Protestant... Oh How I HATE That Term...

[Jeanette_L]

Yeahbut, we are sola gratiaists So that term would include us

You know, I learn something new everyday here! And I thought I had left all the Solas behind. I forgot that we take their’s a step further and then roll it all into grace.

Thanks!

 

[ReConverted]

No, I believe that the Truths revealed by God is revealed by the Holy Spirit through scripture. If you don’t have the Holy Spirit with you then the bible might as well be just another book.

No, True Faith through Grace is what saves us. Works won’t get you there but they are the evidence of your Faith.

I believe that Jesus intended to begin Christianity which started out well with the RCC. BUT things went astray when MEN were given too much authority and a change had to be made.

No, I do not believe that bread and wine becomes Jesus’ flesh. This is one that I have had much dificulty with and only recently knew that you really thought it was Jesus you were ingesting. Sorry if that sounds blunt or crude but I don’t believe that Jesus intended this. Now, I could be wrong. I admit I don’t have all the answers. But this is hard to swallow… (Oh geez… no pun intended! )

But to unite does not mean we have to believe the same certain traditions (capital ‘T’ or not). Only to believe that Christ died for US. In place of US. And that He is the Savior of our souls. God has put me on the path of Christianity. To follow CHRIST. A man made religion is not going to be what brings me to Him. HE will bring me to His arms.

Well, that sounds pretty darn Protestant to me!
(I’m a former Protestant, so I know the drill! LOL)

 

[ReConverted]

A Protestant witnesses to an unbeliever, and the unbeliever gets upset, as in “whaddya mean I’m not good enough?”

A Catholic witnesses to a Protestant, and the Protestant gets upset, as in “whaddya mean I’m not good enough?”

Interesting parallel…and sad to note that most Protestants don’t even realize they have the same gut reaction as the unbeliever.

 

[Crumpy]

In regards to the OP, I prefer to use the term “protestant” rather than Protestant.

The lower-case p emphasizes to me the essential of what it means to be protestant, that is, to reject the authority of the Catholic Church.

In other words to me the term is referring generically to non-Catholics.

Now, whether any individual “hates” that term, the point is taken. But, the big problem is that we don’t know what any particular person means when they use the term.

“Catholic” can be vague, because a couple churches use the term that are not in union with Rome.

I guess it’s really only fair to consider the context and tone that a person uses.

Jesus would have a lot of patience in this matter, I suspect, so should we.

 

[LilyM]

Not to mention that Catholics are *Sola Verbum Dei *(The Word of God Alone), which means not just Sola Scriptura, but the WHOLE Word of God – Scripture, Sacred Tradition, and the Magisterium of the Church – the whole enchilada!

So we should call Catholics enchiladas, and everyone else half-enchiladas

 

[Flopfoot]

Curious to know if my abbreviation has come into popular use yet?

“Non-Catholic Christians” is too long to type out (I suspect that’s a main reason why we use the word ‘Protestant’ so often). However, it has the virtue that it contains mulitple words and hence may be shortened into an abbreviation:

NCCs

The great virtue of this term (apart from being short to type and say) is that it is entirely factual, accurate and doesn’t presume anything about the person you’re talking to, hence probably shouldn’t offend them.

Any NCC you talk to would most certainly agree with the term being applied to them, as they themselves will state they are both non-Catholic, and a Christian.

Perhaps the only downside of the term is that it is a bit too broad (in theory it could be used to refer btoh to Orthodox, Protestants etc, who probably don’t like being lumped together). Most people usually figure out that I am talking about post-Reformation Christians (another accurate but lengthy term) though, when I type NCC.

Hmm, maybe we could use an abberviation of “post-Reformation Christians” - PRCs - as our new, politically correct word for them. Unfortunately though, not all of those we formerly called Protestants would accept this term as easily as they’d accept NCC - because some of them claim that their church has its origins at the first Pentecost.

 

[Marsha_Adams]

But to unite does not mean we have to believe the same certain traditions (capital ‘T’ or not). Only to believe that Christ died for US. In place of US. And that He is the Savior of our souls. God has put me on the path of Christianity. To follow CHRIST. A man made religion is not going to be what brings me to Him. HE will bring me to His arms.

To unite does mean that we must believe the same TRUTH. As long as Protestantism rejects major portions of the truth we cannot unite.

