Where the traditions land
Answer | Seated traditions | Seats | By population |
Yes, true God — one substance with the Father | Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Anglican, Lutheran, Reformed/Presbyterian, Methodist/Wesleyan, Southern Baptist Convention, Pentecostal (Trinitarian), Seventh-day Adventist | 10 of 12 | ~99% |
Yes, divine — but a separate being from the Father | LDS | 1 of 12 | under 1% |
No, a created being — not God Almighty | Jehovah's Witnesses | 1 of 12 | under 1% |
Why the disagreement
Historic Christian teaching on this question is about as close to universal as this format gets. All ten Nicene-tradition seats affirm, in nearly identical language across confessional families five centuries apart, that Jesus is "true God and true man," "of one substance with the Father" — the same formula the Council of Nicaea adopted in 325 specifically to rule out the idea that Christ is a lesser, created form of divinity.
The two traditions outside that consensus depart from it in different directions, and both are recent relative to it. Latter-day Saints (founded 1830) affirm Jesus as fully divine and a member of the Godhead, but as a separate being from the Father rather than one identical divine substance — LDS theology doesn't use the metaphysical category the Nicene claim depends on. Jehovah's Witnesses (founded 1870s) go further, teaching Jesus is "a god" in a real but subordinate sense, the first being God directly created and the one through whom everything else was made, and explicitly deny he is God Almighty.
Sources
Same standing source per tradition on every post, not hunted per question.
- Catholic — Catechism of the Catholic Church
- Eastern Orthodox — Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed (binding across all jurisdictions); The Longer Catechism of St. Philaret of Moscow (widely used, not binding on every jurisdiction)
- Oriental Orthodox — Catechism of the Coptic Orthodox Church, Fr. Tadros Y. Malaty (Amazon — no full free text found)
- Anglican — Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion
- Lutheran — Book of Concord
- Reformed/Presbyterian — Westminster Confession of Faith
- Methodist/Wesleyan — Articles of Religion
- Southern Baptist Convention — Baptist Faith & Message 2000
- Pentecostal (Trinitarian) — Assemblies of God Statement of Fundamental Truths
- Seventh-day Adventist — 28 Fundamental Beliefs
- LDS — Book of Mormon and Doctrine and Covenants
- Jehovah's Witnesses — What Does the Bible Really Teach?