THE BIGGEST PROBLEM IN PROTESTANTISM INCLUDING THOSE IN THE CHRISTIAN WORLD WHO CLAIM THEY ARE NOT PROTESTANTS.

THE BIGGEST PROBLEM IN PROTESTANTISM INCLUDING THOSE IN THE CHRISTIAN WORLD WHO CLAIM THEY ARE NOT PROTESTANTS.

I share the following out of love not contention. I was a Protestant for 17 years. I’m very passionate in these areas. 

“But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:”

— Ephesians 4:15

A HUGE problem if not the biggest that I came to see in light of Jesus’ intercessory prayer in John 17 for unity and its solution found in Ephesians 4:11-14 is the disunity in Protestantism due to its foundational pillar doctrine of sola scriptura. The doctrine of Sola Scriptura produces disunity and division and cannot be of God as far as His ultimate authority paradigm.

Ephesians 4:11-14 is one of my favorite passages on this subject at hand. We need the things in V. 11 in order to have the blessings of V.14. But of course we must have today a Visible; recognizable and true body of officers which includes apostles; prophets; evangelists; pastors; and teachers for after all they all can’t be right. It was truly eye opening to me when I saw that not all  the saints can be authoritative teachers. Not just anyone can teach authoritatively their own views or interpretations of thus saith the Lord. But that’s exactly what “scripture alone” as the sole and ultimate authority has produced. It has created a bunch of individual popes! So much disunity has been produced by the “Bible alone” as the ultimate authority whereby we know that it cannot be the Lord’s method or means of producing unity between His people. The problem with Bible alone authority is that every one wants to be their own apostles and Prophets and pastor and teacher and the authority paradigm of Sola Scriptura allows them to do such. The doctrine of The Bible alone as an authority breeds disunity and an impossible unity. It is Hard to obey Hebrews 13:7 if you have an authority model that encourages self authenticating authority! THERE IS NO TIEBREAKER IN PROTESTANTISM! 

“The core and source of so much heresy and false doctrine is the doctrine that teaches that the Bible alone is the only infallible source of authority. The doctrine of the Bible alone as the only infallible source of truth is anarchic. This is evident from the endless multiplication of divergent theologies and denominations within Protestantism. Without a unifying voice, one becomes his own definitive authority on the meaning of Scripture. Perhaps a pastor or teacher can help one form ideas, but it is I and I alone who am responsible for determining the true meaning of any given passage. Of course, one might say that the Holy Spirit is giving me the truth – which would mean that everyone must actually listen to me. In Protestantism, everyone is their own little pope. This same “bottom-up” approach to God existed once before, at the Tower of Babel. And there too did the languages multiply endlessly unto chaos, just as we see within Protestantism now, where there is splinter after splinter. 

“Even from the very earliest days of the Reformation, Protestants have been forced to deal with the fact that, just given the Bible and the reasoning power of the individual alone, people could not agree upon the meaning of many of the most basic questions of Christian doctrine. Within Martin Luther’s own lifetime dozens of differing groups had already arisen, claiming to “just believe the Bible,” but none agreeing with another on what the Bible said. As an example, Luther himself courageously stood before the Diet of Worms with the challenge that, unless he were persuaded by Scripture or by plain reason, he would not retract anything he had been teaching. But later, when the Anabaptists, who disagreed with the Lutherans on a number of points, simply asked for the same indulgence, Lutherans butchered them by the thousands. So much for the rhetoric about the right of the individual to read the Scriptures for himself. Despite the obvious problems that the rapid splintering of Protestantism presented for the doctrine of sola Scriptura, Protestants—not willing to concede defeat to the pope—instead concluded the real problem must be those with whom they disagree. In other words, every other sect but their own must not be reading the Bible correctly. Thus a number of approaches to biblical interpretation have been set forth as solutions to this problem. Of course, the approach has yet to be invented that could reverse the endless multiplication of schisms.” (Whiteford, John. 1996. Sola Scriptura: An Orthodox Analysis of the Cornerstone of Reformation Theology. Chesterton, IN: Ancient Faith Publishing).

But isn’t the Bible enough? NOT AS A TIEBREAKER!

St. Vincent’s remarks are powerful in relation to this question:

“But here some one perhaps will ask, Since the canon of Scripture is complete, and sufficient of itself for everything, and more than sufficient, what need is there to join with it the authority of the Church’s interpretation? For this reason: because, owing to the depth of Holy Scripture, all do not accept it in one and the same sense, but one understands its words in one way, another in another; so that it seems to be capable of as many interpretations as there are interpreters. For Novatian expounds it one way, Sabellius another, Donatus another, Arius, Eunomius, Macedonius, another, Photinus, Apollinaris, Priscillian, another, Iovinian, Pelagius, Celestius, another, lastly, Nestorius another. Therefore, it is very necessary, on account of so great intricacies of such various errors, that the rule for the right understanding of the prophets and apostles should be framed in accordance with the standard of Ecclesiastical and Catholic interpretation.”

The disunity within Protestantism for the past 500+ years on fundamental issues such as Baptism and other issues relating to salvation and issues involving how or what it means to truly love Jesus show the importance of having an authoritative church and the importance of a high ecclesiology view (Matthew 16:19; 18:15-18; 28:18-20; Luke 10:16; John 20:22-23; 1 Corinthians 12:28; Ephesians 2:19-20; 4:11-14).