How can one be a protestant?

[lorathon]

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?

 

[Contarini]

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?

Since you say you are happy as a Catholic, what are you confused about? Why does it bother you so much that other people think differently from you? Why not just say “you guys are wrong” and go your merry way?

Traditionally Protestant denominations had a strong sense of identity and a coherent teaching. Today in the U.S. that has largely broken down for many Protestants, but not all. That’s the best way of answering your questions briefly. I don’t really know what sort of answer you are looking for–you just seem to be ranting about the evils of Protestantism, which isn’t a very helpful way to start a conversation.

In Christ,

Edwin

 

[lorathon]

Since you say you are happy as a Catholic, what are you confused about? Why does it bother you so much that other people think differently from you? Why not just say “you guys are wrong” and go your merry way?

So I am not to learn what I do not know? Why? I didn’t mean to rant. I was trying to express my viewpoint. I may be wrong about it and would like to be corrected if so. But I do believe I have the right to tell my point of view or am I wrong about that? I did not mean to offend anyone with this.

 

[Contarini]

So I am not to learn what I do not know? Why? I didn’t mean to rant. I was trying to express my viewpoint. I may be wrong about it and would like to be corrected if so. But I do believe I have the right to tell my point of view or am I wrong about that? I did not mean to offend anyone with this.

Sure, you have the right to express your point of view. I just don’t know where you want to go with it. What do you want Protestants to explain to you? Why would you expect there to be a single Protestant point of view, anyway? Protestantism is not and has never been a unified expression of Christianity–it’s an umbrella term. For Protestant disunity to be a criticism of Protestantism, you have to single out Protestants who think that Protestantism is the True Church. There are very few of those–most have either a narrower or broader definition.

In other words, of course you are on to something, but to understand Protestantism you have to get beyond speaking of it as if it were a whole. You are observing a particular development in contemporary American Protestantism.

In Christ,

Edwin

 

[justasking4]

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.

Have you ever done a comparison of the doctrinal statements of the various protestant churches in your area? I think you would find more agreement on the essentials of the faith than disagreements.
I think there is a wide difference of beliefs in the catholic church itself. The catholics that i know don’t share all the same beliefs about what your church teaches.

 

[Kotton]

Have you ever done a comparison of the doctrinal statements of the various protestant churches in your area? I think you would find more agreement on the essentials of the faith than disagreements.

When it comes to essentials of the faith, you would find Catholics also in agreemnet. This is why we can all agree on the Apostles or Nicene Creeds.

I think there is a wide difference of beliefs in the catholic church itself. The catholics that i know don’t share all the same beliefs about what your church teaches.

There is not a difference in what the Catholic Church believes and teaches. That indivual Catholics differ is true, some follow all the Church teaches, some desent. The desenters fall into two catagories, those who believe some doctrine is wrong, and those ignorant and needing education.

Kotton

 

[allischalmers]

Frankly I do not understand why anyone would not want to be a Baptist. After all didn’t John the Baptist and his discilples start the Baptist Church and did not John baptise Jesus into the Baptist Church. :clapping:

 

[Mickey]

Frankly I do not understand why anyone would not want to be a Baptist. After all didn’t John the Baptist and his discilples start the Baptist Church and did not John baptise Jesus into the Baptist Church.

smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/4/4_6_100.gif

 

[elvisman]

Frankly I do not understand why anyone would not want to be a Baptist. After all didn’t John the Baptist and his discilples start the Baptist Church and did not John baptise Jesus into the Baptist Church. :clapping:

Uhhhh . . . history shows that the Baptist church was founded by John Smyth, in Amsterdam, in 1606.
Are you saying he DIDN’T??

 

[LilyM]

smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/4/4_6_100.gif

I think allis here is having us on - most certainly every Christian believes Christ founded his own church, not John!!!

 

[water]

Frankly I do not understand why anyone would not want to be a Baptist. After all didn’t John the Baptist and his discilples start the Baptist Church and did not John baptise Jesus into the Baptist Church. :clapping:

Is this something new among Baptist world that I just heard?

