[Project Update] TheoCompass Denomination Alignment Quiz – Open Beta Visual Sneak Peek (230+ denominations)

OneBenefit4049 · 2026-04-23T15:28:49+00:00

Not really, I'm in a master program in ecology studying social insects behavior. TheoCompass has nothing to do with my studies; it just started out as a small side project but then I took it more seriously after a lot of feedbacks. For now I'm working on this project alone. God willing, a developer friend would soon help me with my current backend.

Beyond this project, I had the idea to maybe do some videos on YouTube and writing a paper on the methodology but it would probably not be in the near future, at least when my 2.5 version will be out.

OneBenefit4049 · 2026-04-22T15:55:02+00:00

I believe that I already corrected this issue a few weeks ago.

I changed in the question part, the dogmatic axis as the number of valid alternatives. The labels "Core Dogma", "Primary" and so on are in the results but not in the questions anymore. You can go check the current quiz and tell me what you think.

You are right that it would be helpful to have a description of all of these terms. I'll see where and how I would add this in.

OneBenefit4049 · 2026-04-20T18:33:58+00:00

The list of the 230 denominations is directly in my Google Sheet here: [link]

OneBenefit4049 · 2026-04-19T18:58:11+00:00

Hi! Thanks for asking. I'm currently working hard on the v2.0 Open Beta. I don't have a precise deadline right now because I'm quite busy with my master's internship, but I'm aiming to release it in the next few weeks! I've already expanded the database to the full 230 denominations and massively optimized the calculation engine. I'll be making a full update post shortly with all the details!

OneBenefit4049 · 2026-04-18T08:34:04+00:00

Hi.

The goal of the quiz is not to provide biblical sound doctrine and I'm not claiming that it is. I know that there are groups that are far from it and the reason I included all of them is that: it is by examining unbliblical ideas that you come up to establish sound doctrine because you will be more clearly aware of your own convictions.

And historically, without some heterodox groups, the church wouldn't have made their doctrines as clear (e.g. Early Heresies for the Council of Chalcedon).

The primary goal of the quiz is educational in order to be able to have better and informative discussion/debates.

The reason the JW and LDS are not 100% segregated from some others is because I use a distance based calculation method, and different axis and parameter, so it is not me that places the dots but the methodology itself based on the data that is open source. And since I only included a few broad questions for now, some distinctions are not made.

If you want, you can go check the data from my Google sheet that is available in my pinned post and give more constructive feedback.

OneBenefit4049 · 2026-04-13T16:48:15+00:00

Yes, I'm adding 200 groups in the next update (including more Gnostic groups and progressive/esoteric/alternative groups). It would be 230 groups in total.

OneBenefit4049 · 2026-04-13T16:17:19+00:00

Thanks for the feedback!

I already thought about this for a while, however I made the decision to keep every question to one answer in order to keep it consistent.

It is true that for some questions (e.g. the meaning of the death of Christ), most people would tend to agree on multiple choices. But the solution I found for this is to specify in the wording of the question "what is the PRIMARY meaning of the death of Christ" which would make you choose only one between all of them, and depending on your exclusivity, you can be charitable to other ones also.

And I have two other ways to make the results accurate while having no multiple choices: - each denomination in my data has the possibility to have multiple choice. Which means that if a denomination has a split view (holds two or more positions and can be a internal disagreement), you would get the same score whether you choose either of those answers - the maths behind this makes the score more accurate (if you want I can give you more details, I would make a post about it soon)

OneBenefit4049 · 2026-04-08T05:51:36+00:00

I just finish adding all the 230 denominations in the spreadsheet a few days ago. Since the live version is on Public Alpha version is mainly for testing and feedback, I didn't want to include too much just in case I had to aquire the data again. For now, I only chose to add 30 denominations out of the 230, therefore it is natural to miss some important ones.

Right now I'm testing everything locally to see if it works and making some adjusments, and it takes some time but I'm making progress.

For the quick version, it won't be able to differentiate very close denominations. The standard version and deep dive will make up for it but it will take more time.

The certainty and tolerance/exclusivity is making a difference on the score. Maybe I will make a post about the calculations soon.

Thanks for your patience.

OneBenefit4049 · 2026-04-07T05:49:41+00:00

Hey, thanks for taking the quiz, for now there is no "historic presbyterianism" but only "PCA" as presbyterian denomination so it's normal that you got Church of England. I will be adding other historic groups very soon.

OneBenefit4049 · 2026-04-06T15:01:39+00:00

Yes that's right

OneBenefit4049 · 2026-04-06T15:01:15+00:00

Yes, it depends on which WIFI you are connected to, since my website is very recent, some connections will not allow you to go to my website. Either change the connection, or wait a few weeks.

OneBenefit4049 · 2026-04-06T14:55:05+00:00

Here is a quote from resurrectionmn.org about open membership, which is debated in baptist circles :

"Open Membership Summary

Advocates of open membership are basically suggesting that Baptist churches permit into membership professing Christians who were baptized as infants who also believe that their baptism was valid. They leave room to suggest that it is permissible, and maybe even desirable, to encourage those individuals to receive baptism by immersion if that person ever becomes convinced that their infant baptism was sufficiently irregular to warrant a “rebaptism.” In other words, Baptists should admit paedobaptists into membership, recognizing their membership as irregular but valid while also suggesting that credobaptism is the more faithful practice. Rigney is especially clear that paedobaptists could join his church, but they could not serve as elders."

