What is a Protestant?

[Rex]

How would you define a protestant?

Is the USA largely a protestant country?

Were we founded by WASP(s) (White Anglo Saxon Protestants) ?

Do the protestants know the bible better than anyone else?

 

[Corban]

Protestants are groups that broke off from The Catholic church to form there own church. they "protested" hence the name Protestant. Thus in my view, they are groups who openly acknowledge that both the Catholics and themselves are false. Don't blame me if that sounds harsh, I borrow that teaching from the Bible. A living branch can not come from a dead tree. If they broke off from the Catholics they admit that church is dead, therefore anything that springs from it is dead and is merely the creation of man. A living church has to spring from the living water or from God. The early reformers agreed with this, I'll let them speek for themselves. From Martin Luther "The spiritual powers have been not only corrupted by sin, but absolutely destroyed so that there is nothing in them but a depraved reason and a will that is the enemy and opponent of God. I have no authority but simply say that Christianity has ceased to exist among those who should have preserved it" - From Roger Williams "There is no regularly constituted church on the earth, nor any person qualified to administer any church ordinances, nor can there be until new apostles are sent by the Great Head of the Church for whose coming I am seeking."
The reformers only had authority to say the Catholics were false, they did not have authority to establish the church of God, they are the churches of men only, of Luther, of Wesley, of Calvin. not of God. as evidences by there great numbers the only thing they could agree on was that the Catholics were wrong, they still can not agree what is right.

 

[Runt]

Protestants are a group of people who originally disagreed with the way the Christianity was being run and decided to create their own version. Then they left Europe and traveled to America with the intention of getting themselves some religious freedom. Unfortunatly, there were just as mean and nasty as the people who they had condemned and run away from, and they basically gave themselves religious freedom in their little colonies while forcing people who didn't agree to leave and form their own colonies (like Rhode Island).

As for being founded by them.... We were founded by people of many religions and many cultures, not just protestants and not even just Christians. People of many other religious faiths have made valuable contributions to our society than just Christians and in particular Protestants. We cannot sit around saying "I think we should run our country as the forefathers wished" because the forefathers are dead, the country itself has changed, and WE are in charge, not a bunch of dead "white anglo saxon protestants".

 

[harold e. rice]

How would you define a protestant?

Is the USA largely a protestant country?

Were we founded by WASP(s) (White Anglo Saxon Protestants) ?

Do the protestants know the bible better than anyone else?

Protestantism began as a movement to reform the Western Christian church in the 16th century, resulting in the Protestant Reformation, which severed the reformed churches from the Roman Catholic Church. The declared aim of the original reformers was to restore the Christian faith as it had been at its beginning, while keeping what they thought valuable from the Roman Catholic tradition that had developed during the intervening centuries. Despite the considerable differences among them in doctrine and practice, they agreed in rejecting the authority of the pope and in emphasizing instead the authority of the Bible and the importance of individual faith.

The event usually considered the beginning of the Reformation is Martin Luther’s publication, in 1517, of his Ninety-five Theses attacking the indiscriminate sale of indulgences to finance the construction of Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome. Luther, an Augustinian monk and professor of theology at the University of Wittenberg, had been unable to find assurance of salvation in traditional Catholic teachings. He came to believe that such assurance was to be found in the doctrine of justification by divine grace through faith, which he thought Catholic theology had obscured by giving equal weight to the efficacy of good works. The sale of indulgences, he believed, was an abuse that originated in the mistaken emphasis on works

A protest was signed by six Lutheran princes and the leaders of 14 free cities of Germany, and Lutherans in general became known as Protestants. The term Protestant has gradually been attached to all Christian churches that are not Roman Catholic or part of the Orthodox or other Eastern Christian traditions.
Many of these smaller, more radical sects fled persecution by immigrating to America, beginning with the Puritans. They were followed to New England by Congregationalists and Baptists. The middle colonies were settled by a diversity of sects, particularly Lutherans, Mennonites, and Anabaptists. In the southern colonies the Church of England was made the established church.
Most Protestant churches retained the central doctrines of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox traditions, such as the Trinity, the atonement and resurrection of Christ, the authority of the Bible, and the sacramental character of baptism and the Eucharist, or Lord’s Supper. Certain doctrines and practices, however, distinguish the Protestant tradition from the two older Christian traditions.
Protestants affirm the authority of the Bible, which is considered the sole source and standard for their teachings; they reject the Roman Catholic position giving ultimate authority to the pope in matters of faith and morals.

A Protestant is simply a Catholic without the Pope, the Sacraments and the Virgin Mary. Many of the Protestant Christians don't realize that most of the their traditions, pagan symbols, rituals and dogma came from the Roman Catholic Church.

Now let's take a look at some numbers from the religion section of 2001 edition of The World Almanac. There are just shy of 2 billion Christians in the world (1,974,181,000 according to page 692 of The World Almanac). Of these almost 2 billion Christians, only about 337 million are listed as Protestant.

Most Christians in America are Protestant, but hundreds of Protestant denominations and independent congregations exist. Many of the major denominations, such as Baptists, Lutherans, and Methodists, are splintered into separate groups that have different ideas about theology or church organization. Some Protestant religious movements, including Fundamentalism and Evangelicalism, cut across many different Protestant organizations.

It has been known that the Protestant know less about the bible than any other group of people simply because they are taught to PRAY, PAY, and OBEY. Blind faith and not facts is the driving force behind the present day Protestant Church with the Fundamentalist being the worst. Many of the Universities throughout the world that offer a degree in theology hire Atheist to teach Religion as a subject simply because they know more about religion and Christianity than born again Christians.