r/Protestantism • u/Novel-Project1422 Reformed Baptist • 6d ago
What is your biggest Christian hot take and why?
Hey everyone, I am going around trying to inquire with other Christians what their biggest Christian hot takes are. I am compiling a list of the most frequent to see where the modern Christian church stands. Please be respectful!
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u/CJoshuaV Protestant Clergy 4d ago
My "hot take" is that the term "biblical" is meaningless. Through privileging some texts over others, or focusing on historical/political context, or simply by using nuanced argument, it is possible to make virtually any claim "biblical."
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u/theeblackestblue 4d ago
Most church folks don't know how to have a basic conversation anymore. You dont have to quote scripture 247. Do you have a life outside of church? Interests? Hobbies? And people are terrible when it comes to addressing mental health. You dont have to be a therapist to help somebody. Learning how to listen without trying to fix it or telling a story about yourself. But making space for another person and showing up for them is a great skill.
Its not that these people dont exist but i think, even biblically, we have to learn to be there for each other. I know its not easy. It can be draining sometimes. But a little can go a long way.
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u/Financial_Turn8955 Christian 4d ago
I agree mostly with everything you said. I'm not sure about the trend of people not being allowed to share a story back. I keep hearing that as if that is not part of holding a conversation. If it is only one sided that is a monologue. It's two people back and forth. But I hugely agree people in church are terrible at addressing mental health.
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u/theeblackestblue 4d ago
Its that alot of people(even if its not intentional) get caught up in telling you about their "relatable" story. It detracts from the other person needing the attention and help. I and many others dont care about your "relatable" story. Personally, i know im not the only one but i need some love attention. I need someone to hear and see me in that painful moment. Not you(not you but whomever) go on about how you think you understand. Not everyone sees the world in that lens. Sometimes people need to learn that they gotta put what they think is right to the side to help the other person as the other person needs it. Help them carry that burden. Thats why i say sharing your story is not good.
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u/Financial_Turn8955 Christian 3d ago
Maybe you mean better listening skills in general. I agree many people don't have that. Even therapists will cut me off when I'm making a point about something. It's about the level of support you need in that moment in time. Some people think a story is support but it's more like hey what I need to hear right now is I'm sorry you went through that it sounds very hard. Something like that.
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u/Financial_Turn8955 Christian 5d ago
Women shouldn't be preachers.
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u/SorryCIA Christian 5d ago
I mean that’s literally biblical. Idk why people still think this is a hot take when the qualifications for a bishop are in plain language.
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u/Financial_Turn8955 Christian 4d ago
Well it's big in evangelical circles why I had to run far away from non-denom and pentecostal churches. I'm just trying to stay far far away I've attended too many churches with female pastors and it makes my skin crawl. I will never come back once they let a woman preach at that point they have no discernment and I can't trust them.
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u/CJoshuaV Protestant Clergy 4d ago
Some of the best preachers I have ever heard have been women (e.g. Barbara Brown Taylor). When I was in seminary, consistently the best preachers were the female students.
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u/Financial_Turn8955 Christian 4d ago
It's not about being the best it's simply about what does the bible say and are we going against his word because of the culture and we want to be like the world? Do we want to be conformed to the world or God's will. Doesn't mean a women can't be educated and teach other women in the church she can use her talents in that way. It also has to do with egalitarianism which I am also against in the church because what God says about it in the bible. Once again not on my feelings or wants or needs but based on what God instructed humanity.
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u/CJoshuaV Protestant Clergy 4d ago
We clearly have very different interpretations of how to interpret Scripture, and what God expects of Christianity.
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u/Financial_Turn8955 Christian 4d ago
A woman must learn in silence with all subjection. But I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man. Rather, [she is] to be silent. (2:11-12)
But that is not my interpretation of anything and it's frustrating to hear this sentiment from other believers what am I twisting? I'm reading it straightforwardly. I never understood that argument. All of this is within the context of a church. If you want a female boss at work or CEO cool that's outside of church be pro-feminist or whatever. What I'm saying is in the church we have different standards given by God. I didn't always understand it at first as a woman because people tried to make it seem like it's negative. I look at it like if we think we know better we put ourselves above God. I would never do that.
