Dare to disagree and express your views or interpretations! Dare to be different and be a Daniel who stood up against the whole government and defied it or like Dietrich Bonhoeffer who attempted an assassination of Adolf Hitler as a double-agent, and was martyred by the Nazis for his faith and dissent. They were Protestants in spirit who learned to think for themselves and didn't blindly follow the leaders but knew their God personally.
Will the real Protestant stand up, and be counted, please! Protestants are called that because they protest! Protestants are born to question authority and to check things out for themselves, not taking some one's word for it, no matter who he is; having a personal and not a second-hand knowledge of the Lord. It's time to show your Christian colors! What then is the essence of being Protestant and why is this an issue in today's evangelical church?
The issue is how can we end up being Catholics in practice while calling ourselves Protestant. The branch of Christianity known as Protestant includes a lot of denominations, but they tend to all agree that salvation is by grace through faith in Christ alone (this is known as sola gratia, sola fide, and solus Christus in Latin as 3 of the five so-called "Five Onlys" of the Reformation), without any merit or work on our part to contribute to it--this is essential acquiescence on soteriology or the doctrine of salvation. But there is more to it that than: Martin Luther started the movement in 1517 at the Wittenberg Castle Church door where he nailed his 95 Theses on Halloween, and basically announced to the Church and declared, "I dissent, I disagree, I protest!" He had been awakened from his dogmatic slumber and was ready to reform the Church.
There has to be room for disagreement in an agreeable and civil manner amount church members or it becomes cult-like as the People's Temple (the "cult of death") of Jim Jones that was based on his personality--the people saw no more need for their Bibles since they had him in person! We need to be ever vigilant and be Bereans who daily search the Scriptures to see whether these things our pastors and teachers tell us are so. This is the noble thing to do and God expects it of responsible congregants. Having room for disagreement and agreeing to disagree is healthy and show life in a church body, and is not the beginning of the end. There is a time to go your separate ways, of course, like Paul and Barnabas disagreeing about Mark's worthiness, but we should be able to work out most disagreements.
The typical Protestant attending church today doesn't study or sufficiently read his Bible, but believes everything his church tells him and follows with a blind faith, not knowing why. One Protestant said he doesn't even believe in the infallibility of Scripture anymore, but insisted Christ was still his Lord. This begged the question: "How does He exercise His Lordship?" The person in question said, "By following the teachings of the church." This so-called nominal Protestant has come full circle and is really a Catholic who believes only the clergy has the authority to interpret Scripture and one mustn't question authority.
One distinction of Catholics is that they adhere to time-honored traditions as to have equal authority with Scripture (since the decree in the Council of Trent from 1545-63), while a Protestant is open to new ideas and experimental--not religious or slave to traditions such as the Rosary--and has a personal relationship with Christ as a priest and doesn't need one to make confession to on a regular basis. There is nothing inherently wrong with tradition as long as it complies with tradition but it can get in the way and become a distraction to the real thing. Catholics defer to tradition, without question!
We don't want a church that is run by control freaks or old fuddy-duddies who are set in their ways and are satisfied in the comfort zones with the status quo. Old habits die hard and we constantly need the input of new and young blood to keep a church alive and from dying off and becoming irrelevant. We need new ideas and must never stop reforming the church we attend because one of the slogans of the Reformation was semper reformanda in Latin, or always be reforming. We see ourselves as works in progress and like to say that God isn't finished with us yet, but have a hard time saying the same about our church, that it is also a work in progress and in need of sanctification and reform--Martin Luther knew that he had not finished reforming the Church of its Catholic influence of the Popes. And we should never be "at ease in Zion" (cf. Amos 6:1) or settle in complacency and think we have arrived as a church body and need no improvement. A church without vision will perish spiritually and this means a view into the future and a plan of attack against the devil and his domain. Proverbs 29:18 (KJV) says, "Without a vision, the people perish...." If you aim at nothing, you will get nothing! Aim high, because you cannot aim too high--it is better to aim high and almost make it than to aim too low.
The questions should always be asked as to what is the attitude toward disagreement and our member's ideas and concerns treated properly, fairly, and biblically. Why? Because the sole authority for a Protestant church is the Bible and one of the slogans of the Reformation (one of the five onlys), was sola Scriptura or the Bible alone is the authority and final arbiter, not some church dogma or constitution; the whole point of being Protestant is not to be at the mercy of church dogma and have the freedom to interpret Scripture on your own--but with this responsibility comes the responsibility to do it correctly--because with every privilege comes the complementary responsibility that goes hand in hand with it as its flip side. This goes with any right you have, you also have an obligation as the flip side! Soli Deo Gloria!
