Are protestants still Christians?

[Claudius]

I am a Christian but certainly not Roman Catholic anymore. I don’t believe it is necessary or warranted for Catholics to go around defining to other denominations what it is to be a Christian.

Being or not being a Christian is of very high importance as it is the mission of the Catholic Church to submit all mankind to Christ. Having it set out for us also what is and is not acceptable to still be a Catholic. Most poeple who are not Catholic (Roman Catholic or Eastern Catholic) are not Christians and have fallen into the great apostacy sadly. They need to know that they aren’t Christians so that they can come to the Truth of Lord Jesus and submit to his Sovereignty.

 

[comfort1st]

What is the minimum standard that we are aware of for someone to be a Christian?

The minimum “standard” of a Christian is that he or she is a follower of Christ.

That necessarily requires the person to read scripture, and commit him or herself to doing God’s will, simply because of being a follower of Christ. There is no requirement to submit to the will of any human, however elevated in authority in any church. Nor does it require us to agree on all things, especially on how to achieve the aim of making disciples of all nations.

Steven

 

[catholiconce]

Being or not being a Christian is of very high importance as it is the mission of the Catholic Church to submit all mankind to Christ. Having it set out for us also what is and is not acceptable to still be a Catholic. Most poeple who are not Catholic (Roman Catholic or Eastern Catholic) are not Christians and have fallen into the great apostacy sadly. They need to know that they aren’t Christians so that they can come to the Truth of Lord Jesus and submit to his Sovereignty.

Your remarks are so Wrong one does not have to belong to the catholic denomintion to be a Christian. In Fact your holier than tho attitude is not christian. The reason I left the Catholic denomination is because of remarks like yours and this self righteous holier than thou atttitude of a very few members. I joined a Lutherna church and instead puttimg others down like you do (ie this post) we worship God

 

[reteeks21]

Your remarks are so Wrong one does not have to belong to the catholic denomintion to be a Christian. In Fact your holier than tho attitude is not christian. The reason I left the Catholic denomination is because of remarks like yours and this self righteous holier than thou atttitude of a very few members. I joined a Lutherna church and instead puttimg others down like you do (ie this post) we worship God

Amen. I said the very same thing one time and was told that if I felt that way about what some catholics say then I had the wrong motives. It was almost my fault that I was turned off to the cc even though it wasn’t me who fired off the accusations.

 

[5pintLutheran]

Your remarks are so Wrong one does not have to belong to the catholic denomintion to be a Christian. In Fact your holier than tho attitude is not christian. The reason I left the Catholic denomination is because of remarks like yours and this self righteous holier than thou atttitude of a very few members. I joined a Lutherna church and instead puttimg others down like you do (ie this post) we worship God

Hold on now! I’m Lutheran as well, but I’ve seen my fair share of “holier than thou” Lutherans, who believe that Lutherans have the “fullness of truth” that the RCC says it has. The fact is that ALL Christian factions have a similar attitude amongst its adherants. Just look at Martin Luther’s writings and see how his hubris shines through in some of his literature. The same goes with Wesley, Calvin, Smith, etc…

It seemed to me that from your response, you need to take the log out of your own eye, and I’m not saying that to be “holier than thou.”

No offense, but the “holier than thou” attitude is shown by looking at your last scentence…

“I joined a Lutherna church and instead puttimg others down like you do (ie this post) we worship God”

I see Lutherans everyday putting the Catholic Church down, or other protestant denominations, and by looking at this from afar…
The Lutheran church has been traveling down the road of hypocrisy for a very long time. By saying this, I have condemned myself, but so be it.:coffeeread:

 

[wisdomseeker]

Hold on now! I’m Lutheran as well, but I’ve seen my fair share of “holier than thou” Lutherans, who believe that Lutherans have the “fullness of truth” that the RCC says it has. The fact is that ALL Christian factions have a similar attitude amongst its adherants. Just look at Martin Luther’s writings and see how his hubris shines through in some of his literature. The same goes with Wesley, Calvin, Smith, etc…

It seemed to me that from your response, you need to take the log out of your own eye, and I’m not saying that to be “holier than thou.”

No offense, but the “holier than thou” attitude is shown by looking at your last scentence…

“I joined a Lutherna church and instead puttimg others down like you do (ie this post) we worship God”

I see Lutherans everyday putting the Catholic Church down, or other protestant denominations, and by looking at this from afar…
The Lutheran church has been traveling down the road of hypocrisy for a very long time. By saying this, I have condemned myself, but so be it.:coffeeread:

I pray you are on the road to Rome. somebody saw the light.