Having been away from this thread for a while, I went back and did a quick skim of the seven pages of posts. At one point, somebody said that that not all Protestants are Christian anymore than all Catholics are Christian. Well, excuse me, but if one is not a Christian that person is NOT a Catholic either, no matter what they may call themselves or might pretend to be.

A recurring theme that I found in reviewing the thread is the accusation that Catholics think Protestants are somehow “less than” we are or perhaps “Christian Lite” would be a better term. That is just not true. It is not a matter of less than or not good enough, it is not a continuum. It is more like a light bulb, it is either on or off. It is like being pregnant, either you are or you are not. There is no such thing as being a little bit pregnant. There is no such thing as being a little bit Catholic, either you are in full communion with Rome or you aren’t. Either you accept the entire deposit of faith or you don’t.

The Bible warns against being unevenly yoked in marriages between believers and unbelievers, how can there be unity between the Church and unbelieving denominations?

 

[believers]

All right… I know what kind of can I am opening with this but I am gonna do it anyways…

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.

Anything and everything that is NOT catholic is considered protestant… right? So, mormans or JW’s or some obscure cult that doesn’t believe that Christ is the Lord of All and the Savior of our Souls are considered protestant? From what I understand ‘protestant’ is a person or group that protests the Catholic Church, right? I don’t protest the RCC… Why am I still protestant? I get lumped in with anyone and everyone who are not even christian by definition but because they aren’t catholic they are protestant…

Does this seem fair?

Don’t worry about it. It depends on which side of the fence you’re on. Protestant simply means that you’re not a roman catholic. So it’s actually a nice term. It’s a bad word for catholics. You’re a John 3:16, Rom 10:8-10 type of Christian where Jesus is the only way and His Word is Psa 119:105 a lamp unto your feet, and a light unto your path. It’s quite fair.

 

[Contarini]

Then they should call themselves a “free” or “independent” church. Each parish would then be a seperate and distinct denomination (in reality)

Calling themselves “non-denominational” is just redefining the English language

No, you are redefining the English language. “Denominations” are normally defined as groups of local churches with some kind of unified organizational structure or at least an explicitly owned common tradition and some structures of cooperation. If anything, non-denominational is broader than independent–for instance, independent Baptists are not really part of a “denomination” in the strict sense, but because they identify themselves as Baptists they would not usually claim to be “non-denominational.”

How do you define denomination?

Edwin

 

[Sixtus]

Believers said:

It’s a bad word for catholics. You’re a John 3:16,/…Jesus is the only way’!QUOTE]

Believers, I think it is necessary to check your exogesis. This is actually a very typical Catholic teaching

 

[ALLFORHIM]

You can call me a born again christian

 

[Steadfast]

“Protestant” has come to be the accepted term used to describe any church or individual Christian whose doctrine and church can be demonstrated to descend through the Reformation of the 16th century.

Originally the term was coined to describe those Lutheran princes who protested the conclusions of the Second Diet of Speier which forced an inequitable settlement on them.

As to whether a “non-denominational” Christian is or isn’t a Protestant I’d suggest that for purposes of discussion he is one since in most cases his theology and ecclesiology come from somewhere; in most cases baptist and/or charismatic-pentecostal schemes both of which movements have Reformation pedigrees.

 

[mark_a]

There was a time when the name “Protestant” fit, but no more. Most Protestants (oops!), uh, I mean non-Catholics (darn it!), I mean Christians-other-than-Catholics (oh boy).

Hmmmm. What can we come up with that’ll satisfy these folks?

How about “Christians”? That won’t work because Catholics are “Christians” too!!!

I got it!!!

All non-Catholic Christians can call themselves “Christians” and all of us in the original Christian Church can call ourselves Catholic-Christians!!!

The desire to differentiate, in my experience, has come from non-Catholics who just want people to know they are anything but Catholic.

 

[ALLFORHIM]

There was a time when the name “Protestant” fit, but no more. Most Protestants (oops!), uh, I mean non-Catholics (darn it!), I mean Christians-other-than-Catholics (oh boy).

Hmmmm. What can we come up with that’ll satisfy these folks?

How about “Christians”? That won’t work because Catholics are “Christians” too!!!

I got it!!!

All non-Catholic Christians can call themselves “Christians” and all of us in the original Christian Church can call ourselves Catholic-Christians!!!

The desire to differentiate, in my experience, has come from non-Catholics who just want people to know they are anything but Catholic.