Will the real Protestant stand up, and be counted, please! Protestants are called that because they protest! Protestants are born to question authority and to check things out for themselves, not taking some one's word for it, no matter who he is; having a personal and not a second-hand knowledge of the Lord. It's time to show your Christian colors! What then is the essence of being Protestant and why is this an issue in today's evangelical church?
The issue is how can we end up being Catholics in practice while calling ourselves Protestant. The branch of Christianity known as Protestant includes a lot of denominations, but they tend to all agree that salvation is by grace through faith in Christ alone (this is known as sola gratia, sola fide, and solus Christus in Latin as 3 of the five so-called "Five Onlys" of the Reformation), without any merit or work on our part to contribute to it--this is essential acquiescence on soteriology or the doctrine of salvation. But there is more to it that than: Martin Luther started the movement in 1517 at the Wittenberg Castle Church door where he nailed his 95 Theses on Halloween, and basically announced to the Church and declared, "I dissent, I disagree, I protest!" He had been awakened from his dogmatic slumber and was ready to reform the Church.
There has to be room for disagreement in an agreeable and civil manner amount church members or it becomes cult-like as the People's Temple (the "cult of death") of Jim Jones that was based on his personality--the people saw no more need for their Bibles since they had him in person! We need to be ever vigilant and be Bereans who daily search the Scriptures to see whether these things our pastors and teachers tell us are so. This is the noble thing to do and God expects it of responsible congregants. Having room for disagreement and agreeing to disagree is healthy and show life in a church body, and is not the beginning of the end. There is a time to go your separate ways, of course, like Paul and Barnabas disagreeing about Mark's worthiness, but we should be able to work out most disagreements.
The typical Protestant attending church today doesn't study or sufficiently read his Bible, but believes everything his church tells him and follows with a blind faith, not knowing why. One Protestant said he doesn't even believe in the infallibility of Scripture anymore, but insisted Christ was still his Lord. This begged the question: "How does He exercise His Lordship?" The person in question said, "By following the teachings of the church." This so-called nominal Protestant has come full circle and is really a Catholic who believes only the clergy has the authority to interpret Scripture and one mustn't question authority.
One distinction of Catholics is that they adhere to time-honored traditions as to have equal authority with Scripture (since the decree in the Council of Trent from 1545-63), while a Protestant is open to new ideas and experimental--not religious or slave to traditions such as the Rosary--and has a personal relationship with Christ as a priest and doesn't need one to make confession to on a regular basis. There is nothing inherently wrong with tradition as long as it complies with tradition but it can get in the way and become a distraction to the real thing. Catholics defer to tradition, without question!
We don't want a church that is run by control freaks or old fuddy-duddies who are set in their ways and are satisfied in the comfort zones with the status quo. Old habits die hard and we constantly need the input of new and young blood to keep a church alive and from dying off and becoming irrelevant. We need new ideas and must never stop reforming the church we attend because one of the slogans of the Reformation was semper reformanda in Latin, or always be reforming. We see ourselves as works in progress and like to say that God isn't finished with us yet, but have a hard time saying the same about our church, that it is also a work in progress and in need of sanctification and reform--Martin Luther knew that he had not finished reforming the Church of its Catholic influence of the Popes. And we should never be "at ease in Zion" (cf. Amos 6:1) or settle in complacency and think we have arrived as a church body and need no improvement. A church without vision will perish spiritually and this means a view into the future and a plan of attack against the devil and his domain. Proverbs 29:18 (KJV) says, "Without a vision, the people perish...." If you aim at nothing, you will get nothing! Aim high, because you cannot aim too high--it is better to aim high and almost make it than to aim too low.
The questions should always be asked as to what is the attitude toward disagreement and our member's ideas and concerns treated properly, fairly, and biblically. Why? Because the sole authority for a Protestant church is the Bible and one of the slogans of the Reformation (one of the five onlys), was sola Scriptura or the Bible alone is the authority and final arbiter, not some church dogma or constitution; the whole point of being Protestant is not to be at the mercy of church dogma and have the freedom to interpret Scripture on your own--but with this responsibility comes the responsibility to do it correctly--because with every privilege comes the complementary responsibility that goes hand in hand with it as its flip side. This goes with any right you have, you also have an obligation as the flip side! Soli Deo Gloria!