The Protestant Churches

When on 31 October 1517 the Augustinian monk Martin Luther posted his famous document with 95 theses protesting the sale of indulges on the front door of his parish-church in Wittenburg, Germany, all he wanted to do is start a discussion about serious abuses within the Roman Catholic Church, in particular the fact that priests earned money by exploiting the fear that people felt of hell and purgatory. But things turned out very differently. What Luther did that evening became the start of a massive rebellion against the Roman Catholic Church. This rebellion soon led to a schism (a split) within European Christianity, which has continued to exist to the present day. Catholics account for about 15 percent of the present world population, Protestants for about 10 percent. All the big Protestant Churches came into being in the sixteenth century within the context of a massive movement among Christians to rid Christianity of all sorts of objectionable teachings and practices which had no Biblical foundation and to return to the true faith as it had been taught by Christ and His apostles.

The Protestant Churches are no world Churches in the sense in which the Roman Catholic Church is a world church. Many of them only have members in one country or in a limited number of countries. Think of the Anglican Church: most of its members live in England. Or the Church of Scotland: practically all members are Scots. In addition: the Protestant Churches started sending missionaries to Africa, Asia and Latin America two centuries later than the Roman Catholics with the result that the Southern hemisphere has many more Catholics than Protestants.

In their desire to rid the Christian faith as it was practiced by the Roman Catholic Church of all kinds of abuses, the sixteenth century Protestants particularly based themselves on the Bible. This had become possible because in that century the Bible was available for all people in the form of printed books. In addition the Bible had been translated into the various European languages so that also people who could not read Hebrew, Greek or Latin had access to the word of God, written in a language which they could understand. In principle all the Protestant Churches which came into being in the sixteenth century based their teachings and their religious practices purely on the Bible. All parts of the Roman Catholic doctrines and religious practices which had no Biblical foundation but were purely based on the Catholic tradition as it had develop in the course of the centuries were rejected by the Protestant Churches. Among the things which were part of the Catholic faith and were rejected by the Protestant Churches are:

---the notion that the Roman Catholic tradition is just as much inspired by the holy spirit as the Bible and is therefore an indispensable part of the Christian faith.

---the notion that Christianity as an organization must have a centralized and hierarchical structure.

---the idea that Jesus appointed Peter as His substitute on earth, that as such Peter traveled to Rome to become the absolute head of Christianity and to be the first of a continuous dynasty of popes whom all Christians must obey.

---the idea that all local Christian congregations of the world must be governed by priests who have been ordained by bishops who have been ordained by the pope.

--- 5 of the 7 sacraments. Only baptism and Holy Communion were maintained by the Protestant Churches because they have a Biblical foundation.

---the doctrine of transubstantiation which says that during the holy mass priests change bread into the body of Christ and wine into the blood of Christ.

---the very special and dominant position of religious leaders or priests.

---the notion that besides the Bible also certain places, buildings, spiritual leaders, outstanding Christians who have died, images and objects used during religious services must be considered holy.

---the use of images of Christians who have died after leading an exemplary life and are considered saints.

---the worship of Mary as the mother of God and asking Mary to act as mediator when approaching God.

It might be expected that when all Protestant Churches base their teachings purely on the Bible and accept everything the Bible says and reject everything that has no Biblical foundation ……they must all have exactly the same doctrines and the same religious practices. But this is absolutely not the case. Already in the sixteenth century some reformers were much more radical in their attempts to clear the new Churches of Catholic, non-Biblical ideas and practices than others. In addition there soon appeared differences in opinions regarding the best Church-structure. Many Protestant Churches kept a local, regional or national character and within Protestantism there was no central authoritative institution which was recognized by people of all places and all times like the Catholics had.

The fact remains that the Roman Catholic Church came into being and developed in a time when practically nobody possessed a Bible and that the Protestant Churches arose in a time when printed Bibles were for sale everywhere. Within all Protestant Churches the Bible takes up a central place and is the standard for everything. The differences between the various Protestant Churches are the result of the high degree of autonomy which regional and national Churches have and which gives local Churches the freedom to adapt to local cultures and life-styles. The differences are also due to the fact that Christianity has a tremendous number of aspects, teachings and practices which can each be given much or little emphasis and a low or a high priority. And every Protestant Church is completely free to give each of the hundreds of aspects, teachings and practices the emphasis and the degree of priority it likes. Within this context one can think of the Low Church and the High Church branches of the Anglican Church. The High Church branch has a list of priorities which strongly resembles the one of the Roman Catholic Church, but the Low Church branch has much more in common with the Calvinist Churches of mainland Europe. Another thing in which Protestant Churches differ from each other is the degree to which they emphasize either the intellectual, rational aspects of their religious life or the emotional and gripping aspects of it. There are Protestant Churches in which all the emphasis is on rationally understanding and digesting the texts of the Bible. But there are also Protestant Churches which put all the emphasis on gladness, spontaneity and emotional warmth.