The End of Protestantism

[JM]

R. C. Sproul tweeted, in response to Leithart, "Still Protestant, still protesting."

The End of Protestantism | First Things

Protestantism has had a good run. It remade Europe and made America. It inspired global missions, soup kitchens, church plants, and colleges in the four corners of the earth. But the world and the Church have changed, and Protestantism isn’t what the Church, including Protestants themselves, needs today. It’s time to turn the protest against Protestantism and to envision a new way of being heirs of the Reformation, a new way that happens to conform to the original Catholic vision of the Reformers.
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[Anoetos]

He seems to be assuming some definitions here that I am not sure I am on board with...but then, I am not exactly sure what he means.

 

[Osage Bluestem]

He seems to be assuming some definitions here that I am not sure I am on board with...but then, I am not exactly sure what he means.

I think he means there is a lot of apostasy

 

[twin1954]

New is always wrong!

Jer 6:16 Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls.

 

[prov1810]

Well, there are evangelicals who are returning to High Church traditions. Not me. I want the lowest of the low. A zoo teeming with dorks.

 

[gord44]

ooops. wrong thread.

 

[hedrick]

It's a weird perspective. It's been 50 years since I've heard Protestants defining themselves against Catholicism. However the perspective he's selling seems identical to the mainline. I'll go with that, but if the rest of Protestantism is dead it's news to us.

Believe it or not, the author is a member of the PCA.

 

[Anoetos]

I don't think he's talking about "catholicism" as in liturgy and bishops and so on. I think he's talking about historical self-awareness; a consciousness that we are not islands, that we stand in the stream of historic orthodoxy (catholicism in its technical sense); a more profound confessionalism.

 

[Anoetos]

As my pastor put it recently, "we live in an age when churches are no longer confessionally reliable, they are nondescript, we cannot really tell what a church teaches by its name". He was talking about the movement toward community churches (Springfield Community Church, etc.), and churches named for this or that bible word (theres a church by me called, simply, "Soma").

The point isn't that there's anything wrong with this in itself if its combined with a clear articulation of the content of that church's belief, only...

...it usually isn't.

 

[Anoetos]

Dupe

 

[AmericanSamurai]

No it's not dead. I got serious beef with the roman catholic church and always will til I breathe my last. I hate that church for the years of my life it stole from me and all the false dogma that was put in my head.

 

[HiredGoon]

Contra Leithart: No, The Reformation Isn’t Over | The Heidelblog

 

[JustAsIam77]

The author is obviously biased toward Roman Catholic doctrine.

 

[WisdomTree]

Well it makes sense, doesn't it? I mean, the whole Reformation thing wasn't about breaking from the Catholic Church, but to reform it. Right?

 

[JM]

Well it makes sense, doesn't it? I mean, the whole Reformation thing wasn't about breaking from the Catholic Church, but to reform it. Right?

The Reformation was about reforming the church around the preaching of the Gospel instead of the Roman Heriarchy of Bishops and the sacramental system. Shortly after the Reformation began the Counter Reformation was launched with many Protestants (so-called) choosing to return to Rome in the form of Arminianism. Today most evangelicals are only lacking the vestments.

Yours in The Lord,

jm

 

[JLMoorekcmo]

I don't know about "Protestantism" being dead, but it is a fact in USA traditional churches are on the decline & non-traditional churches are on growing, even within mainline denominations (Including Catholic & Protestants). For instance United Methodist seminaries in 2013 for the first time in history ordained ministers with out having churches to employ them. Meanwhile across the county more nontraditional Cristian churches are screaming for pastors.

 

[hedrick]

The author is obviously biased toward Roman Catholic doctrine.

The author is part of the Federal Vision group within the PCA. It's probably true that their divergence from the mainstream PCA is somewhat in the direction of the Catholic Church. But his difference from Catholic theology is a lot greater than his difference from the mainstream of the PCA. He was the subject of a heresy trial within the PCA recently, and was found not guilty, though many PCA folks think the verdict was a mistake.

 

[JM]

...at least they had a trial! Most churches care little about discipline.

 

[AmericanSamurai]

...at least they had a trial! Most churches care little about discipline.

True. It is a modern day heresy to even think there is such a thing as "heresy", let alone call someone out on it.

 

[gord44]

...at least they had a trial! Most churches care little about discipline.

this reminded me of my time in the EO church. Before you could take communion you had to have confession. The priests where then supposed to give advice and discipline if needed. Most commonly the discipline would be not allowing the person to take communion. But it's becoming more and more common for them not to do this as they don't want to anger the congregation.

I know this is about Protestant stuff, but the comment made me think about that. Society more and more today gets 'offended' easily. Everyone thinks they are a 'special snowflake'. If a church tries to discipline someone, they will probably just get offended and move elsewhere or make a big noise about it.

Anyways just a comment.