When to Call Folks Protestant?

[steido01]

It is never appropriate to refer to “Protestantism” with regard to doctrinal issues, because the term has no meaning with regard to theology. It is simply a catch-all term for any non-Roman Catholic western Christian.

This would be akin to expecting a Muslim or a Jew to defend the concept of the Trinity, since they’re monotheists. It’s just silly.

 

[AugustTherese]

It is never appropriate to refer to “Protestantism” with regard to doctrinal issues, because the term has no meaning with regard to theology

Do not all Protestant confessions protest Papal Infallibility? Do not all Protestant confessions deny and protest the Sacrifice of the Mass, etc. etc. ? Are these not doctrinal issues that ‘Protestantism’ protests?

 

[MichaelP3]

My story is exactly the same. Although I live in a country with “maybe” 3% Catholics so I would have even less of an opinion. Actually I can’t remember even meeting one that time.

 

[MichaelP3]

Do not all Protestant confessions protest Papal Infallibility?

If this is the case, the Orthodox are also Protestants?

Also do you mean actual confessions? Many Protestants don’t even have confessions. And I may have seen something in that regard in Lutheranism wrt the Pope. But that’s maybe it…

90% of Protestants don’t even know anything about the Pope. They also don’t even know “what is a Mass”. They wouldn’t even know what they are Protesting as they have never heard of it.

Unless you meant something else.

 

[JonNC]

Do not all Protestant confessions protest Papal Infallibility? Do not all Protestant confessions deny and protest the Sacrifice of the Mass, etc. etc. ? Are these not doctrinal issues that ‘Protestantism’ protests?

Protest? No. Disagree with the Catholic doctrines of? Mostly.
In the first, even Orthodoxy disputes it.
I don’t view Baptist as protesting your communion and mine about the real presence. They just disagree

 

[AugustTherese]

AugustTherese:

Do not all Protestant confessions protest Papal Infallibility? Do not all Protestant confessions deny and protest the Sacrifice of the Mass, etc. etc. ? Are these not doctrinal issues that ‘Protestantism’ protests?

Protest? No. Disagree with the Catholic doctrines of? Mostly.
In the first, even Orthodoxy disputes it.
I don’t view Baptist as protesting your communion and mine about the real presence. They just disagree

Is not disagreeing synonymous with protesting?

 

[PJM]

Also, some “Protestants” don’t even understand that they are protesting. Take your average evangelical who doesn’t know his history. He just goes to church most every Sunday. He has never heard about the Reformation. Nor does he care. He doesn’t know that his church split off at some point from some other Protestant Church. He doesn’t protest against the Catholic Church. He just goes about his everyday life never thinking about it.

Faith and with is Wisdom ARE Gifts of the Holy Spirit.\

This same HS actually blocks [that is prevents Right understanding by all Protesters [Protestants] until and unless they turn BACK to the One True God who can only have One true set of faith beliefs as even GOD can do nothing else in TRUTH.

John.14
[6] Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me.

What are the Moral Significance, Demands, Conditions & Effects of TRUTH?

Father John A. Hardon S.J., one of the 20th Centuries most esteemed Theologians, explains it clearly and precisely:

Truth is [1] the condition for grace [2] it is the source of grace [3] it is the channel of grace [4] it is the Divinely Ordained requirement of grace.” End Quotes

Pope Benedict XVI “Their cannot be your truth and my truth or there would be no truth”

Ps.145 Verses 17 to 18 “[17] The LORD is just in all his ways, and kind in all his doings. [18] The LORD is near to all who call upon him, to all who call upon him in {HIS} truth. {singular per defined issue}.

Job.17: 4 “Since thou hast closed their minds to understanding, therefore thou wilt not let them triumph.

2nd. Cor. 4:3-4 “And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the likeness of God.

Col.2: 8 “See to it that no one makes a prey of you by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the universe, …

Eph. 4: 17-18 “Now this I affirm and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds; they are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart;”

Heb. 3 12 “Take care, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we share in Christ, if only we hold our first confidence firm to the end, while it is said**, “Today, when you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”**

God has committed to OFFER sufficient GRACE that every human Soul can; could and SHOULD know Him and His truths [NOT the invented truths of men from the post 16th Century reformation; though there DOES exist a conditional possibility of salvation through ignorance of HIS Truth when it is not culpable]

 

[ComplineSanFran]

Is not disagreeing synonymous with protesting?

Not at all. If I disagree with another branch of Christianity and how they worship, or speak on certain social / moral / political issues, I am not setting myself up in protest against them. I just say, ‘My Christianity does things differently, which is why I attend my church and not theirs.’

