Who are Protestants?

Protestants Are:
    Those who continue to follow the doctrines of Martin Luther.
Sola Fide:
    Those who still insist that a person is justified, and also saved, by grace through faith alone, that nothing else but belief in Jesus Christ is necessary for Salvation.
    However the Apostle James points out that the demons also believe that Jesus is Lord, yet they are neither justified nor saved! James 2:19
    If the above confession is true it means that the following numbered items are also true, or else FAITH in Jesus Christ IS NOT truly the ONLY cause for a person's eternal salvation.
    But, do Protestants really believe all these things? If not, their belief in Sola Fide is not logical.
    And isn't this belief, this Protestant tradition of self-commendation, a premature and unwarranted anticipation of the final judgment, which our Lord Jesus Christ alone will pass? 2 Corinthians 10:18

1.) Eternal Security:
    Those who insist that once a person is saved, that person is always saved and cannot lose his salvation for any reason after he is saved.
    But isn't it necessary to persevere in Christ to the end of life as Jesus relates in: Matthew 10:22, Matthew 24:12-13, Mark 13:13 and shouldn't we pay special attention to Jude 20-21.
    Speaking of the Gospel, St. Paul warns us in 1 Corinthians 15:2 to hold fast to his preaching and in 2 Corinthians 6:1 to not receive the lord's grace in vain. Salvation can be lost by sinning against God or else Hebrews 10:26-31 must be false. Also, in Romans 11:17-24 St. Paul explains that salvation, even for those who believe, is not as certain as the reformers said it was.

    Finally, in Galatians chapter 5 The Apostle tells them "You are severed from Christ", if this does not indicate a loss of salvation, what does it indicate? If you have lost Christ, you have lost everything that matters to a Christian!
Do not be caught picking nits about alternate meanings of the scriputures.

"If you believe what you like in the gospels, and reject what you don't like, it is not the gospel you believe, but yourself." - St. Augustine

2.) Repentance:
    Those who deny the necessity of our repentance for sins in order to be saved. Since once a person accepts Jesus as his savior is always saved and cannot lose this salvation.
    Those who avow, if a person's faith is strong God will always cover his sins and those sins will not be held against him when he is judged. A person will be judged only on the basis of his faith in Jesus.
    In 2 Corinthians 5:10 Paul was not in error when he informed us that we will be judged for all of the things we do. In Revelation 20:12 the dead were judged according to what they had done, so why would we think that will not happen to us also? And we should not discount what Jesus said in John 5:28-29.
    Early in the Gospel of Matthew Jesus tells us to repent (Matthew 3:2) and early in Acts Peter tells the Jews to repent (Acts 2:38), in Mark Jesus Sends Out the Twelve Apostles and they proclaimed the need to repent, (Mark 6:12), in Luke Jesus tells us to repent or die (Luke 13:3), in Acts Paul tells us that God commands our repentance (Acts 17:30), Paul emphasizes this even more in Acts 26:20, in Romans 2:4 Paul tells us that God's grace (kindness) leads us to repentance, in 2 Corinthians 7:10 Paul tells us that repentance leads to salvation, Peter tells us that God wants us to come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9), and finally, in Luke chapter 15 Jesus emphasizes the importance of a sinner who repents.
    Will Protestants go to their graves hoping these verses really do not mean what they say?

3.) Obeying the Commandments:
    Those who maintain that obeying the laws of God (The Ten Commandments) is not necessary for Christian salvation since a person cannot lose his salvation for any reason after he accepts Jesus.
    See John 14:20-21, Matthew 7:21, 1 Corinthians 7:19, and Matthew 19:17
    When Paul said in Romans 3:28 and Galatians 2:16 that we are not justified by works of the law he not speaking of God's Commandments. That would conflict with what he said in 1 Corinthians 7:19. He was speaking of practices & rituals of the Jewish Torah (Mosiac Law) such as circumcision and dietary restrictions, which are not required for Gentile Christians.
    Paul was opposed to the Judaizers who were saying that it was necessary to be circumcized and observe the Mosiac laws along with all of the dietary restrictions to be saved. In other words, the Judaizers were essentially saying that it was necessary for the Gentile Christian converts to become Jews in order to be justified and saved and Paul emphatically disagreed with them!
    The Apostle Paul never said that we should not observe the Ten Commandments. In fact, he said the exact opposite in 1 Corinthians 7:19.
    Will Protestants ignore all of this and continue to believe only what suits them?

