WORD OF THE DAY From The Pastor's Study

Protestantism

A tradition in Christianity which found its self-identity as “Protestant” in the sixteenth-century Reformation. Protestantism began when the church, according to Protestants, lost the Gospel during the middle to late middle ages and reformers began to “protest” this loss. Martin Luther, often seen as the father of Protestantism, rejected the Pope’s claims to infallible authority, believed that the Gospel was being lost to a system of works-based salvation, and confessed the Bible alone was the only infallible and ultimate source of authority for the Christian. Protestantism is not a church, but a tradition which claims to have restored or reformed the Gospel, and hence, the church. Protestantism is made up of thousands of denominations (various expressions of the Protestant faith) and claims nearly four hundred million members world-wide.



Roman Catholicism

A tradition in the Christian faith that distinguishes itself as the “one true church.” The primary distinctives of Roman Catholicism from other traditions of Christianity are 1) the bishop of Rome who claims apostolic succession, infallibility, and the authority of Peter the Apostle, 2) its claims to absolute and infallible authority in matters of faith and practice, 3) its claim to doctrinal fidelity with both the history of the church and biblical interpretation, and 4) the unity that is produced by such fidelity. Other major Christian traditions that would deny such claims are Protestantism and Eastern Orthodoxy. Roman Catholicism boasts of over one billion members.