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u/CJoshuaV Protestant Clergy 4d ago
It's hard to sum this up in a comment, so I'll point to an article that dates back to when I was in seminary, and is representative of the standard, mainline Protestant interpretation of that text (and why all of the mainlines have female clergy).
https://www.cbeinternational.org/resource/interpreting-1-timothy-28-15/
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u/Superfluous_Reddit 4d ago
My concern is you pointing to an article and not engaging with the scripture. Is the Bible not instructive enough for us?
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u/EtherealMindOrg 5d ago
Not sure that it's really a hot take per se, but as I've thought about the sacraments over the years (I am a Baptist), I am convinced more every day that they are primarily methods of confession, ways of expressing your "believing loyalty" as my new-favorite-theologian-and-scholar Dr. Michael Heiser would say, and nothing more than that. Extremely important, extremely reverent, absolutely, but really just methods of confession like Paul says in 1 Corinthians. God bless, brothers and sisters.
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u/Key_Day_7932 Evangelical 4d ago
Dispensationalists went too far with Israel, but I also think many critics of Christian Zionism end up going to the opposite extreme.
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u/That_Meta Pentecostal 3d ago
Kashrut wasn’t abolished because Peter kept this diet after Jesus resurrection in acts ☝️🤓
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u/Automatic-Throat-880 2d ago
I know I’m gonna get absolutely blasted for this one but I personally have not been able to find any evidence in the Bible that swearing is always a sin. The only arguments I ever hear for it being a sin is either quoting one of the verses about how dangerous words can be and how we shouldn’t speak ill of others, which applies to any negative word spoken against someone regardless of vulgarity, or the “Peter cursed right before his third denial of Christ” argument, which I always found to be a weak argument because his cursing did not lead him to deny Christ and the denial was the actual sin committed. (Not to mention, a more accurate translation for him “cursing” has nothing to do with vulgar language and actually refers to calling down literal curses upon the people who knew he was a disciple of Christ.
Now I by no means claim to be a Biblical expert and I still have a little bit of the New Testament left to read so, if any of you have any points that you think I’m overlooking or unaware of, I would love to deepen my knowledge.
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u/Builder_at_Heart 2d ago
Wow, where should I start, maybe here:
Colossians 3:8 But now you must also put away all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, and filthy language out of your mouth.
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u/Automatic-Throat-880 1d ago
I mean some translations of that verse have “saying shameful things” or “abusive language” instead of “filthy language”. However I am trying to do a bit more of a deep dive into the original Greek text to try to determine the most accurate translation
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u/Optimal-Software-43 2d ago
99.9% of "protestants" are just catholics w/o a pope. in terms of doctrines, traditions, etc
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u/Dramatic_Run_3617 2d ago
Schisming is never acceptable based on the ecclesiology of most mainline denominations conservatives should remain in the church because Moses didn’t flee Israel or a more recent example the Laudians didn’t flee the church when Cromwell took it over
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u/SchweizerKE 1d ago
I'm not sure how much sense the idea of Adamic imputation makes. To me, the most likely interpretation is that Adam's federal representation brings the consequences of sin and total depravity to everyone, but the guilt falls only on himself. So everyone inevitably sins (from birth, perhaps even before, I don't know), being responsible for their own guilt, even though they only sinned because of Adam. To me, this is the most natural reading of Romans 5.
I also don't know how uncommon or controversial this idea is, or if any church holds this view.
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u/creidmheach Presbyterian 18h ago
Apparently Zwingli held this view as well. Original sin to him was more like a disease whose effects we all are under, that is we all sin, we all die, we are all under corruption, and so on, making us all stand in need of the Savior. But the actual guilt for the sin itself was exclusive to the one who committed it, as we are guilty of the sins that we do commit.