4.) Good Works:
    Those who insist that good works have nothing to do with a person's Salvation.
    See Matthew 7:21, Acts 26:20, In John 5:28-29 Jesus tells us that all who have done good deeds will be resurected to life, but all who have done wicked deeds will be condemned, And in John 15:1-12 Jesus tells us that He expects us to bear good fruit (to do good deeds), and we should also consider Titus 3:14.
    Protestants frequently quote Ephesians 2:8-9 to show that works have no place in our Salvation, yet they conviently omit the following verse from any consideration.
    Ephesians 2:10 clearly shows that good works are expected by God of his followers and in many cases it is a sin to ignore them and/or not perform them. James 1:22-25, James 2:14-17 and finally James 4:17 are in agreement.
    These verses cannot be ignored just because they do not agree with one's beliefs. Our good works, after we have been justified, may not directly save us, but they can be the cause of our damnation if ignored and not performed.
    Remember Jesus' pertinent question in Luke 6:46.

5.) Baptism:
    Those who deny the necessity of Baptism for Salvation saying faith is all that is necessary.
    See: Matthew 28:19-20, John 3:3-7, Mark 16:16, Acts 2:38, Acts 22:16, Romans 6:3-4. Colossians 2:11-12, Galatians 3:27, 1 Peter 3:21.
    These verses show that Baptism is essential for Christians and is much more than symbolic.

    Baptism regenerates us. Baptism is not something we do for God (God wants much from us, but needs nothing from us), but something God does for us (without God's grace we are nothing!).

    See also from Catholic Answers: Baptism Is Logically Necessary by Parker Manning

6.) Love:
    Those who deny the necessity of love (charity) for Salvation, since a person is saved by faith alone.
    1 Corinthians 13:2, 1 Corinthians 13:13, Matthew 22:36-39, John 13:35, and remember Paul said faith works through love Galations 5:6
    Should a person believe Our Lord Jesus and the Apostle Paul or rely on Martin Luther's pronouncements?
    It is true that without Faith salvation is essentially impossible, however the same is also true of Love. Ultimately, it is our Love that identifies us as children of God 1 John 3:10, rather than our Belief alone James 2:19-24.
    Martin Luther's doctrine of (Justification) and/or Salvation by Faith alone was a tragic oversimplification of Paul's teaching in his letters. Our belief in Jesus must always work through Christian Charity (Love) or it is as Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 13:2, NOTHING!
    Paul even goes so far as to say that, Love never fails 1 Corinthians 13:8. He never says that about anything else.

The following are Major items of contention but may not directly involve salvation

The Eucharist:
    Those who deny the reality of the Eucharist, that during the Mass the consecrated bread and wine truly become the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ.
    Those who insist that the Lord's Supper is merely symbolic.
    Those who assert this must ignore both Jesus' and Paul's emphatic words in scripture: Matthew 26:26-28, John 6:48-64, 1 Corinthians 10:16-18 & 1 Corinthians 11:23-26.
    Neither Paul, nor Jesus made any statement saying that they were speaking symbolically. And, in addition, many of Jesus' disciples left him after his declaration to them in John 6:48-58 because they could not accept what he said, especially in John 6:53 amd 6:57.
    Jesus might have prevented them from leaving by simply explaining that He was speaking symbolically. Yet, He said nothing of the sort. He let them walk away!
    Will you walk away also?

