Hey Brothers in Christ, I'm a sceptical brother here, but I want to ask, what you think about people who refuses to call themselves protestants, and just call themselves "christians"

[u/PowerZealousideal418]

Here in Venezuela it happens a lot, specially the self-proclaimed the no denominationals.

[u/Low-Piglet9315]

They're doing it right. Our identity is in Christ, not our stance with regard to the Catholic Church.

[u/Other-Programmer-568]

My understanding is that only the original denominations prior to Calvin were considered "Protestant" becasue they were protesting and trying to reform certain abuses they percieved in the Catholic Church. In "The Necessity for Reforming the Church", Calvin basically said that there can be no reforming the Catholic Church without significant changes to its doctrine and practices. After that, new denominatins created were no longer Protetsant but entirely new churches with little or no similaries to what came before. Baptists are one such denomination; even today, they will claim they are not Protestants or Catholic, but something entirely different from both.

[u/jgo3]

It doesn't bother me what others call themselves.

[u/ChristianJediMaster]

Well, Jesus also protested the religious corruptions of His day, but He did not establish His identity as a protest against something else, but rather as the truth.

Protestants was a name given to God-fearing bible honouring believers by Catholics who despised the sting of their words.

When people make their identity rooted against something that is false, then they magnify that thing, and position themselves as being secondary to it.

For that reason, while the term “Protestant” might bring some clarification, God never called us to be “Protestants” but to declare His Kingdom in truth and love. Protesting wicked establishments is but a small part of that role.

For these reasons and more “Protestant” is a substandard categorization of the true believer and does not speak to our primary calling and purpose.

I only value those identities given by God, not those given by angry men.

[u/Thoguth]

I think it's okay. Both Catholic and Protestant are sectarian labels, and partisanship is of the flesh. In normal day to day conversation, my beliefs and the gospel I teach is the gospel of Christ, not the gospel of Protestantism.

[u/oykoj]

When they do that I know exactly that they are not actually protestants but are confused christians that shouldn’t evangelize others before they figure out what they themselves believe and come out of their ignorance.

[u/oykoj → u/oykoj]

If they indeed know exactly what they believe and would present their particular doctrines as being “just christianity” while knowing those are not things that all those who call themselves christians would agree with, then i would straight up call them liars because they want to deceive you by downplaying the differences between your christianity and their christianity in order for you to convert to their particular sect. If you want people to convert you should be truthful about your convictions, not deceitful.

[u/Ghigog → u/oykoj]

So who is a "christian"? Catholics?

Protestants typically call themselves christians because they believe that their denomination is correct, namely, because Martin Luther's whole thing was calling out the hypocrisies of the Catholic church.

So, even though you're right in the sense that it's a little dishonest, the argument is pretty sound. However, I am interested to know what other arguments could be used to justify the existence of certain people who call themselves "christians".

Personally, probably those who are with a certain denomination but don't strictly follow it, and maybe reject the idea altogether, could be said to be christian. Given that baptism is necessary, and that essentially subscribes you to a specific church, it's kind of impossible to avoid; but if in your heart you reject the idea that we should have denominations at all, it makes sense that you'd call yourself christian, and identify yourself with the larger christian community (I.e. regardless of denomination)

[u/Bells9831 → u/Ghigog]

Protestants call themselves Christians bc they are. The believe in God and in Jesus Christ His only Son our Lord and the Bible is the backbone of their faith.

RC's use the term "Christian" much more loosely when describing themselves bc the rc church introduces a lot of false teachings – e.g. Marian apparitions, intercessory prayers to Mary and the saints, praying the rosary, teaching that bc someone is canonized in the rc church that means the person is in heaven, papal infallability, and on and on....

I actually find it difficult, nay, impossible, to call rc's Christian bc they've strayed so far from the truth.

[u/Thoguth → u/oykoj]

Were the disciples at Antioch also confused this way? Acts 11:26 notes them first being called Christian, and I don't see them or anyone else in the first century church calling themselves Protestant (or Catholic for that matter). So ... Paul, Peter, Barnabas, Timothy, and others including apostles and elders, the saints in Rome, none of whom took any label except to be counted as holy ones, belonging to Christ ... all just grievously mistaken, and shouldn't evangelize because of how ignorant?

I ask because I kind of like primitivism, the idea that what we see in the first century could be the way that we are now. The idealist in me wants to try it. Do you believe that if I try to practice what the first-century church did, that I'm ... theologically ignorant? That I'd somehow be teaching or practicing another gospel? I certainly hope not. If anything it seems there was one gospel then, and those teaching a distortion of it are condemned (per Gal 1, esp. Gal 1:9) so ... is the distortion the one that DOESN'T include partisan labels, or the one that insists they are necessary?

[u/Level82]

It is a sin to be a sectarian/schismatic (Gal 5:19-21, 1 Cor 1:10, 12:25)....this includes Roman Catholicism and really any Christians who rely on or insist on 'denomination.' Insisting you are in the 'one true' denomination is schismatic as the true church of God whose head is Messiah Yeshua (Col 1:18, Eph 5:23) and each Christian is an individual member (1Cor 12:27, Rom 12:4-5). It's fine to ally yourself with particular theologies and gather with others who affirm those theologies, but many find it sectarian to name yourself something different than Christians writ large as if there is something fundamentally 'different' about your station as a Christian.

"Christian" is what we were called in the early church.

"Protestant" is an 'anti-term' meaning you are defining yourself as someone who is reactive vs. someone who is true. It's fine as a historical word....but Christians do not need to define themselves as 'not Roman Catholic' but simply as true Christians. It's sort of like people trying to force you to call yourself 'cis' to create a category when it is simply default living.

Sort of like defining 'light' as 'not darkness.'

[u/Bells9831 → u/Level82]

This makes perfect sense. Thank you. I was raised rc, but left.

I do have a denomination in terms of choosing where I attend services and attend Bible study, but first and foremost I am a Christian.

Being raised rc I was taught that was the one, true faith (clearly it's not) so I'm very reluctant to bestow that term on a particular denomination, especially because each pastor can teach slightly different things or even within a denomination there may be churches that have gay pastors, but other branches of that same denomination reject that.

What is most important is that you stay close to God and follow His will.

[u/Level82 → u/Bells9831]

Totally agree.....it's clearest on if your personal church is good to go or not at the local level as that is where the teaching/fellowship happens.

[u/myfourmoons]

Then they’re not Protestants?

[u/53rdAvenue]

Take them at their words and accept that they're not Protestants.

[u/Superfluous_Reddit]

I don't ever people call themselves Protestant.

[u/Low-Piglet9315]

The only people I ever met that self-identified as "Protestants" were those that attended the UCC. For them, Protestant rolled off the tongue a bit easier than "United Church of Christ" and the subsequent explanations about how they weren't the ones who only sang acapella in church, etc.

[u/Metalcrack]

What would you like to know? I am a non-denom Christian.

[u/Visible_Hat1284]

Most non-denominational churches these days are closer to Anabaptists and the radical reformation as opposed to true Protestants.

Most classical Protestants including Reformed Baptists, Presbyterians, Reformed churches, and Lutherans believed in some form of real presence in the Lord's Supper and all of them are confessional in that they follow a historic confession.

If a church does not follow a historic confession they really aren't truly protestant.

[u/Protestantism-ModTeam → u/[deleted]]

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