Hot answers tagged protestantism
15
Evangelicalism is not in itself a "confession". It is more of a general grouping of similar confessions. As such, it is a bit hard to pin down on a specific point of doctrine like your question calls for.
That being said, we could paint with a broad brush and describe some of general leanings. Every one of these will be wrong for at least some Evangelicals.
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12
My first answer wasn't very good; I want to take a different angle. I hope this approach helps make this issue more clear.
TL;DR
You don't have to stage a protest to be Protestant. It's a matter of heritage.
Of fallacies and analogies...
Your question commits some basic fallacies that can easily be addressed.
cite an accurate historical reference ...
9
The answer is in the verse just prior:
Because of the present crisis, I think that it is good for a man to remain as he is. (NIV 1 Corinthians 7:26)
In other words, given the 'present crisis' marriage posed various difficulties. The present crisis was the crisis of religious upheaval that would lead to great persecutions. In situations that call for ...
8
I think there are two basic answers to your question. The first, and simple answer is:
Many Protestant churches do not allow divorce. Some congregations deny membership rights to people who are divorced.
The more direct, and also more complex, answer to your question is:
Many protestant churches permit divorce because there is simply nothing they can ...
8
Some major problems with "KJV-onlyism" lies in the assumptions it makes and some of which you enumerated.
From an evangelical perspective, we accept the idea that the Bible is, indeed, the word of God. Specifically, "men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit."
20 knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from
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7
"Evangelical" is certainly difficult to pin down! The Encyclopedia of Christianity says
[In America] it covers a wide range of not completely harmonious uses, from the Pentecostal churches to the peace churches, Missouri Synod Lutherans, Southern Baptist Convention, Holiness movement (eg Church of the Nazarene), charismatic groups (including Roman ...
7
In order to be saved, one must follow the order of salvation that the scriptures set forward. Romans 10:14 tells us that the order is 1) preach, 2) hear, 3) believe, and 4) call upon the name of the Lord (baptism, Acts 22:16). Acts 2:38 tells us that repentance comes before baptism, and Romans 10:10 tells us that confession comes after belief.
But let's ...
7
There's no singular answer to this question, and you'd likely see tons of different situations depending on the pastor and his church.
At my church, the pastor is full-time, and his salary is paid out of a portion of the tithes given to the church. However, in some situations, pastors must find another job in order to pay the bills, typically because ...
7
It is worth pointing out that even if you take the stance that the verse is saying that Peter had some kind of special stance. There is nothing that indicates that that authority is continued in his line. Every other place I can think of where a lineage related authority is granted, it is pretty clearly laid out by God in scripture. (For example the ...
6
Asking "What do Protestants think about the sacraments?" is a bit misleading. There are a large variety of Protestant views, some of them are more traditional than others. The question as to whether Protestant groups are wholly divorced from the Apostolic succession is also not 100% correct. There are a few clearly Protestant groups who have at least some ...
6
There is a teaching that is very common in Baptist Churches that the Baptist Church has its origins in the New Testament Church, long before the Reformation. A fair representation of the teaching is found at Providence Baptist Ministries.
A summary of the teaching consists of the following points:
There have always, since the time of the New Testament ...
6
The way the question is phrased means we must look at two historical developments:
How preaching evolved in the early church, from Jesus through the pioneer stage of Acts to the early church fathers.
How preaching evolved in the protestant church, from Luther into what we have today.
Also, one must note the context of the preaching: Small group, large ...
6
No Protestant churches that I know of ever require members to submit proof that they are tithing (though there certainly may be some). Tithing is generally considered to be something that the members ought to do, but is between them and God.
This may flow out of the doctrine of the Priesthood of All Believers. Each person is directly accountable to God ...
5
The idea behind the term "protestant" may have originated in those who literally protested the Catholic Church, but today it has a somewhat broader meaning. It has come to mean that a church believes that the Catholic Church lost its way, and that it is necessary to teach correct doctrine as described in the Bible, instead of Biblical doctrines mingled with ...
5
One possible interpretation is that the tree of life would have given them eternal physical life. After the Fall, this would have been in a state of separation from God. So, God prevented them from living forever in this state of separation.
God's purpose was that they live forever in communion with Him.
