What is a Protestant really?
- James Ward
- Oct 31, 2017
- 6 min read
Updated: Oct 30, 2021
On October 31, 1517, a Catholic priest named Martin Luther had some issues that he wanted to debate. In Luther's day, if you wanted to make a public announcement, you would nail your message to the door of the church so that everyone could see it. If you wanted to have a debate, you would write your theses and nail them to the door as an invitation to anyone who would like to challenge your arguments, and then it would be debated at length. When Luther nailed his Ninety-Five Theses to the door of All Saints' Church in Wittenberg, that's what he was doing. He was initiating a public debate over some issues that he thought needed to be discussed. He was not performing an act of protest or rebellion. He was doing a normal thing that lots of people did. The door was probably covered in papers from other people. Luther was a very devout Catholic. He had no intention of leaving the church, starting a new religion, or drawing people away from the Catholic church. But through the process of debating and being chastised by Rome, he became compelled by his conscience and by holy scripture that he could not remain in fellowship with Rome because they had strayed too far away from the apostolic teaching of Christianity and they refused to submit to the authority of scripture.
Many people think of Martin Luther as the person who started the Protestant Reformation, but he was not the first person to ever have such disagreements with Rome. Before him there were many people who could be called Protestants in their own right, or maybe you could call them proto-Protestants. In those days, to go against Rome was a death sentence. Men like Jan Hus and John Wycliffe were executed by Rome centuries before Luther. They were killed for committing crimes like translating the Bible into a readable language for the common people, or for simply preaching the biblical gospel. And there were many men who came after Luther who were just as important or even more important to the Reformation, such as Calvin, Knox, and Zwingli to name a few. They faced torture and the threat of losing their lives because they cared more about truth than traditions. Do you?
Most people think of October 31 as halloween, but Reformed Christians call it Reformation Day. Instead of trick-or-treating, there is an actual cause for celebration that will go mostly ignored by our society. This is something that should be celebrated by every Christian, but arguably even the unbelievers should celebrate the Reformation. Most people do not realize how important the Reformation is to Western society. The freedoms that Americans enjoy, and the basic framework of our nation's ideals, came from Reformed Christians who came to America as the first pilgrims. Our constitutional rights are based on biblical standards, and our system of jurisprudence comes from the Bible. Our founding fathers were not Roman Catholics, they were Protestants and they were extremely serious about not allowing Rome's authority into this country's governmental structure. So anyone who enjoys the freedoms of America should be thankful that the Reformation happened, because sacralism was the law of the land before the Reformation. In other words, the Church and the State were the same thing. If you enjoy the concept of separation of Church and State, you can thank our Protestant forefathers because they're the ones who insisted on it. They did not want any church to have political authority in America. America was built on Protestant principles. Thank God!
Thanks to the Protestant Reformation you can read the Bible freely, without fear of being tortured to death because Rome forbade it. You are free to stand in public and speak freely without fear of punishment. You can freely write and publish anything you want. You can do these things because people in the past dedicated their lives to making it happen, and many of them died horribly in the process. Because of the Reformers, we are free to study scripture without fear of someone breaking down the door and burning us alive. Do you take advantage of this freedom or are you apathetic about it?
Many people think of the Protestant Reformation as something that took place a long time ago in history. But it's actually a series of events that have continued century after century, and is still happening. Today Protestants still stand against Rome's unbiblical doctrines, but now we have to deal with a lot more than just Rome. We have to deal with the dead denominations who have abandoned scripture and become un-Christian shells of what they used to be. Many of the mainline "Protestant denominations" have completely collapsed and can no longer be recognized as Christian. So we have to deal with the fake nominal Christians who just want to blend in with the unbelieving world and reject biblical Christianity. We also reject and stand in opposition to all of the sub-christian cults like Mormonism and the Jehovah's Witnesses. We have rampant false gospels that saturate TV, radio, and pop-culture. Just turn on the 'Christian' channel on your TV and you'll see a religion that bares little resemblance to the biblical faith. Can you see the difference between the two? As a Protestant, you should be able to see the difference, and you should be able to use scripture to refute each one of those groups.
Our culture is in very serious trouble. The average American couldn't define Christianity if their life depended on it. Even a disturbing amount of people who call themselves Christians have no idea what Christians are supposed to believe, and they probably aren't even sure what they themselves believe. Reformed Christians today are still calling for Rome to reform. That has never changed. But now we're also calling for all of these other religious groups to reform. We want everyone who claims the name of Christ to submit to the authority of scripture and be reformed by the power of God's word.
Today the Reformation is still happening 500 years after Martin Luther nailed his arguments to that door, even though the majority of people calling themselves "Protestant" have no idea what the issues are, or that there is even a debate still happening. Today there are many Reformed Christians continuing to preach the biblical gospel regardless of what our culture thinks about it. We still refuse to surrender. We still debate the issues. We still passionately want to call people back to the biblical gospel of salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone. We want to protect the sanctity of the biblical gospel and we'll challenge anyone who attempts to alter it. There are Protestants all over the world calling people to repent and believe in Christ alone for their salvation so they can experience true freedom and genuine salvation. The goal of every Protestant is supposed to be the advancement of Christ's kingdom on earth. The way we accomplish this is by simply telling people what God has already said. We tell them what the Bible says. That's what Protestants do.
If you are a Protestant, get in touch with your roots. Examine the "denomination" that you belong to. Trace it back to the Reformation and see how closely it matches up. Has your church abandoned its own founding principles? The goal of the Reformers was to get back to the original teachings of the apostles which Rome had abandoned. Has your church abandoned this principle? Would you know if it had? It's time to ask yourself why you're called a Protestant if you're not even 'protesting' anything. On issues like salvation by faith alone, or the freedom of the will vs the bondage of the will, or scripture vs tradition, are you on Rome's side of the debate or are you on the Protestant side?
The world is changing rapidly, and biblical Christianity is being portrayed as a blight that needs to be removed from society. If you believe in the most basic Christian ideals today, such as Christ being the only Savior, you will be hated by most people including those who claim to be Protestants. If you still believe the things that Christians have always believed, you are said to be on the wrong side of history, and you are blamed for holding society back. Western culture is currently under the judgement of God. Repent and believe in Jesus Christ alone for your salvation. Then go and boldly tell others to do likewise. This is what Protestants do.
"And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age." (Matthew 28:18-20)
Thanks for reading. God bless.
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