I was raised in the Conference Baptist denomination.
What we were taught is that the New Testament church described in Acts was the “original church of Jesus Christ,” but after the apostles were martyred (except for John, who was exiled), the “true” church of Jesus had to go underground to avoid the persecutions.
Throughout the centuries, this “remnant” continued to meet in secret and preserved the true Bible, but on the outside, the church was taken over by “Catholics” who twisted all the doctrines, added pagan rituals, and instigated “Babylonian Goddess worship.” They did all this because of politics and power, establishing a huge church that bore no resemblance to the New Testament church. They even tampered with the Bible, adding books that were apocryphal and not truly inspired.
**When Martin Luther came along, he busted open the false establishment church and restored the New Testament church. ** This new church, which was actually the ancient church of the New Testament, became known as the Protestants because they protested the false Catholic Church.
So the answer to your question, according to Protestants, is that the New Testament church of Jesus Christ was the original “Protestant” church.
Hope you all enjoyed that little history lesson! I am currently reading a book by a Protestant that describes this version of church history pretty much exactly as I just described it to you. So this teaching is still going on in Protestant churches.
If you try to tell them that this version of history is incorrect, you will be told that the Catholic establishment destroyed all the TRUE writings of the TRUE church fathers, other than the New Testament. The Church fathers that you cite are part of the “false” church that took over the “true” church, and therefore, their writings are unreliable. In some cases, these fathers didn’t even exist; the Catholic Church created these fictitious “fathers” over the centuries to make their false teachings look historical.
Honest, I’m not making this up!
And those of you who think that Protestants are rebellious heretics who should just come to their sense and accept Catholicism–well, perhaps this will help you understand why many Protestants won’t even step into a Catholic church, let alone read our books or listen to our speakers! They believe we are all part of the false church that tried to destroy the New Testament church!
