Who makes up the rules in a Protestant Church.

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Publisher said:
I am a member of the One True Church via my baptism into it by the Spirit of Christ at regeneration by grace thru faith.

I am a member of the Society of Friends…who meet to gether as the Body of Christ to worship the Lord and seek to do His will in this world as we share Incarnation with Him.

There is only One Church, and all who have been joined to it through the work of the Holy Spirit are members of the Body of Christ.

We have our organizations through which to administer those beliefs and insights we have gained thru the Real Presence of Christ in our midst. The organization we use to facilitate His work in this world is not the True Church…but its members aree part of the Body of Christ.

You believe “church” is an heirarchal organization…we believe the Church is made up of those who have been redeemed by Christ…no matter what organization they belong to.

Church in the NT isn’t an organization…but a People, called out from among the world to serve the Risen Lord where each of us serves in the capacity of our own giftedness in a very eglatarian fashion…we are all priests and share in the Priesthood of Christ…we may approach God directly thru Christ without any other mediator required to administer sacramental rites and rituals…Christ is Chief Administrator…our Baptizer and our True Presence each time two or three of us gather in His name…there is the Church.
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Amen!

It seems that a lot of the comments seem to give too much credence to the decentralized nature of Protestantism. Yes, there are many denominations and there are many churches who do not affiliate with any denominational body. However, that doesn’t mean that in denominations anyone can just make up their own rules. All denominations have a polity and a doctrine. Depending on the tradition,the polity and theology can be very centralized with a central body and leadership determining, interpreting, and enforcing the discipline and doctrinal standards, or, as in the more free church traditions, this can be decentralized with very general beliefs and practices defined at the denominational level and more freedom at the local level to work out the specifics. In each case, though, no one gets to make up their own mind. Now, the people in the pews may not listen to what their pastor teaches but that is not unique to Protestantism. And the pastor may not adhere to what his denomination officially teaches. But that is not unique to Protestantism either. How denominational officials react to rebellious pastors is determined by that organizations beliefs on polity. If they are more hierarchical, they have more options concerning discipline. If they are decentralized, then the only options is to cease affiliation with a rebellious pastor or church. Either way, there are standards and beliefs that are non-negotiable and there are consequences for not adhering to those standards.

Who makes these standards? It depends on what is believed about the nature of the church. Briefly, the most common types of ecclesiastical polities are episcopal (the most perfect “pure” type of which is practiced by the RCC), presbyterian (rule by “elders”), and congregational (where most affairs are handled by the local congregation and those they delegate). Now these are ideal types and are rarely found in their pure forms. Many churches will have some elements of all three.
 
rinnie said:
After my last question to someone on another thread, I thought this would be an interesting discussion.

We know that in the RCC there are many rules and obligations. They are all the commands of God and have been from the beginning of the Church on the day of Pentecost.

Now who makes up the rules in the Protestant Church’s? Is it not the Preacher and how he interprets thing’s.

Example, You must eat the bread from heaven to have eternal life. Which means you must have the living bread from Heaven which is the Eucharist. Its quite simple.

Now hit a Protestant church. Some say yes, but then can’t tell you how to get it. Some say NO , its a symbol?

So how can a Protestant Church be the One True Church if they all have Different teachings?
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Usually the Protestant will say that all rules come from the Bible. It is then up to the Protestant to interpret what he/she believes the Bible to say. For the bread of heaven example, most Protestant would take “eating the bread of heaven” to mean that you must believe on the Lord Jesus. As for the rest of the rules, they are either laid out in scripture, or are up to the individual to be led by the Holy Spirit. Of course, there are disagreements. But the essence of Protestantism is that there isn’t really a central governing authority (other than the Bible) to tell you whether you’re right or wrong, and if you have a “wrong” interpretation of the Bible (in other words, if your interpretation is different than mine) then it is because you are reading what you want the Bible to say instead of letting the Bible lead you. Either that, or “we’ll never know until we get to heaven.”
 
rinnie said:
After my last question to someone on another thread, I thought this would be an interesting discussion.

We know that in the RCC there are many rules and obligations. They are all the commands of God and have been from the beginning of the Church on the day of Pentecost.

Now who makes up the rules in the Protestant Church’s? Is it not the Preacher and how he interprets thing’s.

Example, You must eat the bread from heaven to have eternal life. Which means you must have the living bread from Heaven which is the Eucharist. Its quite simple.

Now hit a Protestant church. Some say yes, but then can’t tell you how to get it. Some say NO , its a symbol?

So how can a Protestant Church be the One True Church if they all have Different teachings?
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Hi rinnie,
Pastor Gary responded quite well with the Lutheran perspective, so I’m just going to comment on the last question.

The problem with the question is the (what I believe to be) false premise that since there are various non-Catholic western communions and all of them cannot be right, then all of them must be wrong. One could make the same apologetic (false) premise in reference to Orthodoxy and Rome; both cannot be right, therefore both are wrong.

While Lutherans make no judgement regarding the salvation of other Christians (we trust in God’s mercy and grace to save all who call on His name), we certainly believe that our confessions, our doctrines, rightly reflect the Truth of the catholic faith. Does that mean we consider oursleves the one True Church? Yes and no. No, because we don’t define the Church in terms of institution or organization. Yes, because we define the Church as the community of believers where the word is righty preached and the sacraments are administered. So, where these things happen, there is the one True Church. We believe these two functions of the Church happen in the Lutheran Communion. It also happens, perhaps mixed with errors, in other communions as well.
Just as importantly, the one True Church is more than the Church Militant. It is also the Church Triumphant (and the Church Suffering, if you wish). The guidance of the Holy Spirit into all truth is the ongoing process by which we are led to the Church Triumphant, not a finite statement regarding the Church Militant. So, for instance, Baptists have not been led into all truth, but the Holy Spirit is leading them to all truth.

Jon
 
LinuxUser said:
I think there can be one Holy Spirit and many ways to understand.
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It some things…

Is abortion wrong? We say yes, period. Not all Christian communities do - some take no position (“it’s a personal conscience decision”). We have to view these positions as in error, not the truth.

Can people of the same sex marry each other in the eyes of God?

Is the Eucharist symbolic?

Is the Holy Bible to sole source of revealed truth?

Can you become saved once and always be saved after that?

All these questions (and many more) have the same answer as the first one. Any “understanding” that yields a different answer is not the truth.

(Please note: my comments are from a Catholic perspective in reply to another Catholic poster.)
 
Publisher wrote:
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God’s People are made up of those who are joined to God thru Christ…they can be found in every tradition of the People called Christians.
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And how do you know this?

These people who are “joined to God thru Christ” believe baptism regenerates, and that it doesn’t; that we can’t lose our salvation, and that we can; that God is a Trinity of persons, and that he isn’t; and so on. Jesus taught nothing that he expects his followers to believe, either about himself, his Father, or about man’s salvation. We may believe whatever we wish as long as we believe in him, whatever that may mean.

Are Quakers relativists? There is no objective religious truth?

This is another iteration of the “invisible church of all true believers” concept that made its first appearance in the 16th century with the so-called “Reformers.” It was not taught by Christ and the Apostles.
 
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