I HATE the term Protestant. There I said it. I am Non-Denominational (and we have had so many convo’s about that term… this is not the place for it!) but because I am not catholic I am considered protestant. Gee, that’s fair.
JMJ + OBT
Perhaps “protestant” is an appropriate label for you and like-minded believers, possibly including the members of your local church, or perhaps not; it all depends on what you believe …
Do you believe in the principle of
sola scriptura? That is, do you believe that the Bible is the only source of and authority concerning the truths revealed by God?
Do you believe in the principle of
sola fide? That is, do you believe that a Christian is saved by faith alone?
Do you believe that Jesus instituted a visible, hierarchical church composed of lay persons, deacons, priests, and bishops, the latter office being perpetuated by the laying on of hands (according to God’s design) down through the centuries from the Apostles to the present day?
Do you believe that during organized Christian worship when a member of the ministerial priesthood consecrates the bread and wine according to the Lord Jesus’ instructions given at the Last Supper, that they become in reality the living Jesus Christ, entirely present in His glorified humanity (i.e. his body and soul) and His divinity, retaining only the appearances of bread and wine? And that this changed reality persists until those appearances are broken down by digestion or decay? And that true worship may be given to the consecrated bread and wine as to Jesus Himself?
Up until the Protestant Reformation/Revolution, the vast majority of Christians of West and East would have answered those questions with the same “yes’s” and “no’s.” After the appearance of Luther, Calvin, etc. and the growth of their communities of like-minded believers, there are large numbers of individuals and groups who now answer those questions differently than do members of the Catholic or Orthodox Church.
Those individuals and communities who trace their beliefs (their answers to those questions) “straight back,” more or less, to the original Protestants are rightly called Protestants today. Those individuals and groups whose beliefs are materially the same, even if they aren’t formally the same, are also rightly identified as Protestants.
Does that make sense?
In the Hearts of Jesus and Mary.
IC XC NIKA