Does Protestantism contribute anything to Christianity?

[Contarini]

I could be wrong, but I think that that’s another restriction. It takes away the salvation of those that have not spoken in tongues. It doesn’t seem to add.

Most Pentecostals don’t believe this. What they added was the idea that speaking in tongues is a gift that modern Christians should expect to receive. This has been taken up by the Charismatic Movement in the Catholic Church (and in many other churches), so it does appear to be a positive doctrinal contribution made by Protestants.

I think the problem with your OP is that you define Protestant doctrines purely in negative terms, which automatically gives you the result you desire.

For instance, I would argue that the key element in the Protestant doctrine of justification is not the denial that good works make any contribution to one’s final salvation (a denial that would not be upheld by Wesleyans, Anabaptists, or Restorationists, just for starters), but the doctrine that saving faith is unique and indivisible–a positive, living thing that cannot simply be reduced to a composite of “dead faith” and love, as in the Catholic doctrine. Such a faith is by definition incompatible with willful persistence in mortal sin or (which amounts to the same thing) with the deliberate refusal to pursue holiness and to love God and one’s neighbor.

This is a positive doctrine not found in pre-Reformation Catholicism. As far as I’m concerned, it’s the only part of “sola fide” worth keeping. (I know that not all Protestants would agree with the definition I’ve given, but I can show evidence that Luther and the original Reformers more broadly would agree with it. And it is certainly the teaching of my own Wesleyan tradition.)

Edwin

 

[MarcoPolo]

Did anyone say “Rapture theology”?

Also, Lief (my fellow “explorer” ) in thinking about what you have proposed, a couple things come to mind: While I completely agree with you about the damage done by the Reformation, if a Protestant freely admitted that they didn’t add anything to doctrine, they might insist that is a good thing and claim that what they took away merely purified the Gospel message to its supposedly original form (which of course it instead fulfilled Christ’s prophecy of the devil sifting Christians like wheat). But if I was a Protestant, and thought that way, I wouldn’t think your OP was a flame at all…I’d think it was a compliment.

Also, as to the Calvinist position on free will + predestination, yes I believe they claim both are true. They say we have free will and there is also predestination. Although whenever I have heard it explained, it sounds like there is no free will. I also understand some of them to have double-predestination, i.e. God wills certain people to hell.

 

[Parysa]

Most Pentecostals don’t believe this. What they added was the idea that speaking in tongues is a gift that modern Christians should expect to receive. This has been taken up by the Charismatic Movement in the Catholic Church (and in many other churches), so it does appear to be a positive doctrinal contribution made by Protestants.

Yes, but the problem is that God promises us MANY gifts, not just tongues. Pentecostals seem to think (and I was brought up in Assemblies of God churches, so I’ve heard this over and over) that tongues are the ONLY gift worth having and if you don’t get it, you’re not TRULY “filled with the Spirit” and, therefore, not a Christian. The problems that I saw with that are 1) it causes people to question their salvation when they can’t speak in tongues (a big problem with me and the few others I ever actually got to admit had never spoken in tongues), 2) it leads to “faking” where people stand up and “speak” but don’t meet the requirements laid down to show that it’s true (i.e. is there a translator?), which shakes peoples’ faith, 3) it places the emphasis on the Holy Spirit as being the one from whom salvation comes, when it’s not, and 4) it takes away from all of the other gifts that people may have to offer by showing them to be “less important.”