How can one be a protestant?

[jmcrae]

Ronnock 20 posted:

I could not agree more!!

That nasty old Church for not playing ball with the King, I mean not just any King but the King of England. He only wanted his lawful marriage annulled so he could marry someone else and that rotten old Pope would not annul it for him, just because he didn’t meet the criteria for annullment.

Who is the Pope not to do what the King of England said?

If Christ gave him the Keys and power to ‘bind or loose’, why didn’t he abuse his power and priviledge to meet the King’s needs!

Yeah, and when Martin Luther decided to get rid of nearly a third of the Old Testament, the Pope should have made him a Doctor of the Church, instead of excommunicating him for messing with the Word of God - I mean, who does the Pope think he is, the protector of Christian truth?

Geez, Louise, if ya can’t even change the Bible around and invent your own Doctrine based on your newly self-revised Bible, then what the heck is the point of make-it-up-as-you-go-along Christianity? Might as well keep on believing what they believed in the First Century - and how boring is that?

 

[KarenNC]

Do protestants actually belong to a faith community? I can never figure that one out. A protestant church pops up on every corner with different teaching every day it seems. There is NO community in my view. If a protestant travels what do they do on Sunday? If they go to services at another church it may be an entirely different bible viewpoint. Then What?

As Edwin said, you have to look at it on its own terms. The question is not a Protestant community vs a Catholic community. There is a Catholic community, a Presbyterian Community, a Baptist community, etc and then certain divisions within each of those.

Phone books and the internet are wonderful tools. It gives one the information, even when travelling, to see if there is a faith community similar to yours wherever you are so that you don’t have to simply go to the first one you pass.

A Presbyterian, for instance, is not likely to simply just stumble into the first church building he happens to come across on a Sunday morning. He is going to go to a Presbyterian one, even if he has to drive past 15 other denominations to do so. He is going to do so as he is searching for a community which worships as he does, just like a Catholic is going to drive past 15 other denominations to go to a Catholic church. Most denominations share a core of doctrines within the individual churches that make up the denomination, so if you go to a PCA church in Dallas, you are likely to hear a teaching on a Scripture that is similar to what you would hear on that same Scripture in a PCA church in Lansing and possibly different than you would hear in the Episcopal church in Dallas next door to the PCA church.

It is true that there is a continuum of more or less conservative or liberal in any denomination (including Catholic), the “flavor” of the particular congregation if you will, but that usually is within certain parameters as defined by the larger organization and those churches who find they fall outside. Otherwise you would not have churches who leave the Southern Baptist Association for the American Baptist one or the Presbyterian Church of America for the Presbyterian Church (USA). One could likely find a different “flavor” if you will to the different parishes of the Catholic church depending on whether the church was attached to an abbey, in the inner city, run by the Jesuits vs. the Franciscans, etc.

As far as travelling, some will not go to church at all. Some will seek out a church from their own denomination. If one is not available, they will choose to either go to one that is similar enough for them to feel comfortable or they will, as my family often did, hold their own service for themselves in their hotel room or watch a televised service of their own denomination if that is all that is available. For my parents, not attending services on Sunday morning (or any time the church doors were open) was not an option unless one was ill, regardless of where we were, but they were always going to seek out the church that belonged to our particular denomination.

 

[ronnok20]

As Edwin said, you have to look at it on its own terms. The question is not a Protestant community vs a Catholic community. There is a Catholic community, a Presbyterian Community, a Baptist community, etc and then certain divisions within each of those.

Phone books and the internet are wonderful tools. It gives one the information, even when travelling, to see if there is a faith community similar to yours wherever you are so that you don’t have to simply go to the first one you pass.

A Presbyterian, for instance, is not likely to simply just stumble into the first church building he happens to come across on a Sunday morning. He is going to go to a Presbyterian one, even if he has to drive past 15 other denominations to do so. He is going to do so as he is searching for a community which worships as he does, just like a Catholic is going to drive past 15 other denominations to go to a Catholic church. Most denominations share a core of doctrines within the individual churches that make up the denomination, so if you go to a PCA church in Dallas, you are likely to hear a teaching on a Scripture that is similar to what you would hear on that same Scripture in a PCA church in Lansing and possibly different than you would hear in the Episcopal church in Dallas next door to the PCA church.

It is true that there is a continuum of more or less conservative or liberal in any denomination (including Catholic), the “flavor” of the particular congregation if you will, but that usually is within certain parameters as defined by the larger organization and those churches who find they fall outside. Otherwise you would not have churches who leave the Southern Baptist Association for the American Baptist one or the Presbyterian Church of America for the Presbyterian Church (USA). One could likely find a different “flavor” if you will to the different parishes of the Catholic church depending on whether the church was attached to an abbey, in the inner city, run by the Jesuits vs. the Franciscans, etc.

As far as travelling, some will not go to church at all. Some will seek out a church from their own denomination. If one is not available, they will choose to either go to one that is similar enough for them to feel comfortable or they will, as my family often did, hold their own service for themselves in their hotel room or watch a televised service of their own denomination if that is all that is available. For my parents, not attending services on Sunday morning (or any time the church doors were open) was not an option unless one was ill, regardless of where we were, but they were always going to seek out the church that belonged to our particular denomination.