 

[rtconstant]

Is this something new among Baptist world that I just heard?

Actually no that is kind of old. I don’t remember if it is part of Landmarkism or if it was part of its own myth. When I was a Baptist I was told this by several ministers.

I think Allischalmers’ reason for bringing it up was just for fun though.

 

[water]

Actually no that is kind of old. I don’t remember if it is part of Landmarkism or if it was part of its own myth. When I was a Baptist I was told this by several ministers.

I see

I think Allischalmers’ reason for bringing it up was just for fun though.

he got me.
Thanks!

 

[tomch]

Frankly I do not understand why anyone would not want to be a Baptist. After all didn’t John the Baptist and his discilples start the Baptist Church and did not John baptise Jesus into the Baptist Church. :clapping:

I enjoy your sense of humor! It’s all in the “name,” eh?! If I start a new church and name it the “Church of Jesus Christ” can I claim that it’s started by Jesus Christ? Oh wait… I guess that name is already taken, isn’t it? How about the “Church of God in Christ”? Oh… that one’s taken, too?! Hmmm…

In response to the OP, yes - the Protestants ARE part of a cohesive faith community. It’s called the “ANYTHING but Catholic” faith community. This is exactly what my Baptist wife and family told me when I told them that I was converting to Catholicism. “NO!!! ANYTHING but Catholic!!”

When I was a Baptist, we never attended church when traveling. The Protestants (as a rule) don’t have such rules as “mandatory Church attendance” - since they “are not under law, but under grace.” Miss church?? No big deal…

The 10 commandments were more like suggestions or guidelines. We didn’t regard them as “commandments” anymore, since we are under the “New Covenant.” The law is only there to make us “aware of sin.” And about the story when Jesus told the rich young ruler to “obey the commandments” - um… ahh… well, I guess He was just joking around. See? Jesus had a sense of humor! What a knee slapper!

Also, Baptists don’t divide sins into “mortal” and “venial” categories, or even worry all that much about confessing sins on a daily basis, since our sins are covered “once for all” by Christ’s blood, so they’re already forgiven as soon as they “accept Jesus.”

So… they don’t worry too much about committing mortal sin, and then they also don’t get overly concerned with regularly confessing these sins to God (and NEVER to a Priest!!). Uh huh… now that I’m not Baptist anymore I see that it’s a pretty dangerous set of beliefs. I consider the Baptist faith to be the religion for “Adrenaline Junkies” - those who enjoy “high risk” and like “living on the edge.”

Funny thing happened, though… Baptists believe in “Scripture alone” - so I started reading my Bible and stopped ignoring passages that didn’t fit with my Baptist doctrine - (there are SO MANY of these verses… I have 26 normal font * pages* of verses that contradict the “Once Saved, Always Saved” belief), and it led me straight to the Catholic Church.

 

[Cat]

Getting back to lorathon’s question, Protestants are Protestants often because they are born into it, just as Catholics are born into Catholicism. To go against it is to go against your family and friends.

In the evangelical Protestant churches, church is your whole life. I used to spend 5-6 day/evenings per week involved in some kind of church activity or ministry or social. All my friends were at church. We didn’t do social activities except with church friends.

Like I said, it was our whole life.

And when you only hear one teaching week after week, year after year, from very intelligent and well-spoken men and women, you become convinced that it’s the truth. You look at your Bible and even though you believe that every believer is given the power by the Holy Spirit to interpret Scripture, the interpretation that you derive is the same interpretation that you have been taught in your church.

Mix in a little anti-Catholic teaching, and you are very unlikely to ever consider seriously the Catholic Church. Evangelicals, at least in my experience, are not vehemently anti-Catholic. Many evangelicals have been taught that the Catholics are to be admired for their fight against abortion (I heard that in every evangelical church that I was part of). Dr. Dobson has actually featured practicing Catholics on his radio show. To most evangelical Protestants, if Dobson says it’s OK, it’s OK!

