that, they are going to go to the top of C tier. But yeah, there's just significant issues that I have.

Kierstyn St. John:

Okay, so next is on the total other end, like if this is super low church for Baptist, we're gonna go on the total other end of the spectrum and I wanna talk about the Orthodox Church and I actually had to really consider if I was going to rank the Catholic Church higher or the Orthodox Church higher, and I knew that I would make whoever I didn't rank higher mad. So I decided to rank the Orthodox church slightly higher. But I have a lot of issues with Eastern Orthodoxy, oriental Orthodoxy, so the big issue that I have with them is this one true church complex. So Catholics and Orthodox people, but especially Orthodox people, will say that they are a part of the one true church and if they really do believe that what they believe is, anyone who's a part of another denomination is actually damned. That's a huge issue to me. Like I said, I'm very ecumenical, which means that I think, unless your denomination is straight up heretical, you're part of the one true church.

Kierstyn St. John:

Like you hold to the Christian faith, orthodox people will honestly sometimes say that anybody other than them is not a true Christian, and that's a huge issue. Right, they claim apostolic succession like Catholics do, like Anglicans do I'm glad they don't recognize the papacy Neither do I, right and they believe that doctrine should be decided by multiple bishops and ecumenical councils. That's good. They have a really kind of based view of original sin. I can't get into that a ton, but they focus more on the consequences of individual sin rather than inherited guilt, and I tend to agree with that and I think that's actually a really good thing about their denomination.

Kierstyn St. John:

But they have a huge issue. Their one true church complex is a huge issue, and also there's way too much icon veneration. So icon veneration is kind of worshiping icons, and icons can be paintings, it can be statues, they can be, you know, of saints or things like this, and the Catholic Church can do this too, and it's a huge issue that I have. Now they might say that they're worshipping through these people, but you really can't tell the difference when you're observing it in practice. They also don't believe in something called the Filioque Clause, which says that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. So they have a slightly different view of the Trinity than people who aren't Eastern Orthodox. The Filioque clause was added to the Nicene Creed in 589 AD, and so they just think that you shouldn't have changed the creeds and honestly I kind of see where they're coming from, that you shouldn't just change the creed. That's a huge issue that they have. I don't have that issue with them as much.

Kierstyn St. John:

My biggest issue, and the reason I'm not going to ever become Orthodox, is just I can't get behind the icon veneration. I just see it as idolatrous, to be honest with you, and I don't like the one true church complex. I can't get around that. And putting a similar church next to them, I think, is the Catholic Church, because they also have a one true church complex. Right, they seem to be a little more tolerant of Protestants than Eastern Orthodox people are. They tend to have beautiful cathedrals. They have a high view of the sacraments, obviously, which I agree with. They've had an enormous impact on the Western world. So these are all good things and I respect Catholics, but they have too much of a trust and an emphasis on church tradition To me. In my opinion, they put church tradition above scripture and I think that church tradition should be subject to scripture, right.

Kierstyn St. John:

So it's a different order and it has led to doctrines that I strongly disagree with. So the idea of mortal sins you know, I always say that you you know, according to Catholics, you can sin your way out of salvation. You need to confess to a priest. There's doctrines about Mary that I don't agree with the bodily assumption of Mary that she was taken up into heaven and other parts of Mariology like that she was sinless, that she didn't have original sin. I think that's weird and not scriptural right. They have a lot of icon veneration that I don't agree with. For the same reason I don't agree with it in the Eastern Orthodox Church.

Kierstyn St. John:

Obviously, papal infallibility is a huge issue. Like I don't hold to the papacy, so you know the idea that there is one bishop who's supreme over all these other bishops I don't see a precedent for that in Scripture and I don't really see why church history needed to lead to that right and the idea that this pope can, you know, be ex cathedra or infallible from the throne, especially when you have a pope that is basically a universalist. There's just too many issues. Again, I have respect for them, I do believe that most of them are my brothers and sisters in Christ, but just the papacy is not something that I agree with and so for that reason they are going in C tier. Okay, now moving to D tier. So this is really difficult, but I'm going to put non-denominational in D tier, the big reason why non-denominational goes in D tier.

Kierstyn St. John:

So, first of all, some non-denominational churches would be considered C tier or maybe even low, b tier. Right Depends on their theology, but that's just the thing. Other non-denominational churches would be heretical, right, and therein lies the problem, because there is no centralized theology of what non-denominational churches believe. So each church is its own thing. Each church has its own theology, and maybe that theology is based on the creeds in the early church, maybe it isn't, but you don't know.