Marriage and Divorce:
    Those who deny that marriage is a sacrament and believe that a Christian marriage can be dissolved by divorce in the case of infidelity (adultery).
    Jesus and Paul are in full agreement concerning the sacredness of the marriage bond: Luke 16:18, Romans 7:2, Ephesians 5:31.

The Virgin Mary:
    Those who deny that we should honor the Virgin Mary, the mother of our Lord Jesus Christ, and ask for her intercession with God.
    Those who insist that she was merely a sinner like all of us and deny she found favor with God (Luke 1:28), even before her conception, and that she is dead in her grave and we cannot really know whether she was assumed into heaven and could not hear us, in any case, even if she was assumed.
    Did her sinless son honor her Exodus 20:12, so why shouldn't we?
    Mary gave birth to Jesus Christ, Our Lord and the savior of the world, of her own free choice Luke 1:38, she was not forced.
    As the Holy Father Benedict XVI once related, "She made her whole person available, she “agreed” to become God’s dwelling place."

    So we certainly should not criticize, shun and/or, ignore Our Lord's mother assuming that who she was and what she did was "nothing special", acting as if Christ simply appeared on earth in a puff of smoke.
    We should thank her and celebrate her each and every day since we owe her so much!

    For further info see: Blessed Mary ever virgin? and The Brethren of the Lord

The Saints:
    Those who deny that we should honor our Christian predecessors who have gone before us in Christ, the Saints, and ask for their intercession before God.
    Those who insist that we cannot know whether they are saints or not and that they are dead and in their graves since the last judgment has not yet occurred and cannot hear us anyway.
    In (Hebrews 12:1) we are told that we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses. And also in Revelation 6:9-10 where the martyred saints, who are indeed alive in heaven, call upon God to avenge their deaths.
    Since the Almighty is the God of the living rather than the dead Luke 20:38, Mark 12:27 & Matthew 22:32 and the saints in heaven can surely hear us as they heard and conversed with Christ upon the high mountain Matthew 17:3, it is right and proper for us to call on those closest to God to intervene and/or intercede with Him on our behalf.

Prayers for the Dead:
    Those who deny the value of praying for those who have died in Christ to reduce or eliminate the temporal punishment of any sins they may have committed during their lives for which they have received eternal forgiveness by God by their repentance before death.
    1 Corinthians 3:10-15 and also where mention is made of two classes of the saved - the church of the firstborn and the spirits of the righteous made perfect.
    For more see HERE.

Sola Scriptura:
    Those who insist that the Bible Alone (Sola Scriptura) is solely necessary for our instruction as Christians in all matters of faith and doctrine.
    Those who insist that scripture is clear enough that anyone can understand its meaning and that there is no need for any person or organization to interpret scripture for any of us since it is so easy to understand and also since the Holy Spirit will always aid us to understand the bible correctly.

    Sacred Scripture itself show this to be unworkable when it shows us that the bible verses clearly had to be explained in some instances such as in: Nehemiah 8:1-9, Matthew 13:18-23, Luke 24:27, Luke 24:45, Acts 8:30-31, Acts 18:11, 1 Tim. 4:13, and especially these last two 2 Peter 1:20 and 2 Peter 3:16
    And as Martin Luther discovered to his chagrin after he opened the floodgate of self-interpretation of the Bible, many of his own followers challenged his interpretations of scripture and left him because they found things in the bible that caused them to disagree with his doctrines because they disagreed about how he was interpreting scripture.
    Five Hundred years and twenty thousand Christian sects (churches) later, Sola Scriptura is still causing division and dissention in the Christian community.
    The only thing that is clear is that the bible is not as easy to understand and interpret as Luther claimed and that it has become evident that the Holy Spirit has not and will not intervene, much less to always help any individual to a proper understanding of scripture as the Apostle Peter relates to us in: 2 Peter 1:20


This Sola Scripture tradition
    Where is this in the bible? The 1647 Protestant Westminster Confession of Faith expressed a key aspect of sola scriptura this way: “The whole counsel of God, concerning all things necessary for his own glory, man’s salvation, faith, and life, is either expressly set down in Scripture, or by good and necessary consequence may be deduced from Scripture.”

