Lumping all Protestants together is the first mistake here. There are many Protestant groups, the vast bulk of them are not the commercialized, nondenominational megachurches. There are Baptists, Methodists, Lutherans, Presbyterians, etc. I grew up in the Disciples of Christ church, and although I no longer believe in god that church will always have a special place with me.
If you want to attack Protestant theology, or Protestants as a whole then you need to pick a specific group and go from there. The arguments that you would use against the church I grew up in would be very different from the ones you would use against the Lutheran church (and even there you need to pick a Synod), and those would be different than what you would use against a Methodist.
I never got a “once saved, always saved” message. Actually, the idea of “being saved” was a foreign concept to me until I was about 11 and my grandma and I went to church with my fundamentalist, evangelical, Baptist cousin and her family (who I later found out wanted to “save” me). Not only was I confused and uncomfortable there my grandma was too. When we got to the car my grandma had a long discussion with me about how their denomination is different, they are wrong on ‘XYZ’, and why she would never take me back to a place like that.
This post is absolutely right on the money.
There are several different groups of Protestants (not 33,000–that’s a statistical manipulation, and Catholics who make this statement in front of knowledgeable Protestants will only weaken their cause and make the Catholic Church look foolish).
You need to figure out which group of Protestants you are dealing with before making any statements or drawing any conclusions about what they believe.
All true Protestant groups maintain the five fundamentals of the Christian faith. But there are big differences between Calvinists who believe in predestination, and Free Will Protestants. There are big differences between OSAS Protestants vs. Falling from Grace Protestants. There are big differences between Protestants who baptize infants and Protestants who teach Believer’s Baptism.
I won’t go on with more examples, but the list is large.
There are huge differences in worship styles between Evangelical, Pentecostal, and Mainline Protestants. I laugh when people assume that all Protestant denominations use praise and worship music in their worship services. There are still several Protestant denominations that don’t even use INSTRUMENTS in their worship services! \
And let’s talk about the differences between red, yellow, black, and white Protestant worship.
Finally, let’s talk about the Protestant view on “the Universal Church of Jesus Christ.” You see, Protestants are fine with the differences between Christians. They glory in their freedom. The Lutherans love the fact that at their church, they will be singing centuries-old hymns to the accompaniment of a pipe organ, while down the road, the Pentecostals are dancing in the aisles while a rock band plays full volume, while down the road from them, an Evangelical home church is sitting around the kitchen deep in the study of the Bible, while down the road from THEM, another Evangelical Church is sitting in utter silence practicing
lectio divina in a room lit by a single candle.
I think that’s one reason why it’s so difficult to get many Protestants interested in uniting under one umbrella of Christianity. For centuries, they have been taught that diversity in worship is a GOOD thing, and what Christ intended. I will freely confess that I fail to understand why some Catholics think that the Masses have to all be alike in order to have “unity.” I don’t agree. I don’t think that Christian unity is compromised at all when one Catholic parish does the Latin Mass, while another Catholic parish does an OF Mass in Latin, while another Catholic parish does an OF Mass in the vernacular with only a smidgen of Latin. And I certainly don’t believe that unity is compromised because one Catholic parish does only Gregorian chant, while another Catholic parish does traditional hymns with organ, and another Catholic parish does all contemporary Christian music with guitars and drums.
I honestly do not see a problem with all these differences in the Masses. I’m thinking that perhaps those who were not raised Protestant have a hard time understanding how unity can happen when there are such differences, but to ex-Protestants like me, it’s just “style,” not “substance,” and unity is not compromised, but actually enhanced by the differences.
At any rate, as more and more Protestants come into the Catholic Church, I think more and more of this “unity through diversity” thinking will be introduced into the Catholic Church, and the Church will have to deal with it. Yes, the Church needs to tell new converts that they must accept all the Precepts of the Church, and the dogma and doctrines of Holy Mother Church. But does the Church also teach that ALL Catholics must celebrate Mass the same way, with the same music and instruments, in buildings that all look alike, under priests who all wear the same style of vestments? No, not at all.