Kierstyn St. John:

And so what you've gotten out of the non-denominational movement is you've gotten the rise of mega churches or very seeker-friendly churches that care more about pleasing people than pleasing man. I mean pleasing people than pleasing man, pleasing people than pleasing God, right, you see a lot of that, you know. Joel Osteen's church would fall into that. Then you have a lot of the prosperity gospel churches, such as Benny Hinn's church, right, you know. Then you have a lot of non-denominational churches that are okay. They're going to have a lot of the same problems that Baptist churches are. They're going to have a low view of the sacraments, normally right, believe that communion is symbolic, don't believe that baptism is a necessary component of salvation normatively right, and so like a lot of the same issues that I would have with Baptist churches I have with non-denominational churches, but I think they're even more just seeker friendly.

Kierstyn St. John:

They just really care about getting people in the door, increasing numbers, and church is more about your emotional experience than about rootedness and history and tradition, and this is why a lot of people are leaving the non-denominational church. They're looking for denominations that are just more rooted in those things where church is not just about making you happy, giving you coffee, giving you a fun time. Church is a participation thing, where you go and you are part of the church and you give, you give in worship, you participate in worship and you see that church history is important. That doesn't mean it supersedes scripture, but it also doesn't mean that it's completely unimportant either. So If I had to sum up my biggest issue, it's just that because each church is its own body, it's really easy for heresy to slip in where the theology of the church is more or less just the theology of the pastor, and that's a huge issue Some non-denominational churches again have great practices and really are more rooted, but I will say that that seems to be the exception and not the rule, and that's why they get such a low ranking.

Kierstyn St. John:

That being said, I do believe that non-denominational Christians are true Christians Most of them are. I've witnessed that in my friends and family and I admire their faith and I learn from them every day. So this is not an indictment on them. It's just more of an indictment on the structure of the church itself and what I believe it can lead to. Okay, moving forward, the next denomination that's going to go in D tier is Pentecostal, and that's going to go below non-denominational.

Kierstyn St. John:

They can be some of the most passionate Christians. They're very passionate about sharing their faith. They have really good evangelism. Usually, however, according to them, baptism in the Holy Spirit is separate from actual baptism, and it's evidenced by speaking in tongues, right, and so it can make it seem like all believers need to speak in tongues. It's really important for all believers to speak in tongues, and I just don't agree with that.

Kierstyn St. John:

I think that speaking in tongues is a gifting that some believers have and some believers don't, and that's okay, and also there's just too much of an emphasis on emotionality, there can be a recklessness and a disorganization to church services because there's rarely a formal liturgy right and I think that even though the spiritual gifts continue right, there needs to still be a structure. I mean, paul addresses this over and over again in his letters that you know if someone's going to speak in tongues you need an interpreter and things like that, and so Paul is trying to provide structure to these gifts and too often I see too much of an emphasis on them and not enough on the liturgical part of church services, the structured and organized part that I think is so important. Also, like this is a side note, but a lot of contemporary worship music has, you know they came out of this branch. If you think of Bethel or Hillsong, there's a lot of Pentecostalism that's within that and I'm not saying all of that music is bad, but it has led to some really bad and shallow worship music. So again, I still think Pentecostals are often Christians, but there's definitely serious, serious concerns.

Kierstyn St. John:

The last denomination that's going to go into D tier is Seventh-day Adventist. Okay, and I know a lot of people will put them in F tier. I don't think that they are explicitly heretical, but there are a lot of issues. What I would say is that the vast majority of non-denominational churches are way better than your average Seventh-day Adventist church. So let me make that really clear. I think that there is a huge difference, right? But yeah, the Seventh-day Adventist church, it's also from that restorationist movement that the Church of Christ came out of, and my biggest issue is that they hold to the writings of Ellen G White. Okay, they'll say it's not on the same level as scripture, but I think that's way too much authority given to one woman. That's always a red flag to me.

Kierstyn St. John:

They have a very holistic approach to health, with vegetarianism and abstaining from alcohol, but there's a lot of extra rules put on Christians that I think are legalistic. Personally, they have really weird eschatological beliefs, so weird beliefs about the afterlife. So I don't find a ton that's super heretical. I don't know how often they follow the creeds. If they follow the creeds, then I'm fine with it, but I don't think they're heretical. But I think there's a lot that's heterodox, which just means there's a lot of extra stuff that's really weird, and so I definitely don't think it's an ideal denomination and it really straddles the line to our, our final tier, which is the F tier.