The Catholic Church fighting heresies for 2000 years.

 

[AnthonyXM]

whew - that was a bit to work through so if I retread someone’s post mea culpa

I am not Catholic - neither do I consider myself in Protest.

I don’t recall seeing any mention of Baptism by Desire.
That is when you desire baptism but for whatever reason you have not been allowed it.
Baptism by Desire is as valid as water baptism - yet those redeemed by it haven’t had this sacrament. If the forces of Night lock someone up so they can’t receive baptism can they prevent it? No. Who baptized John? Desire - the lesser that baptized the greater.
If the only baptism you had was water baptism not coupled with a Baptism of Desire, then all you got was wet.

Obviously any who would refuse baptism - and them only - would this stricture apply to.

Now to be a little ironical one of the things I found a little silly (among others) was the Protestant plaint that baptism means “immersion” and not “sprinkling”, so if you didn’t get the full dunk why you’re not a real Christian.
Like I said - silly.

When I pray I do so facing a wall where possible - to me that feels righteous, as if I shouldn’t allow anything to distract me from prayer. I must admit that if I see people praying to a statue… well.

If the Christ is your Lord and King, if you would lay down your life for his honor, if his words are Truth for you, then by whatever totems are artifices you are his Child.

Regardless. Praise God

God BLESS you.

 

[JonNC]

I see Lutherans everyday putting the Catholic Church down, or other protestant denominations, and by looking at this from afar…
The Lutheran church has been traveling down the road of hypocrisy for a very long time. By saying this, I have condemned myself, but so be it.:coffeeread:

5pint,
“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” As a Lutheran, I plead guilty as well.
Human pride works in all of us, Catholic and noncatholic, and blinds us from our unity which the Holy Spirit intends for us.

Jon

 

[5pintLutheran]

5pint,
“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” As a Lutheran, I plead guilty as well.
Human pride works in all of us, Catholic and noncatholic, and blinds us from our unity which the Holy Spirit intends for us.

Jon

Amen and Amen.

 

[catholiconce]

Hold on now! I’m Lutheran as well, but I’ve seen my fair share of “holier than thou” Lutherans, who believe that Lutherans have the “fullness of truth” that the RCC says it has. The fact is that ALL Christian factions have a similar attitude amongst its adherants. Just look at Martin Luther’s writings and see how his hubris shines through in some of his literature. The same goes with Wesley, Calvin, Smith, etc…

It seemed to me that from your response, you need to take the log out of your own eye, and I’m not saying that to be “holier than thou.”

No offense, but the “holier than thou” attitude is shown by looking at your last scentence…

“I joined a Lutherna church and instead puttimg others down like you do (ie this post) we worship God”

I see Lutherans everyday putting the Catholic Church down, or other protestant denominations, and by looking at this from afar…
The Lutheran church has been traveling down the road of hypocrisy for a very long time. By saying this, I have condemned myself, but so be it.:coffeeread:

Yes I know what you say is true. Education Hour between services turns into attack the catholic hour. The RCC is right across the Street along with the presberterians . Once a year the womans groups get together for lunch. 52 times a years they judge those across the street:shrug:

 

[sola_scriptura]

I want to ask the question because there has been a lot of development in protestant circles and we as Christians need to be clear about what we believe when we deal with protestants.

Please note, I am not posting here just to be able to say that protestants are by definition not Christian or that calling a protestants NonChristians is in anyway an attack because you can be a good person and perhaps even still go to heaven and not be a Christian.

Having looked at what the Catholic Church teaches about protestants, clearly I would never be one but when I deal with protestants a lot of issues come up that need to be addressed. I do not believe and indeed the Catholic Church does not teach that if someone is a protestant they are automatically a Christian or automatically a non Christian.

The Catholic Church teaches that we can call protestants serparated brothers in that we have a common baptism. However, I have meet many protestants who were never baptized because they do not believe in baptism and call it a dead work invented by man that is not in the bible. I disagree with this of course and we can easily prove them wrong using the bible but are they Christians. The mentality of a lot of people I dicuss this with is that if they are a protestant, they may not be a Catholic but at least they are a Christian. However, the Catholic Church says otherwise. Until you are baptized, you are not a Christian.

