Where are all the Protestants?

Catholic Christians identify closely with the term “Catholic,” and Orthodox Christians embrace the term “Orthodox.” In contrast, many Protestants only marginally relate to the term “Protestant.” Not that they don’t have Protestant beliefs, but the term itself is so generic that it often holds little meaning to Protestants today. One reason is that no Protestant is just a Protestant, but is instead identified with either a denomination (Methodist, Congregationalist, and so on) or a particular expression of Protestantism (evangelical, fundamentalist, charismatic).

Answering the core questions

Protestants answer the questions raised at the beginning of this section as follows:

How is a person saved?

A person is saved by his or her faith in Jesus, not by simply doing good deeds or by being a good person.

Where does religious authority lie?

Authority lies solely in the inspired Word of God, not in the pope or in the Church.

What is the Church?

The Church is an entire community of believers, each of whom is called to go directly to God through Christ as the sole mediator. All Christians, not just the clergy, are called to reach out as Christ’s ambassadors in the world. See the section, “Considering all Christians as equal in God’s eyes,” earlier in this chapter, for more on this idea of the priesthood of all believers.

What’s the essence of Christian living?

The essence of Christian living is serving God in a calling, whether it’s inside or outside of the Church. (See also Chapter 14.)

Breaking It Down into Denominations

Protestants and rabbits seem to have something in common, and it’s not floppy ears or a love for carrots. Since the beginning of the movement, Protestants have had a knack for multiplying churches. Or, as a cynic might say: Put two Protestants in a room and you’ll soon have another denomination being formed.

Denominations rose up within the Protestant Church nearly a hundred years after the deaths of Luther and Calvin. Luther, Calvin, and their predecessors were tied to the medieval concept of Christendom (a marriage of Church and state) and a single Church for a geographical area. So, they were strict in combating dissention within these areas. But, over time, an openness to denominations began to develop.

Denominations are different from sects. Although the term has many meanings and connotations in contemporary society, a sect is much more exclusive and tends to distance itself from other Christians, believing that it alone knows God’s truth, and everyone else is either outside the Body of Christ or at least on very shaky ground. One might liken a sect to a cult. In contrast, a denomination is often more inclusive, believing that different groups can express their faith in different organizational and worshipful ways, but all are part of a larger Body of Christ. In other words, a person in a sect points to the True Church with one finger. Persons in a denomination, although they may believe that their particular brand of Christianity is best, nonetheless use all their fingers and toes (and then some) to point to all the churches of the True Church. Refer to Figure 11-1 to see some of the Protestant denominations that spun off of the original four strands through the years.

Figure 11-1: Protestantism began with one man and evolved into four main strands of belief that further branched over time.

Catholic Church

Lutheran

Calvinist/Reformed

Anabaptist

Anglican

Congregationalists (most)

Presbyterians

Baptists (most)

Various Reformed

Mennonite

Hutterites

Amish

Methodist

Episcopalian

United Methodist

Free Methodist

Wesleyan

Prototype of the 21^st-century evangelical

John Wesley (see Chapter 18) was an Anglican pastor in the 18^th century who started the Methodist church. He’d been a very devoted minister and had even spent some lengthy time in America as a missionary. But, like Luther, he wrestled with his own personal salvation in light of his sin. Due to close contact with some Moravian Christians (a Protestant denomination) and his reading of Luther’s commentary on Romans, Wesley eventually discovered what Luther had seen years before: the doctrine of salvation by grace through faith and personal certainty of salvation.

Wesley didn’t set out to move away from the Anglican Church, but it gradually happened. He felt called to preach outside to reach coal miners and other common folk who wouldn’t think of going into formal churches. Given the Billy Graham crusades that are commonplace today, that kind of open-air preaching doesn’t sound unusual, but it was radical for an Anglican pastor during his day. Undeterred, Wesley was a tireless preacher who, over the course of decades of ministry, travelled an estimated 250,000 miles around Britain to preach the gospel, mostly by horseback!

Wesley emphasized a revitalized faith and a biblical Christianity that the original reformers talked about. He contrasted true Christian faith (a life of faith and discipleship) with the lukewarm faith that seemed to be part of the Church of England of his day.

As he travelled throughout Britain, Wesley helped organize Christians into Methodist societies, which were groups of Christians that met together outside of formal church, but eventually formalized into a denomination. He also worked diligently to reform society, fighting against slavery and drunkenness, fighting for child education, and caring for the poor. Further, he was active in overseas missionary work, establishing the Methodist church in America.

The reasons that denominations came about are wide ranging. For example:

Some denominations formed based on the government of the church. Congregationalists believe that independent churches should govern themselves by the congregation apart from a higher authority. Congregationalist pastors, then, are ultimately subject to the congregation. Presbyterians (from presbyter, the Greek word for “elder”) believe that elders (leaders) should govern the church alongside the pastor. Episcopalians, closer to the Catholic model, say that the government should be a hierarchy of regional bishops (overseers) over pastors in local churches.

Denominations were established due to doctrinal differences. The Baptist denomination was originally established in the early 17^th century by an Anglican pastor named John Smyth. Smyth believed that the Church of England was unbiblical due to its position on apostolic succession (the belief that bishops are the anointed successors of the original apostles to lead the Church). In addition, the holiness movement rose up from the Methodist Church in the 1890s based on the belief that the Church should be primarily dedicated to promoting holiness-based living and teaching.

Other denominations developed almost organically, springing out of ongoing church activities.

The best example of this is the Methodist denomination, which was started by John Wesley (see the “Prototype of the 21st-century evangelical” sidebar in this chapter), an Anglican pastor whose missionary activities eventually created a group of Christians that met together outside of the Church of England.

Other denominations formed not due to doctrinal differences, but due to geographical considerations. These include the Dutch Reformed Church in the Netherlands or the north and south churches of the U.S. during the civil war era (Northern Methodists and Southern Methodists). Over the years, some of these geographically-split churches merged together with others (the United Methodist Church).

Denominations also sprung up due to ethnic and cultural realities.

The African-American churches that emerged during the 19^th century are most notable.

An adage among Christians is, “Major on the majors and minor on the minors.” Biblically-minded Protestants are characterized by agreement on the majors (see the section “Examining Core Protestant Beliefs,” earlier in this chapter), but by splitting along the minors. Issues such as how Christians should express their faith outwardly are less important than the major issues pertaining to salvation, but they’re not insignificant and trivial and can’t be simply brushed aside.

Protestants believe that individual Christians should follow what they believe the Bible says and find a church that’s in synch with those beliefs. At the same time, they believe that no one church body has a monopoly on God’s truth. The result is that the Church inevitably consists of multiple church bodies, not a single one. Still, these separate church bodies can be unified by majoring on the majors while allowing for differences on the minors.

To name or be named

Some Christian groups have been stuck with names that people who disagreed with them coined. Christians is a label that the Romans first used to condescendingly refer to followers of Christ. Protestants is a term that the Catholic Church used when referring to the protestors within the Church. Anabaptists got their name too from their enemies, who scathingly were calling them “rebaptizers.” But other groups, such as the Catholics, Orthodox, and Presbyterians were more proactive (or had better marketing departments) and got to choose their own names.