What is a Protestant, Part One
It often comes up just what do I, or others think, about the Protestant church.
Well, I DO think about non-Catholics alot, since I view them as separated brothers and sisters in Christ. As such, I have their eternal welfare in mind.
However, just as with Greek Orthodoxy, so with Protestantism - there is no such thing in reality as the Protestant Church.
"Protestant," and Protestantism are generic terms, covering a huge number of different sects, all of which generally agree in only one thing: a loathful 'protest' against The Catholic Church.
Now some like to say that Protestant means one who protests against the Catholic Church seated at Rome, and ths is fairly so. The Rev. Dr. Goudge, a Protestant, and formerly the Regius professor of Divinity at Oxford, writes, "The number of meanings given to the word Protestant is astonishing, as the great Oxford dictionary will show us.
It suggests a person whose main interest is opposition to The Church seated at Rome, and there are such persons. However, the best use of the word today may be the one The Catholic and the Eastern Orthodox churches use, themselves, 'Protestant means a Western Christian who remains outside the Catholic Church seated at Rome.'"
So, just for fun, I snagged a couple of dictionary meanings from online in about 20 seconds...
- a member, or follower of any of the Western Christian churches that are separate from the Catholic Church at Rome and which follow the principles of the Reformation, including the Baptist, Presbyterian, and Lutheran churches, etc.
- relating to or belonging to any of the Protestant Churches.
- prot·es·tant ˈprä-tə-stəntsense 2 is alsoprə-ˈte-1Protestanta: any of a group of German princes and cities presenting a defense of freedom of conscience against an edict of the Diet of Speyer in 1529 intended to suppress the Lutheran movementb: a member of any of several church denominations denying the universal authority of the Pope and affirming the Reformation principles of justification by faith alone, the priesthood of all believers, and the primacy of the Bible as the only source of revealed truthbroadly : a Christian not of a Catholic or Eastern church
- There isn't a lot of consistency there, you'll note, except...
A. They broadly categorize certain groups or denominations as being, "Protestant"
B. There is a universally accepted disaffection for the Catholic Church at Rome.
Most "Protestants," whatever sect they belong to, will agree on little between themselves, but that they universally protest against the Catholic Church at Rome and it's doctrines.
The reason for this is due to something Archbishop Fulton Sheen once observed, that is, there are very few people who actually hate the Catholic Church - but there are millions who hate what they imagine her to be.
I add that last condition because many doctrines are attributed to The Church which she has never taught. In this case, Protestants either do not really understand the religion they attack, or they have talked themselves into things that arent so. In each case, the things they think they DO know inevitably come from those who, themselves, are enemies of the Church. So we can hardly say their loathing is impartial.
It must be noted, too, that Protestants are not all agreed as to what should be condemned in Catholic teaching. What one Protestant condemns, another Protestant upholds. And in nearly all cases, while they imagine themselves to be, "free'd from the Catholic Church," they all adopt one part or another of Catholic theology, doctrine, or practices into their own groups.
I an attempt to define Protestantism, some try to switch gears and whip up a little high school Latin, saying the word, "Protestant" is a positive thing, that it combines the prefix "pro," or 'for,' and "testor" meaning 'I witness....' aka one witnessing for the great ideals of the Gospel.
And while that sounds good, and may be generally true, it is just a modern interpretation of the word which departs from the historical sense, of which we shall shortly learn.
In another misuse of Latin - very rarely - someone refers to the Latin Vulgate translation of the Bible, the original Bible, for the words, "Quos protestantes illi audire nolebant," meaning, "They would not hear them when they protested."
2 Par. XXIV., 19. aka, 2 Chronicles, chapter 24, verse 19
("Par." is an archaic abbreviation for "Paralipomenon," the Latin name for the books of Chronicles, meaning "things omitted")
But, those words refer to the ill will of the Jews who would not listen to the prophets sent by God to protest against their OWN evil practices. Obviously, then, no Protestant would apply this to anyone pointing out THEIR practices as evil.
It is just a dreadful attempt to connect a word used in a 4th Century translation of the Old Testament, with a Protestantism which arose only in the 16th Century.
No sane person could make the case that St. Jerome had the Protestant Reformation in mind when he translated the Old Testament into Latin in the 4th Century.
This is merely obstinate cherry-picking of Scripture verses to make arguments, something many Protestants are known for.
In fact, this fragment of Scripture has NO releveance to the meaning of the word, "Protestant," as applied to those who stem from the Reformation.
In another attempt by Protestants to tell us what the word, "Protestant" means, we find an appeal to history. In this we are told the word was derived from the celebrated, "Protest" decree read by the German princes at the Diet of Spires, aka Speyer, Germany.
And BINGO! They get one right. Here, at last, we approach the real problem.
It is the historic meaning of the word according to the events of the period when it arose that really counts, not possible meanings and interpretations of the word way down the line in the current age. We also note that one of our sample dictionary definitions also mentions it - although it sugar coats the essence of the thing.
Read on.
Those Protestants who go this route and apply this information to the naming of their tradition, usually say something along these lines:
"The German princes said, 'We protest and declare that we neither consent nor adhere in any manner whatsoever to the proposed Decree in anything contrary to God, to His holy Word, to our right conscience, and to the salvation of our souls.'
And we can agree that they did say that.
But inevitably the proponents of this stop there because it helps their cause, so they fail to look deeper into it. So let's do that.
Just what DID the Decree demand?
These German princes, or regional rulers in Germany, had taken advantage of Luther's religious revolt to secure their own wealth, and positions of politically independent power for their States. To put it briefly, they used Luther, and his upstart religious movement, as a patsy... a fortuitous smokescreen to secure their own power.
Naturally, then, they supported, "Lutheranism," as a force amongst their people for the breaking of old ties... so they could forge new alliances to their own gain.
Likewise, they commenced the suppression of Catholic worship in their domains.
Now, the Decree of the Diet of Speyer DID grant religious liberty - to those who had already embraced Lutheranism within the states of the German princes...so long as you were one of them, they were all for your religious liberty.
But, when it came to toleration for Catholics dwelling within their boundaries, the "Lutheran princes," protested that they would not grant toleration to Catholics, and said that the religion of their people must be the same as that of themselves, aka, Lutheranism, and no other.
To use some applicable Latin, these princes said, "Cuius regio, illius religio...." or, "Whoever is the ruler, his must be the religion."
In other words, the German princes demanded the right to impose whatever religion they might please upon their subjects - we would call that a, "state religion," today. And their protest was against any obligation to tolerate Catholics.
The word, "Protestant," therefore, according to its historical and religious meaning, was born from a denial of freedom of conscience; and those who thus protested against liberty of worship for Catholics were termed, "Protestants."
Part Two is in the works - stay tuned!
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