There are many different people named “John Smith.” Using probabilistic modelling, ChatGPT estimates that we should expect more than 50,000 John Smiths worldwide, and LinkedIn produces 97,000 hits for people with that name (although that number could easily be inflated for various reasons).

I likewise propose that a number of entirely different things go by the common name of “Christianity.” Most people, indeed most Christians, would probably agree, although how we parse the distinctions would vary. The most significant differentiator I am concerned with is not Catholicism vs Protestantism (à la Luther), Modernist Liberalism vs Fundamentalism (à la Machen), or Charismaticism vs Cessationism (à la MacArthur), but the worldly politico-religion of Christendom popularized by Constantine, Theodosius, and the Magisterial Reformers versus The Way which Jesus originally taught to His Apostles.

“Christendom is something quite different from Christianity, being the administrative or power structure, based on the Christian religion and constructed by men. […] The founder of Christianity was, of course, Christ. The founder of Christendom I suppose could be named as the Emperor Constantine.”
―Malcolm Muggeridge, The End of Christendom

Christendomianity, I claim, is a different religion from original Christianity. Yet Christendomianity pervades both Protestantism and Catholicism (as well as Orthodoxy), both Liberalism and “Fundamentalism” (nowadays better known as Evangelicalism), both Charismatic circles and Cessationist circles. Furthermore, the distinction between Christendomianity and the Way of the Lamb is the distinction most forcefully warned against in Biblical prophecy. Readers of this blog may have some idea what I’m talking about, but it will naturally take more posts to unpack.