What you have said here is brilliant. This is absolutely true and it is so ver very too bad that more Catholics cannot realize this for what it is.

 

[lak611]

What you have said here is brilliant. This is absolutely true and it is so ver very too bad that more Catholics cannot realize this for what it is.

I understand it. I really do not see why anyone, Catholic or Protestant, would not.

 

[ronnok20]

I understand it. I really do not see why anyone, Catholic or Protestant, would not.

I agree. Roman Catholic, Anglo Catholic, United Methodist, LCMS Lutheran. These are 4 denominations in respect, not 2.

 

[Gottle_of_Geer]

I am confused and need direction.

I love my faith as a Catholic. One of the main reasons is knowing that the Church was started by Christ himself and the Church has believed the same things for thousands of years. I cannot fathom a protestant viewpoint. Where one can pick up the bible and interpret it anyway he wants. You have to know that doing so is wrong. If I took 10 protestants and asked each about their beliefs about the bible I am sure I would receive at least 6-7 different interpretations. As a protestant doesn’t this bother you? How do you know who is correct? There is no one to help you. As the belief is, you have to interpret it yourself.

Do protestants actually belong to a faith community? I can never figure that one out. A protestant church pops up on every corner with different teaching every day it seems. There is NO community in my view. If a protestant travels what do they do on Sunday? If they go to services at another church it may be an entirely different bible viewpoint. Then What?

With no one at the top, it is anarchy. And I know you will say, that Jesus is at the top, but if that is so and he is truly guiding you, why all the different interpretations? The Holy Sprit is telling one church this and one church that?

In what spirit is the question “How can one be a protestant?” being asked ?​

If (some) Catholics were less concerned to score apologetic points, it might be asier to understand. US Catholics do seem terribly hostile to Protestants - almost as though they imagined that Protestants were two-headed monsters. Not that (some) Protestants are any different - in many ways, the two are identical: the psychology is exactly the same They often mirror one another remarkably. Maybe they don’t want to understand one another.

The trouble with the apologetic attitude is that it does not encourage readiness to shut up & listen, so much as readiness to go on the war-path against the “opposition” . In the din of battle that results, the more peaceful voices tend to get drowned out (even if they have good things to say) - while the “ignorant armies” fight one another to a stand-still until they ready to square up to each other again. Sad, really

 

[dosdog]

In what spirit is the question “How can one be a protestant?” being asked ?​

If (some) Catholics were less concerned to score apologetic points, it might be asier to understand. US Catholics do seem terribly hostile to Protestants - almost as though they imagined that Protestants are two-headed monsters. Not that (some) Protestants are any different - in many ways, the two are identical: the psychology is exactly the same They often mirror one another remarkably.

The trouble with the apologetic attitude is that it does not encourahge readiness to shut up & listen, so much as readiness to go on the war-path against the “opposition” . In the din of battle that results, the more peaceful voices tend to get drowned out (even if they have good things to say) - while the “ignorant armies” fight one another to a stand-still until they ready to square up to each other again. Sad, really

Any time you want to see how warm and fuzzy protastants are check in here
groups.msn.com/MountBiblicalSense

 

[Allweather]

US Catholics do seem terribly hostile to Protestants - almost as though they imagined that Protestants were two-headed monsters. Not that (some) Protestants are any different - in many ways, the two are identical: the psychology is exactly the same They often mirror one another remarkably. Maybe they don’t want to understand one another.

Seems to me history provides the best answer to why this is. The United States was established by Protestants. Not that there wasn’t a Catholic presence, especially via the Spanish and French territories which were eventually integrated into the U.S. But among the orignial colonies that rebelled and broke away from England, the overwhelming religion was Protestant. As time went by, the Protestant mainline religions became more and more liberal, owing to certain theological influences. Meantime, via immigration from Catholic countries, such as Ireland, the Catholic population was growing. These Catholics tended to be devout, and very conservative compared to what has come to be the American Catholic of the mid-to-late 20th century. By the late 19th century, a reaction to liberalism within the mainline Protestant denoms arose, in the form of fundamentalism, which over the course of many decades came to be the public face of American Protestantism since it is intensely evangelical. Meantime, American Catholics, post WWII, climbed out of the lower sweatshop classes into cultural and economic success, and became rather liberalized themselves. Over the past 20 years we’re seeing a resurgence of conservative Catholicism. It is natural that this conservative Catholicism should come into conflict with evangelicalism/fundamentalism, not so much because we’re fighting for the same turf, but because we’re blood brothers and sisters at heart.

There is such a thin membrane that separates conservative Catholics from conservative Protestants, that it really does amaze that more evangelicals don’t come over. In the same sense, it undoubtedly amazes the evangelicals to find out how similar we Catholics are to them, and makes them wonder why we remain Catholic. For sure, there are a lot of conversions from evangelicals to Catholicism, and I expect the tide to rise in the years ahead. The main thing that has kept them, and still keeps them, out of communion with Rome is the fear among them that the Catholic Church is a liberal church. They hate religious liberalism above all things, whether it be Protestant OR Catholic. Once they realize that there is a strong, unified, powerfully functional conservative, truly orthodox Catholic Church in the U.S. with a fully orthodox successor to Peter in Rome, they will come over in such a flood!