 

[JonNC]

I don’t think so. I think protest implies an action beyond disagreement.
If I come to your parish on Reformation Sunday with signs and slogans, that’s protest. If I file a formal letter of dissent like the reformers did at Speyer, or like LCMS President Harrison and Bishop Lori did at Congress over the HHS Mandate, that’s protest.

Would you be willing to say the Roman Confutation was a protest, or the Apostolicae curae a protest?
If so, is the Catholic Church Protestant?

 

[Brendan_64]

I would say that Protestant is any Christian whose demomination had its roots in the Protestant ‘reformation’ or any of the numerous splits withon those denominations that have continued to happen ever since. While many Protestants today may not individually be protesting against the Catholic Church, the existence of their demomination is in itself a protest against the one true Church.

I’ve never been quite sure about Anglicans though. Are they Protestants? Their roots lie not in Luther’s ‘reformation’, but in Henry VIII’s split frpm Rome resulting from a wish to have his marriage annulled. Are Anglican’s Protestants?

 

[MichaelP3]

Would you be willing to say the Roman Confutation was a protest, or the Apostolicae curae a protest?

If so, is the Catholic Church Protestant?

I am wondering the same thing?

 

[GKMotley]

Depends on who you ask.

 

[Augustinian]

Protestants, as the name would suggest, are those who protest against the Catholic Church

Sort of, but not really. I guess that was the genesis of the moniker, but it really doesn’t apply today. Protestant is just a classification for professing Christians who aren’t affiliated with Catholicism or the other ancient churches.

Whether someone knows where the name came from, doesn’t mean it doesn’t apply to them.

 

[ltwin]

I’ve never been quite sure about Anglicans though. Are they Protestants? Their roots lie not in Luther’s ‘reformation’, but in Henry VIII’s split frpm Rome resulting from a wish to have his marriage annulled. Are Anglican’s Protestants?

Henry VIII’s split is the origin of the Church of England’s institutional separation from the Catholic Church. Theologically, the Church of England (and by extension all of Anglicanism) was heavily influenced by Lutheran and Calvinist theology in the immediate years after the split.

While Henry VIII was essentially conservative, Protestants were able to push for greater reforms under the reign of his son, Edward VI, who was raised Protestant. Finally, Anglicanism settled into a unique compromise under Elizabeth called the Elizabethan Settlement. I’ve heard the settlement described as essentially a merger of Lutheran and Calvinist theology.

In the 1830s, the Oxford Movement began to coalesce and essentially wanted to restore a lot of liturgical and devotional teachings that had been lost after the Reformation. This developed into Anglo-Catholicism as we know it today.

Reformed and evangelical Anglicans would be more likely to identify as Protestant, whereas high church and Anglo-Catholic Anglicans prefer to identify as a branch of the Catholic Church.

Many Anglicans talk of being both Catholic and Protestant, a via media or middle way between two extremes.

P. S. In reference to the Church of England, it is often described legally as the “Protestant Episcopal Church of England.” Similarly, the original name of the American Episcopal Church was the “Protestant Episcopal Church in the USA”.

 

[De_Maria]

Disagreeing about something is not the same as protesting…

True. But disagreeing about everything the Catholic Church stands for, that’s protest.

As I’ve said, I’ve met many Protestants in my life. They all seem to have a certain comaraderie and willingness to agree to disagree. But, when I mention that I’m Catholic, the vast majority call it a cult.

And then, there’s that bit of history. I was taught, in Public School, that the Catholic Church is the mother of all the Churches. But, the vast majority of Protestants reject this bit of objective history.

If that’t not protest, why reject the obvious truth? What do you say in this regard?

 

[GKMotley]

Add in the Ritualist movement, around 10-12 years after the Oxford./Tractarians, and there’s the Anglo-Catholics.

 

[jas84173]

The Orthodox aren’t protesting anything. It is a historical disagreement about certain things and we are in a state of schism with them. The priests are still valid priests with apostolic succession. Schism and Heretic are two different things. Protestantism is heresy really.

 

[Vico]

…
But, when I mention that I’m Catholic, the vast majority call it a cult.
…

I read one opinion, from a non-Catholic, that a cult (including Lutherans) will teach any of these:

• Infant baptism
• Transubstantiation
• Denial of Eternal Security
• Anything but KJV

 

[TC3033]

Where are you at that “The majority” of non-Catholics consider Cathicism “a cult”. That was literally the first time I’ve ever heard that, and honestly…I chuckled a bit.

 

[adf417]

De_Maria:

…
But, when I mention that I’m Catholic, the vast majority call it a cult.
…

I read one opinion, from a non-Catholic, that a cult (including Lutherans) will teach any of these:

• Infant baptism
• Transubstantiation
• Denial of Eternal Security
• Anything but KJV

And for a seeker of truth, there in no definitive mechanism to correct this within Christianity except Catholicism.

Peace!!!