Taking a Middle Ground: The Anglican Church

The fourth and final original Protestant movement brought about the Anglican Church. Unlike the previous three, this split from the Catholic Church didn’t come about initially due to theological differences, but instead because of that nasty, unseemly business of politics.

Not too long after the Reformation began, England’s King Henry VIII wanted to get a divorce, but in order for the divorce to be valid, he needed the pope’s approval. Try as he might, he couldn’t get it. So, if you’re a spoiled king who always gets what he wants, what do you do? Why, of course, you simply tell the Catholic Church to take a hike, form your own national Church (the Church of England), and then get a divorce approved by the head of that Church. And that’s exactly what the king did. However, when he took this action, the Church of England didn’t immediately become Protestant in orientation, but instead kept a doctrine in line with Catholic teaching.

In time, the Church of England moved closer to the Protestant position, believing that the Bible, not tradition, was the final authority and that the only two legitimate sacraments were baptism and the Lord’s Supper (see Chapter 8). At the same time, the Anglican Church didn’t move as far away from the Catholic Church as the other Protestant groups, retaining a “high church” liturgy (see Chapter 12), among other ideas.

Examining Core Protestant Beliefs

The original goal of Protestantism was to provide new answers to age-old questions concerning Christianity for which some people felt the Catholic Church gave unsatisfactory answers. These questions included

How is a person saved?

Where does religious authority lie?

What is the Church?

What’s the essence of Christian living?

Protestants share common answers to each of these questions. They summarize these beliefs as a set of solas, a word derived from the plural Latin word meaning “only.” These are

Sola Scriptura: The Bible is the only authority for Christians to determine God’s truth.

Solus Chrisus: Jesus Christ is the only mediator between God and man.

Sola Gratia, Sola Fide: Salvation is by grace alone through faith alone.

Sola Deo Gloria: Only God gets the credit for offering the solution of salvation, not people.

A final core belief, priesthood of the saints (all people are considered equals before God) doesn’t begin with sola, but all Protestants hold it closely.

Together, these core beliefs served as the foundation for Protestantism centuries ago and remain valid to biblical Protestants today. I discuss each of them in this section.

Yielding to the Bible as the one and only authority

Protestants believe that the Bible is the sole and final authority as the written Word of God. They believe that Church tradition (referring to the historical beliefs and practices of the Church that I discuss in Chapter 10) is good and helpful, but that it doesn’t carry the authority of scripture. The Holy Spirit works through the Bible, never presents truths independent of it, and isn’t going to speak new extra-biblical revelations to people today.

In addition, Protestants believe that biblical interpretation shouldn’t be reserved for the lofty domains of the clergy and theologians. Instead, they say that each person can interpret the Bible, not simply the Church. But at the same time, the original reformers never believed that this meant a “to each his own” freedom of interpretation. Although one shouldn’t ignore the clergy’s education and special insight into understanding the Bible, the reformers’ initial vision was that the clergy and congregation would work together to reach a consensus on understanding the Word of God. In other words, a Christian shouldn’t interpret the Bible outside of the instruction and teaching of the Church. However, as the “Breaking It Down into Denominations” section (later in this chapter) discusses, the belief that all Christians are called to interpret the Bible for themselves had the unintended side effect of creating a multitude of denominations.

Luther’s belief regarding the authority of the Bible differed from his more radical contemporaries. Luther believed that although the Bible was the only authority, extra-biblical traditions were legitimate so long as they didn’t go against the Bible. On the other hand, the Anabaptists and other radicals claimed that if the Bible didn’t specifically command something, it was wrong to practice it. By the 18^th century, most Protestants came to emphasize the belief that “only scripture” meant that no authority except the Bible could determine God’s truth.