This started me thinking about what the minimum standard should be for accepting the Christianity of protestants. Clearly from Church teachings, those that are not baptized are not Christains because the word Christian has a deeper meaning then just wanting to follow Christ.

I will list here a few things that Catholic teachings and the bible have shown me to exclude some (not all) protestants from the title and honor of he word Christian.

If any protestant does not get baptized then they are not a Christian.
If any protestantd denys the divinity of Jesus, then they are not a Christian.
If any protestant claims that there is more then one God, they are not a Christian.
If any protestant claims that baptism is not a sacrement but only a symbol, they are not a Christian.
If any protestant claims that Catholics are not Christians, then they are not a Christian. I figure this by the fact that if you say that Catholics are not Christians but get baptized, you are getting baptized into something other then Christianity because your definition of Christianity is something different then what it should be.
If a protestant denys that Jesus died on the Cross, they are not a Chrsitian.
If a protestant denys the virgin birth, they are not a Christian.
If a protestant claims that the Catholic Church is the whore of babylon, then they are not a Christian.
If a protestant denys that Jesus is the Rock then they are not a Christian.
If a protestant says that they only need to believe that Jesus is God but do not have to live by his teachings, then they are not a Christian.

Now, I don’t imagine that many will object to some of the things that I mentioned but for others I may get a lot of objections. I state what I have stated and asked the question “are protestants still Christians” because we should all be taking this issue very seriously and not just accepting them to keep the peace. There is a reason that protestants can not take communion but Coptics, Syriacs, and Byzantines can.

Again, I did not post this to simple say that protestants are automatically not Christians or to denounce them as bad people. We need to know among ourselves how far the protestants can go before we take th title and honor of being a Christian away from them. I have heard some protestants proclaim theology that would make them no different from muslims, but they want the label of Christian. Are we bound to let them have the title and honor of being a Christian if they do not meet the minimum standard for it? What is the minimum standard anyway so that we can recongnize our true fellow Christians with whom we can come together an pray and who is not a Christian and in fact are giving a bad name to true Christians?

We need to take this seriously. It is not an attack to discover is certain protestants are true Christians or not, it actually shows a great amount of respect for them from us because we could just lump them all together with the muslims and mormons and be done with them. We don’t need to expend the energy and only do so out of love and respect for their position.

So, Are protestants still Christians?
What is the minimum standard that we are aware of for a someone to be a Christian?

My only comment to your obvious bigotry toward Protestants is that if anyone is a bigot and insults his brother, they might be Christian but they’re certainly a poor one.

Why all the anger toward Protestants? Do you think this is what Jesus wants? I see you took a great deal of time formulating this post, it’s a shame that anyone would spend so much time basically saying hateful things about the deeply held beliefs of others? Does this represent Catholicism?

Frankly the level of anti-protestant bigotry allowed on this site, while even scholarly critique of Catholic doctrine is censored pretty much says it all. I blog on many protestant web sites & such a disdainful post against Catholics would at least earn you a reprimand and warning (at least on any protestant site I would entertain posting on).

For the record, I’m protestant and proud of it. What you think defines a Christian means about as much to me as the penny I dropped while fiddling with my change as I left the store a while ago.

I’m sure you’ll come back with yet more anger filled statements, but don’t be surprised if you don’t hear a response from me. You’ll probably think you won something … sad!

 

[sola_scriptura]

Yes I know what you say is true. Education Hour between services turns into attack the catholic hour. The RCC is right across the Street along with the presberterians . Once a year the womans groups get together for lunch. 52 times a years they judge those across the street:shrug:

You’re kidding me right? I’m Presbyterian & not once do we even mention the Roman or any Catholic church in our services? Where do you get this stuff from…

 

[catholiconce]

My only comment to your obvious bigotry toward Protestants is that if anyone is a bigot and insults his brother, they might be Christian but they’re certainly a poor one.

Why all the anger toward Protestants? Do you think this is what Jesus wants? I see you took a great deal of time formulating this post, it’s a shame that anyone would spend so much time basically saying hateful things about the deeply held beliefs of others? Does this represent Catholicism?

Frankly the level of anti-protestant bigotry allowed on this site, while even scholarly critique of Catholic doctrine is censored pretty much says it all. I blog on many protestant web sites & such a disdainful post against Catholics would at least earn you a reprimand and warning (at least on any protestant site I would entertain posting on).