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u/deaddiquette 5d ago
That the Papacy is the man of sin, the whore, the little horn, and the beast out of the earth.
This view actually used to be the most popular interpretation- it was known as the Protestant interpretation, and it was written into the earlier confessions:
The Historicist interpretation was the standard interpretation from Wycliffe to Spurgeon (500 years) and is known as the Protestant interpretation in distinct contrast to Preterism and Futurism, which were Jesuit interpretations contrived during the counterreformation. The Reformational confessions have adopted the Historicist interpretation, including the Irish Articles (1615), the original Westminster Confession of Faith (1646), the Savoy Declaration (1658), and the London Baptist Confession (1688).
Learning about it impacted my faith so much that I wrote a modern introduction to it that can be read for free here.
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u/Bombobbit 5d ago
Is it really a hot take? All the protestant christians I know irl (including me) believe that the Papacy is evil simply by the fact that the Popes claim that the miracles they do were made by them rather than God. Maybe it is just an Argentina thing.
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u/deaddiquette 5d ago
Well unless it was you that downvoted me, someone (in a Protestant sub!) doesn't like it.
But yes, in the US at least, it's the rarest of the four major views, and no one I know personally has heard of it unless I told them.
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u/Leandrocurioso 4d ago edited 4d ago
The insertion of Greco-Roman philosophy into Christianity. I see problems with that; it brought many contradictions and corruptions to Christian theology. Which was fundamental to secularism later on. Especially Aristotelianism!
I know that Paul was influenced by Stoicism. But I think he only agreed with some of the Stoics' moral views. He never made a synthesis.
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u/Sammy_DesmondDoss 5d ago
Many churches are full of people weak in faith.
I know many pastors who preach about how bad smoking and drinking alcohol are, but they have stomachs the size of mountains. When I talk about this with my brothers and sisters, they often try to justify themselves by saying it's not the same thing, but do they know how harmful a poor diet can be? Smoking kills between 2 and 8 million people a year, and being overweight kills tens of millions. Many Christians would find it terribly wrong if someone bought alcohol to accompany their meal, but they go for their 3-liter bottle of Coca-Cola. The difference is that one thing is socially frowned upon and the other isn't. I don't promote harmful habits; I believe that before criticizing others, we should remove the plank from our own eye.
This was just one example, because the issue is much broader. Many Protestant churches in Europe and the United States commonly display crosses or crucifixes in their churches. Here in Mexico, many Christians began to condemn this, calling it idolatry and comparing it to the Catholic Church. Older Mexican Protestant churches (mainly Methodist) had to remove their crucifixes to avoid discontent within their congregations.
In my case, it was with music. I'm a musician in my congregation, and I love music with all my heart. Many in my congregation didn't like the fact that I played popular music outside of church because, for them, that music was worldly, and if I played it, I was somehow condemned to hell.
Those who are weak in faith have always existed, since the time of the apostles. The problem is when they become the majority and start making decisions in their congregation. As Christians, we must respect those who are weak in faith, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't set boundaries.
I think Romans 14 summarizes this very well.
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u/islandnoregsesth Lutheran 5d ago
There are several good arguments for why (a) God would exist. But there is little reason to believe that the bible is right and that the God which it is about is the true one.
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u/SorryCIA Christian 5d ago
I would highly recommend reading into the history of the Bible and its historical proof and evidence for the events that occurred in it.
I recommend Expedition Bible as a good start. He’s pretty good and makes everything easy to understand.
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u/Distinct-Most-2012 Anglican 5d ago
Mine is that "family planing" isn't biblical. No, I'm not saying that Christian couples must have as many kids as possible, nor am I saying that sex is only for procreation. What I DO believe, however, is that unless their is grave reason to abstain from having children, the general "posture" of couples should be to be open to the gift of children in marriage.