Itthis categorization becomes very sticky, especially when many of the threads are titled, “Protestants, Why Do You Believe _____?” And, I think, “which Protestants are you asking? I certainly don’t believe that.”
I’m trying to avoid countless regurgitations from Wikipedia’s entry, so tell me how you are using the word “Protestant?”
I use the term Protestant to describe my religious affiliation, and I use that in the sense Boettner used it in his book on Roman Catholicism: 1) the holding of certain essentials of the faith, such as that the Bible is the word of God and our authoritative guide in church affairs; the deity of Christ; His sacrificial death on the cross for the salvation of those who place their faith in Him; the necessity of baptism and the Lord’s Supper; the personal and visible return of Christ; the resurrection of the body and future judgment; of heaven and hell; of moral character and spiritual life; and 2) the rejection of what the majority of Protestants believe to be errors of Rome, such as the priesthood, mass, confession, purgatory, and certain doctrines related to the Virgin Mary and the Pope.
I happen to be Anglican, but not in the sense of the present Church of England or the Episcopal Church. I don’t mind the label “evangelical” because that is a term Bishop Ryle happily used to describe his party affiliation within the Church of England in the mid to late 1800’s. I consider the 39 Articles to be my confession of faith and look to the Books of Homilies for guidance on specific doctrines.
I also don’t mind the label “fundamentalist” because that is simply a term used to describe men from many different Protestant churches who opposed theological liberalism’s denial of core beliefs: The inspiration and inerrancy of Scripture, the deity of Jesus Christ, the virgin birth of Christ, the substitutionary, atoning work of Christ on the cross, and the physical resurrection and the personal bodily return of Christ to the earth. (
thriceholy.net/fundamentals.html)
I like the divisions used by the Rev. Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick in his book Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy to group faiths that are neither Orthodox nor Roman Catholic:
Magisterial Reformation Denominations: Lutherans, Reformed Churches (such as Presbyterians and Dutch Reformed), Anglicanism and its heirs (Episcopalians, Methodists, Wesleyans)
Radical Reformation denominations: Mennonites, Amish, Brethren, Anglican offshoots (Puritans, Separatists, Quakers), Baptists
Revivalists: Restorationists, Adventism, Pentecostals, Charismatics, Nazarenes, Christian and Missionary Alliance
Non-Mainstream Christians: Unitarians, Mormons, Christian Science, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Unification Church
Curious.