For the record, I’m protestant and proud of it. What you think defines a Christian means about as much to me as the penny I dropped while fiddling with my change as I left the store a while ago.

I’m sure you’ll come back with yet more anger filled statements, but don’t be surprised if you don’t hear a response from me. You’ll probably think you won something … sad!

Thank You for your remarks. This site is filled with hate. THis is not how Jesus would want us to use this medium.

 

[peary1]

The Catholic Church teaches that we can call protestants serparated brothers in that we have a common baptism. However, I have meet many protestants who were never baptized because they do not believe in baptism and call it a dead work invented by man that is not in the bible. I disagree with this of course and we can easily prove them wrong using the bible but are they Christians. The mentality of a lot of people I dicuss this with is that if they are a protestant, they may not be a Catholic but at least they are a Christian. However, the Catholic Church says otherwise. Until you are baptized, you are not a Christian.

Actually, the Catholic Church does NOT say that. There is such a thing as baptism by desire. Also, chances are, those protestants who you have talked with may have already been baptized in another denomination and have left that one for another.

I will list here a few things that Catholic teachings and the bible have shown me to exclude some (not all) protestants from the title and honor of he word Christian.

If any protestant does not get baptized then they are not a Christian.

They wouldn’t be ‘protestant’ either.

If any protestantd denys the divinity of Jesus, then they are not a Christian.

True.

If any protestant claims that there is more then one God, they are not a Christian.

True.

If any protestant claims that baptism is not a sacrement but only a symbol, they are not a Christian.

Even if a ‘protestant’ does not believe that Baptism is a sacrament but only a symbol, if he or she is baptized using the Triune formula as outlined in Scripture, the baptism is valid.

If any protestant claims that Catholics are not Christians, then they are not a Christian. I figure this by the fact that if you say that Catholics are not Christians but get baptized, you are getting baptized into something other then Christianity because your definition of Christianity is something different then what it should be.

Those who state this suffer from invincible ignorance.

If a protestant denys that Jesus died on the Cross, they are not a Chrsitian.

A ‘protestant’ who denies that Jesus died on the Cross would not even be a protestant, but an apostate.

If a protestant denys the virgin birth, they are not a Christian.

**Not necessarily. **

If a protestant claims that the Catholic Church is the whore of babylon, then they are not a Christian.

No, just suffering from invincible ignorance.

If a protestant denys that Jesus is the Rock then they are not a Christian.

True.

If a protestant says that they only need to believe that Jesus is God but do not have to live by his teachings, then they are not a Christian.

**They embrace “cheap grace” and suffer from a lack of understanding their salvation. **

There is a reason that protestants can not take communion but Coptics, Syriacs, and Byzantines can.

Both Orthodox and Catholics agree on the Eucharistic presence, whereas many Christian denominations do not; hence, the reason why protestants should be be taking Communion in our churches because out of respect for our Faith.

I have heard some protestants proclaim theology that would make them no different from muslims, but they want the label of Christian. Are we bound to let them have the title and honor of being a Christian if they do not meet the minimum standard for it? What is the minimum standard anyway so that we can recongnize our true fellow Christians with whom we can come together an pray and who is not a Christian and in fact are giving a bad name to true Christians?

Again, in my opinion, if they have had a valid Baptism (whether or not they believe in it), they are offered a life of grace. They also have our Scriptures that guide them in the Christian life.

 

[catholiconce]

I Do NOT care for the word protestant but that is the word being used. Yes Protestants (if you must) are Christians !!! The question that should be asked is are those Few Catholics who spend all their time attacking Non Roman Catholics acting like Christians. If the attacks on Human being is what the Roman Catholic Church is about today ( judging from this Web Page) I am Glad I left and found the truth. I just wish I would have left sooner.

 

[wisdomseeker]

I Do NOT care for the word protestant but that is the word being used. Yes Protestants (if you must) are Christians !!! The question that should be asked is are those Few Catholics who spend all their time attacking Non Roman Catholics acting like Christians. If the attacks on Human being is what the Roman Catholic Church is about today ( judging from this Web Page) I am Glad I left and found the truth. I just wish I would have left sooner.

i think the word here should be i left the Truth to follow what i understand.

peace.

 

[sola_scriptura]

i think the word here should be i left the Truth to follow what i understand.

peace.

Yeah that must have been it …