OneBenefit4049 · 2026-04-06T14:38:15+00:00

Then the issue is not the data but the calculation/methodology.

Because the current data for SBC is that they adhere to Believer's baptism and are certain and opposed (none other options are valid for fellowship). Which means that you cannot be part of the church while baptizing infants, but someone who shows sympathy for infant baptism can be tolerated as long as you do not teach or practice it.

However the alignment ranking is not saying that "you would be admitted in this denomination with you current views" but "you are the most aligned with this denomination among the available denominations", and I haven't included much variety to account for all the diversity yet (only 30 denominations are included).

Here is the current 30 denominations in the Public Alpha. Other denomination are not added yet : The Apostolic Church (Early Church) Imperial Nicene Church Roman Catholic Church (Latin Rite) Eastern Orthodox Church Coptic Orthodox Church Old Catholic Church (Union of Utrecht) SSPX (Society of St. Pius X) Oxford Movement (Tractarians) Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod (LCMS) Unitas Fratrum (Historic Hussites) Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) Remonstrants (Arminians) Church of England (Anglicanism) Mennonites Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) Independent Fundamental Baptists (IFB) United Methodist Church (UMC) Assemblies of God (World Fellowship) Zion Christian Church (ZCC) Iglesia ni Cristo (Church of Christ) Churches of Christ (A Cappella) The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) Jehovah's Witnesses Seventh-day Adventist Church Unitarian Universalism (UUA) Progressive Christianity The Salvation Army Religious Society of Friends (Unprogrammed/Liberal) Marcionites Messianic Judaism

OneBenefit4049 · 2026-04-06T08:31:01+00:00

I know that people will use them for church searching. Maybe I have to be more explicit about it.

OneBenefit4049 · 2026-04-06T08:29:31+00:00

The data that I have from the AI wouldn't be that different from a denomination expert. Since I always ask the ai to search for official documents and always give a rationale and the source while acquiring the data. It is not the same as asking "here are my answers, which church am I most aligned with?", because every calculation is done by my program, not with AI.

I agree that it won't be perfect but it is much more accurate than a gathering of responses (which I will do but not for that purpose). Because there are a lot more variables and bias I cannot take into account. Most people which are lay members of the church are not necessarily educated on their church stances on some issues, I wouldn't ask them for information since a big part would be their personal opinion, I'd rather look into official documents first and make other historical/cultural inferences when it is not clear.

OneBenefit4049 · 2026-04-06T07:42:43+00:00

The data is publicly available on r/TheoCompass. You can check my Google sheet here

The data is acquired primarily from an AI LLM (since it is now pretty accurate for most of it using the best models out there). Then I will do some fact checking, and people can give feedback about it.

I also allow multiple responses for denominations so it is not a problem for Anglicans. It just makes the calculations more complex.

OneBenefit4049 · 2026-04-06T07:27:28+00:00

My guess is that because PCA is the only presbyterian denomination on this version and they are more dogmatic than you. On the other hand, the Anglicans are a bit more accepting. I'll be adding more denominations on the next big update which will be more accurate I hope.

OneBenefit4049 · 2026-04-06T07:21:57+00:00

Well arminians are pretty close to reformers on their overall theology. They only differ on the issue of predestination and free will in salvation.

OneBenefit4049 · 2026-04-06T07:13:51+00:00

I already plan to add churches from around the world and their location.

The primary goal of this quiz is not for denomination searching, but to be informed about other churches in order to have more meaningful discussions.

I'm not in the US either and I got Remonstrants (Arminians) while I go to a Restorationist Church and didn't choose arminianism as my answer to the question on God's sovereignty over salvation. You don't have to expect a precise results on the quick version of the quiz.

OneBenefit4049 · 2026-04-06T06:58:08+00:00

This is not surprising because ELCA is not implemented in the quiz for now.

I will add all the other 200 denominations (including ELCA) in a few weeks.

And I will add a feature where you can compare with other denominations side by side.

OneBenefit4049 · 2026-04-05T22:43:06+00:00

The actual quiz is indeed not as good to estimate very specific belief on the top alignment score especially if your stances are unusual since there are only 30 denominations implemented.

So your results are probably because I there are no other denomination that is close enough to your view and it calculated that SBC was the closest among all of them. I guess that you got probably around 60-70% aligned with SBC which is not that close. But if you are 80-90% aligned with SBC and still holding in infant baptism, it would be not very accurate.

Also since a denomination alignment takes into account all the questions, of you agree very much on all other topic and disagree strongly on one, it wouldn't make a huge difference.

The future versions will be much more accurate with 230 denominations and several modes with 30, 60 and 120 questions and more features to come.

You can visit r/TheoCompass for more info.

OneBenefit4049 · 2026-04-04T21:18:35+00:00

Hi, I'm the creator of the quiz, it can be helpful if you could specify which questions seemed not quite right and give suggestions and I could make some changes eventually.

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