Protestants did not exist in 120 A.D. The Church has since had to deal with their existence and what it means for their salvation. The first Protestant still had about 1400 years to be born so let’s deal with what was happening in the 2nd century in that context.
Just thought I would point out that while there was no official name as “protestant” in the early centuries they did exist i.e. those in protest, Tertullian is an one example, Marcionites, etc. They are also in the bible, the apostles in their epistles warn against them. A good example is Paul to Timothy:
**1 Tim 1:18: This charge I commit to you, Timothy, my son, in accordance with the prophetic utterances which pointed to you, that inspired by them you may wage the good warfare,
19: holding faith and a good conscience. By rejecting conscience, certain persons have made shipwreck of their faith,
20: among them Hymenae’us and Alexander, whom I have delivered to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme.
1 John 1:19: They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out, that it might be plain that they all are not of us.
2 Pet 2:1: But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction.
2 Pet 3:15: And count the forbearance of our Lord as salvation. So also our beloved brother Paul wrote to you according to the wisdom given him,
16: speaking of this as he does in all his letters. There are some things in them hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other scriptures.
Jud 1:8: Yet in like manner these men in their dreamings defile the flesh, reject authority, and revile the glorious ones.
2 Pet 2:10: and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority. Bold and wilful, they are not afraid to revile the glorious ones,**
The last 2 are kind of interesting in that it still occurs. I personally think of Mary and the saints when I read those those people who “revile glorious ones”.
There are quite a few more examples in the Apostolic epistles where this is occuring and in each instance the apostles denounce it. So protestantism isn’t new though I don’t think it retained it’s official tag until the 1500’s. Even the documents of the 1500’s from the church call it “the ancient heresy”.
Though milder in todays form than many of the ancient protesters, quite a few of them are adopting the same beliefs as those ancient sects, like Christ left his body before his body died on the cross, or his spirit was floating behind him during the crusifixion, the resurrection had already happened, the parousia wouldn’t come, Christ was a spirit or an angel and not really human, reincarnation, and on and on.
It makes me appreciate the church all the more considering the opposition it went through in the first century, Romans, ancient protesters, the Judaizers, rejection by the Jews. God kept his word and protected the church, even when this stuff resurfaced in varied forms throughout the centuries. The one common thread they all had was rebellion against the apostles.
Concupisence through pride, same as in the garden of eden.
Peace and God Bless
Nicene