    "If Sola Scriptura were true, it would have to be explicitly spelled out in Scripture itself. Yet it is not." (100 Biblical Arguments Against Sola Scriptura - Dave Armstrong)

    Has this, or any other tradition of man helped the disparate and segregated Christian sects and divisions either stay together or come back together as Christ envisioned for His disciples? John 17:21-23.
    Sadly, the Protestant's traditional knee-jerk reaction has been, from the beginning, to deny anything which may agree with any Catholic position.
    Jesus warned us about this sort of thing in Matthew 7:15-20.

    The fact is, that Jesus Christ established a Church (the body of Christ) — not a book — to be the foundation of the Christian faith. (Matthew 16:15-18, Matthew 18:15-18, Ephesians 2:19-20, Ephesians 3:10, Ephesians 4:11-15, 1 Timothy 3:15, Hebrews 13:7, Hebrews 13:17, Luke 10:16)

    When criticizing the sins and misdeeds of those in the Church consider this - The Church is not a hotel for saints but is a hospital for sinners since Christ came to preach to and to save sinners rather than simply the Just. As is related in Luke 5:32 and also in 1 Timothy 1:15.

The first head of the Christian church:
    Those who deny that the Apostle Peter was the first Pope because they believe there is no scriptual justification.
    See the following verses: Matthew 16:18-19, Luke 22:31-32, and John 21:15-19
    Also consider this explanation.

Addition to the "Our Father" (AKA Lord's Prayer)
Those who profess that the scriptural verse Matthew 6:9-13 ends with: "For the kingdom, the power and the glory are yours now and for ever." and that this sentence should be added and always recited at the end of the "Our Father".
    This is false because the phrase is absent from the earliest Greek New Testament manuscripts.
    This claim in favor of adding the phrase is refuted on this page. and is also discussed and refuted on this page, which concludes with the a statement that includes: "The doxology for thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever was probably not originally in Matthew's Gospel."
    This seems to be a clear case of "adding words to scripture" & "putting words in Our Savior's mouth".
    See Also: Who Added the Doxology? from EWTN
    Why was it added? This was simply another way for 17th Century English Protestants to further differentiate themselves from Catholics and the Catholic Church.

References:
    A look at Protestant Reformation through different lenses
    New American Bible, Revised Edition (NABRE)
    The Bible Gateway
    Roman Catholic Shrines and Pilgrimage Sites
    Catholic Tradition vs Protestant Traditions
    Why Catholic
    Do Christians have a license to Sin?
    The Reformers’ Distorted View of Salvation - Tom Nash
    100 Biblical Arguments Against Sola Scriptura - Dave Armstrong
    Twisted Unto Destruction: How "Bible Alone" Theology Made the World a Worse Place - Donald J. Johnson
    Does Sola Scriptura Make Sense - Listen to or read the Podcast debate from Catholic Answers
    A Bad Argument for Sola Scriptura
    25 Reasons Peter Was NOT The First Pope! (REBUTTED) listen to or read the podcast from Catholic Answers

(John 14:27 "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid.")



"SO FAITH, HOPE, LOVE REMAIN, THESE THREE; BUT THE GREATEST OF THESE IS LOVE." (1 Corinthians 13:13)

    “The world’s problems today are not economics, global warming or over-population. The world has one problem which, if corrected, will correct all other problems. This major and destructive problem is what is in hearts.
    Hearts today do not embrace love of God above all else and love of neighbor as self."
Holy Love Ecumenical Ministry
(1 Corinthians 13:2 "if I have all faith so as to move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing.")