But even evangelicals hear lectures about the “fallacies” in Catholicism, and these often sound very Biblical and truthful.

I will say this with fear and trembling–it is extremely difficult for many evangelicals to take a Catholic’s claims to Christianity seriously because Catholics DRINK ALCOHOL.

Like it or not, that’s the way it is. It was my biggest obstacle to becoming Catholic, and it’s still a stumbling block. I refuse to attend my parish picnic or any other Catholic “festival” in our city because alcohol is served. To me, it stinks like sour pee, and it makes me feel sick to my stomach to be around it.

I know that if you are Catholic, you can’t understand why evangelicals find alcohol so “sinful.” But they do. If you want to have a ministry with most evangelicals, you would do well do become a teetotaller.

It’s changing a little. Some evangelicals, especially the non-denominational ones, are easing up on the alcohol restrictions. My FIL and MIL drink wine now, and so do my BIL and SIL–shocking to me and my husband! We can’t even comprehend it. We find it utterly unacceptable that evangelicals drink alcohol.

I know–you don’t get it and you think we’re narrow minded. No apologies. Intellectually, I accept that alcohol drinking is not a sin, but everything else in me cries out SIN!

Anyway, take it or leave it. Most of you will leave it, I know.

On to other things:

One of the reasons why people remain Protestant is that they are so involved in their churches in multiple ministries that they truly don’t have the opportunity to go and visit a Catholic Church, let alone read books about Catholicism. It takes some kind of “challenge” to make an evangelical take a serious look at Catholicism. For us, it was being kicked out of our evangelical church. For others, it’s the marriage of a child, or the conversion of a friend or admired teacher.

I truly believe that if evangelicals, who are very well-educated in Scripture, would actually take the opportunity to attend Mass regularly, would eventually discover that the Catholic Church is totally Biblical. But how can you attend Mass when all your time is booked?

I think Catholic radio is making inroads. A lot of evangelicals will not listen to secular radio of any kind. If they can’t find a “Christian” radio station, they will often listen to a Catholic radio station (it’s a "learning opportunity–figure out how the “enemy” works!) My FIL travels a lot, and he tells us that he listens to Father Corapi all the time. He likes the way Fr. Corapi talks about the Bible so much! Pray for him!

 

[Syele]

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.

I never met a protestant who believes it’s ok for him to pick up a Bible and interpret it anyway he wants.I have met LOTS of Catholics who say that Protestants believe this though.

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?

When I first looked at Catholic beliefs I asked Questions of a Priest and at least two other Catholics and none of them knew how to answer my questions. With a bit of personal study my questions were answered as they weren’t really hard ones. I asked “Why do Catholics pray to Mary and the Saints?”, “what does this Catholic book mean by the word Mystery”? and “Why do Catholics Baptize infants?” The Catholics I knew couldn’t answer these questions and didn’t know where to look up the answers. The Priest refused to answer me as well (he got very hostile and said very unkind things). Does it bother you that there are so many very very poorly catechized Catholics roaming the earth?

My thoughts on Protestants who refuse to listen to sound teaching would probably be similar to your thoughts on the Catholics I just described.

How do you know who is correct? There is no one to help you. As the belief is, you have to interpret it yourself.

I have many spiritual mentors to help me. I have an accountability partner, a mentor, a Pastor, a Bible Study Group, and the Holy Spirit. Anything I make up myself, I will be held accountable to God for. Not to mention the accountability I have to stick to the true interpretations of the Holy Spirit when teaching my Daughter!

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?

Protestant churches are not as different and varied as you imagine them to be.

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 Spirit is telling one church this and one church that?

God is at the top. It’s not anarchy. The fact that people say the Holy Spirit said something doesn’t mean He did. That would be the failings of humans, not of God. Why do you slander the Holy Spirit by accusing Him of contradicting Himself?