5
For purposes of this question, protestants can be divided up into three main political camps:
Those that align closely with Catholics, such as Anglicans, older Lutheran groups, and other highly-centralized and liturgical groups. This category tends to either vote exactly as the denomination suggests, or will discount religion in their voting patterns ...
5
Based on my personal experience as a lifelong Roman Catholic, I offer the following brief insight. First, the sign of the cross is just the that: the sign of the CROSS, the cross upon which Christ's blood was spilled in atonement for our sins and to redeem us. That's powerful in and of itself.
Second, in a Catholic mass, when the sign of the cross is ...
5
The modern Baptist denominations and adherents descend from the Anabaptist movement which was part of the 16th century Reformation.
Several Baptist churches hold to similar creeds to the Nicene (or, more commonly in my experience, confessions of faith or faith statements).
There are also hundreds of Baptist churches which call themselves "Reformed" (I grew ...
5
I believe you're confusing etymology with history. "Protestant" while it may have originally referred to a limited subset of non-Catholic Westerners (specifically, a very small group of Lutherans around the Diet of Speyer in 1529), now (generally) means "non-Catholic Christian" (Rome is not necessarily the definitive standard, however: "Protestant" or may ...
5
It's clear from your question that you are assuming "the prize" to be salvation, and that you believe that this verse speaks of our works earning our salvation, or at least our bad works possibly leading to the loss of our salvation.
However, to most reformed theologians, this is not the case. A deeper study of the original Greek, as well as application of ...
5
The key issue is not what is in the prayers, but that the prayers are repetitive. It seems to follow from this that prayers would not arise from a person's heart. Protestants generally believe pretty strongly that prayer should be spontaneous from a person's heart--not words that someone else wrote for them to read or recite.
In the Sermon on the Mount, ...
5
This may not be completely answerable in a way that applies to all Protestants, but I'm going to put forth an answer that I believe will apply to a large swath of protestant belief.
The generally accepted Protestant understanding of what prayer is can be found at http://www.whatchristianswanttoknow.com/10-prayer-tips-how-to-talk-to-god/
Prayer is simply ...
5
I am unaware of any protestant denominations that have a special focus on contemplative prayer, but I'm also unaware of any that outright ban it. In my experience it is practiced only by a minority of Protestants, and that they are spread throughout many denominations. Of course it is practiced only by a minority of Catholics too.
A good place to start is ...
5
Catholic can have a few different meanings. It could refer to:
The Roman Catholic Church
Eastern Catholic churches in communion with the Pope
The universal church
The Nicene creed which is used in a lot of Christian churches that have broken away from the Roman Catholic church still say that they "believe in one holy and catholic". (note the lower case ...
5
The word "Catholic" is an old term meaning "universal." For this reason, even non-Roman Catholics still confess in the Nicene Creed that they believe in "one holy apostolic and catholic church." As Roman Catholics consider their church to be the one true church descended from Peter, this makes sense. Based on the confession of St. Peter, they believe that ...
5
The Scriptures make no restriction on who can baptize another person. In the Great Commission of Matthew 28, Jesus tells His disciples to make disciples, to baptize them and to teach them obedience. It is very plausible to presume, then, that the one who disciples is the one who has the right to baptize and teach obedience as well. Yet, individuals can ...
5
One claim is that it's a translation issue. "Peter" means "rock", so when Jesus says, "you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church" there's a bit of a play of words going on. Pretty much everyone agrees on at least that much.
However, depending on which manuscript set you trust and your interpretation, it's a different word for rock for Peter's ...
5
"Protestantism" is the name of a movement. "Protestants" are people who are part of that movement. It's the same relationship as between the words "Catholicism" and "Catholics". Catholics are the people who are part of Catholicism.
The problem is that your definition of Protestants is far too narrow. Protestants don't pray to Mary (mostly - there are a few ...
4
I basically agree with last two of Jon's answers (here and here), but I'd like to add some Catholic perspective to it.
As Jon interpreted Chesterton, there have always been different groups in the Church, approaching on extreme or the other. Rivalities between monastic orders within Catholic Church show this quite well: opposition between Franciscans and ...
4
As Matthew 19:18 states,
Jesus replied, "Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning.
Jesus is clearly pointing out that divorce is, in fact, legal. It is bad, but it is permissible. To turn it into an iron-clad law is then much like laws concerning the Sabbath - Jesus values the ...
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