Kierstyn St. John:

Heretical, I hate to end stuff on a on a tougher note, but I think it's really important to to call these denominations for what they are. So you can see the three denominations below that are all going to go in this tier. So first of all, as far as ranking them within the tier, it really doesn't matter. I would never recommend any of these denominations regardless. But I'll put Jehovah's Witness first. They reject the doctrine of the Trinity, so to them you know, jesus is the son of God, but not God himself. And the Watchtower Society has pretty much a unilateral interpretation of the Bible. So I've talked to Jehovah's Witnesses who come to my door before, and anytime I try to engage them in some sort of theological discussion, they just point to the Watchtower Society and to me it's like I don't care about that. I don't think the Watchtower Society has any authority and you can't prove to me that it does. And if the Watchtower Society disagrees with things that I think are clear in scripture, such as the Trinity, I'm not going to pay it any mind or any credence, and I don't think that you should either. And so that's a huge issue, right?

Kierstyn St. John:

The next denomination that's going to go into this heretical tier is Mormon and I will say I've had a lot of Mormon friends over the years. I think they are lovely people, I think they are so nice. That being said, because I love them, I have to say that if they were to call themselves Christians in front of me or ask me if they are Christians, I would say no, you guys don't fall within Orthodox Christianity. Lower O Orthodox, I don't mean the capital O Orthodox Church, I mean you don't fall in within the bounds of normal Christianity, right? So they have a heretical view of the Trinity. Also. They believe that the Trinity is three separate beings with one will. They believe that humans can become gods in the afterlife. They accept the Book of Mormon as additional inspired scripture. As far as I know, just like Jehovah's Witnesses, they're going to appeal to the Book of Mormon more than scripture and I do not like. Again, everything has to be subjected under scripture and I don't believe that Mormons do that. They have other weird beliefs, like humans existing as spirit children of God before their earthly lives. There's so many strange beliefs, extra biblical beliefs, that Mormons have and while I think, again, they are so nice as people, it doesn't matter if I believe that you are not part of the church and I don't believe that Mormons are, so I pray for them. I pray for their salvation. But yeah, I think I've been really clear on that.

Kierstyn St. John:

The last denomination is Unitarian. No, just no, no, I don't Honestly. Most Unitarians are universalists, so they believe that all religions are kind of a path to God, right, or it doesn't really matter. I don't even know why you would be a part of this religion. To be honest with you, it doesn't seem like a religion at all, because it doesn't. Religions say, hey, my beliefs are right and yours are not, and a lot of people have issue with that. But that's what religions say. Because different religions contradict each other, right, and so to say that they're all the same or that they're all completely valid is logically incoherent.

Kierstyn St. John:

The Unitarian Church also has been incredibly liberal. Again, I don't just mean politically, but just theologically. It's just saying things that are actually against the Bible. They often just don't believe in the authority of scripture at all and, to be honest, I just I don't know why you would be a part of this denomination, and if you are, you need to get into another denomination, stat Like I don't even care. It can be non-denominational, it can be Seventh-day Adventist, it can be Orthodox, like Eastern Orthodox, I don't care. Just any denomination other than these bottom three. You just have to find out what true Christianity is, because it's so beautiful and it's so rich. Find out what true Christianity is because it's so beautiful and it's so rich. And so that's my prayer for not only Unitarians but anybody who is in these bottom three denominations, and I think that that is where I'm going to leave it.

Kierstyn St. John:

So I want to go through the tiers one more time for people listening to the podcast. In A tier, we have the Anglican denomination. In B tier, we have Lutheran Methodist Church of Christ and Presbyterian. In C tier, we have the Anglican denomination. In B tier, we have Lutheran Methodist Church of Christ and Presbyterian. In C tier, we have Baptist, orthodox and Catholic. In D tier, we have non-denominational and again, some of those churches could be higher than D tier, but I'm just averaging it out Non-denominational, pentecostal and Seventh-day Adventist. And F tier, which is heresy, would be Jehovah's Witness, mormon and Unitarian. And again, that's where I'm going to leave it today. That's going to be it for me today. Thank you, god bless, and we'll see you in the new year.