IF you are to judge Protestants on the varying doctrines 10 of them have, how will you explain statistics like:

U n i t e d S t a t e s :
American Catholics generally support access to abortion:
Only 23% of US Catholics agree with the bishops’ position that abortion should be
illegal in all circumstances.
Source: CBS/New York Times poll conducted July 2000; reported in “The Facts Tell the Story: Catholic and
Choice.”

By the logic you seem to be using in this thread, I can surmise that the Catholic Church is NOT unified at all, at least not on the topic of abortion. After all if I ask 10Catholics about it I would not get all the same answer! Surely you didn’t intend that? I would think Both Catholics and protestants should be judged by the same ruler.

 

[lak611]

Yes, there are people who change to a different faith as adults, but usually not unless something significant happens in their lives. For instance, somebody may convert because he is marrying somebody of a different faith. This happened to the father of one of my friends. He was Russian Orthodox, married a Methodist and converted to Methodist. Or somebody may have a bad experience in his church and change to another faith. Another friend of mine converted from Episcopal to Lutheran. Somebody may even have no religion and come to believe due to family. One of my cousins married a man who did not practice any religion, and he later was baptized as a Catholic.

However, most people stick with whatever faith they were raised in. I have asked several people in my family and close friends of mine why they belong to the church they do, be it Catholic, Lutheran, Methodist (the people I asked were all “cradles”, not converts). The reason all of them gave was because that is what their parents were. So, to answer the question of the OP, how can one be a Protestant, I would say because that is how he was raised and all he has known.

 

[Contarini]

I think Catholic radio is making inroads. A lot of evangelicals will not listen to secular radio of any kind. If they can’t find a “Christian” radio station, they will often listen to a Catholic radio station (it’s a "learning opportunity–figure out how the “enemy” works!) My FIL travels a lot, and he tells us that he listens to Father Corapi all the time. He likes the way Fr. Corapi talks about the Bible so much! Pray for him!

I was watching Fr. Groeschel Sunday night, and thinking that I wished I could make every anti-Catholic evangelical listen to him for just half an hour. I think it would rock their world.

BTW, while many evangelicals are not as hardline any more (as you note), you are by and large right about the alcohol thing. Frankly, I started drinking in grad school, and currently miss it (I am teaching for an evangelical college that doesn’t allow anyone affiliated with it to drink). I think that there’s a big generational difference–people my age (33) and younger are much less likely to have problems with it. Most of my students think the rule is silly, and so do the majority of my colleagues for that matter. But it’s unlikely to change any time soon, and I respect the school for sticking to its tradition.

Edwin

 

[lak611]

I was watching Fr. Groeschel Sunday night, and thinking that I wished I could make every anti-Catholic evangelical listen to him for just half an hour. I think it would rock their world.

BTW, while many evangelicals are not as hardline any more (as you note), you are by and large right about the alcohol thing. Frankly, I started drinking in grad school, and currently miss it (I am teaching for an evangelical college that doesn’t allow anyone affiliated with it to drink). I think that there’s a big generational difference–people my age (33) and younger are much less likely to have problems with it. Most of my students think the rule is silly, and so do the majority of my colleagues for that matter. But it’s unlikely to change any time soon, and I respect the school for sticking to its tradition.

Edwin

Would they really know any different if you had a beer or glass of wine at home?

 

[jmcrae]

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.

This is the greatest thing of all. When I was Protestant, I didn’t know anything about this. I was taught, and believed, that Jesus never founded a Church at all, and that all churches are just man’s feeble attempts to understand Christ.

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?

This didn’t bother me when I was Protestant because I had no idea that there was anyone on earth with the power to know the answers. It was kind of like trying to figure out how gravity works. Nobody knows, and everyone’s got their own theory. The Bible was like that - this unknown thing that everyone is trying to figure out.

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?

When I was Protestant, if we travelled, we’d go to the “nearest equivelant” and just hope for the best. Sometimes we just didn’t bother.