LOL How about we all drop our denomination titles including catholics and just call ourselves christians.

As a matter of fact when people ask me what religion I am I tell them christian and when they ask me what church I go to I give them the name of my church. No biggie:shrug:

 

[Steadfast]

LOL How about we all drop our denomination titles including catholics and just call ourselves christians.

I find it a bit odd that the same people who accuse Protestants of “the desire to differentiate” are the same ones who so jealously guard the use of the adjective “catholic” and will not, without a fight, permit its use by Protestants of any variety.These are the same ones who insist that Protestantism is a complete innovation with no grounding whatsoever in the historic church.

What is this if not an obstinate, nay, pharisaical desire to differentiate?

 

[kell0618]

How about we never utter the word protestant again if the non-Catholics never again accuse us of worshipping Mary, being cannibals, superstitious, idol worshippers, going to hell because our Church leaders are called Father, un-Biblical and on and on? Deal? Anyone?

Hey, we all have things that annoy us. Look at the posts in apologetics and you’ll see plenty of jabs and misunderstandings directed at the Catholic Church. Way I see it, we were THE Church, then men left because it got too hot in the kitchen (instead of working to make things right) and they invented their own new and improved kitchens. They did so as a protest against THE Church. I can think of a lot worse names we’ve been called as Catholics.

 

[Steadfast]

How about we never utter the word protestant again if the non-Catholics never again accuse us of worshipping Mary, being cannibals, superstitious, idol worshippers, going to hell because our Church leaders are called Father, un-Biblical and on and on? Deal? Anyone?

Hear hear! And let’s also stop making asinine posts about Protestants worshiping the Bible and having inadequate Christology and Luther wanting to remove books from the Bible!

Hey, we all have things that annoy us. Look at the posts in apologetics and you’ll see plenty of jabs and misunderstandings directed at the Catholic Church. Way I see it, we were THE Church, then men left because it got too hot in the kitchen (instead of working to make things right) and they invented their own new and improved kitchens. They did so as a protest against THE Church. I can think of a lot worse names we’ve been called as Catholics.

Damn! And you started off so well!

 

[mark_a]

I find it a bit odd that the same people who accuse Protestants of “the desire to differentiate” are the same ones who so jealously guard the use of the adjective “catholic” and will not, without a fight, permit its use by Protestants of any variety.

Use “catholic” all you want. Using “Catholic” gets us fired up, and there are plenty already doing so.

By the way, that’s why we have the “pope” test.

These are the same ones who insist that Protestantism is a complete innovation with no grounding whatsoever in the historic church.

Don’t include me in that group of “same ones”. Protestantism didn’t get really innovative until a couple of hundred years after the reformation. All the so-called “innovation” like the Trinity, the divinity of Christ, the incarnation, the hypostatic union, the communion of Saints, etc, was inspired by the Holy Spirit at least a thousand years earlier.

As I always say, most of the best Christians I know are Protestants. Mostly Baptists.

I am trying to judge “Christians” by their behavior, not their label. I don’t have a problem with other denoms unless they try to exclude based on another’s label.

 

[Steadfast]

Use “catholic” all you want. Using “Catholic” gets us fired up, and there are plenty already doing so.

By the way, that’s why we have the “pope” test.

Don’t include me in that group of “same ones”. Protestantism didn’t get really innovative until a couple of hundred years after the reformation. All the so-called “innovation” like the Trinity, the divinity of Christ, the incarnation, the hypostatic union, the communion of Saints, etc, was inspired by the Holy Spirit at least a thousand years earlier.

As I always say, most of the best Christians I know are Protestants. Mostly Baptists.

I am trying to judge “Christians” by their behavior, not their label. I don’t have a problem with other denoms unless they try to exclude based on another’s label.

Thanks for the clarification.

For the record I am no longer Protestant.

Some day I’ll explain why.

 

[mark_a]

LOL How about we all drop our denomination titles including catholics and just call ourselves christians.

I think most Catholics would have a problem lumping themselves with Christians who support abortion, gay marriage, etc.

As a matter of fact when people ask me what religion I am I tell them christian and when they ask me what church I go to I give them the name of my church. No biggie:shrug:

People like labels. For instance, by telling someone I’m Catholic, I can save them a ton of tip-toeing around.

Pope Benedict says the lack of Christian unity is shameful to all Christians.