Why don't many Protestant churches have bishops?

Question

It's in the Bible!
We Catholics have them...
Why don't you?

angelcourtney: We ask her intercession. We do not pray to her instead of God. Please get your facts straight before blaming us for stuff we don't do.

bard's babe: Well, it's in every other Bible. All over the letters and Acts of the Apostles, LOL!

Answer 1

good point,sadly alot of bible/faith alone denominations ignore alot of the bible they claim is the sole authority,which is not once mentioned in the bible. if they read the bible as it should be they would all be catholic. alot of them fail to see that the bible they have was only made possible by the catholic church. they would also see that all the church doctrines and teachings,the mass etc is all biblical and holds to the fullness of truth,the gates of hell will not prevail against it. god bless. no offence to anyone intended,it is my humble opinion.

Answer 2

Anglican and Episcopal,
Lutheran,
Methodist,
Presbyterian has elders
Most Mainline Protestant churches do have a hierarchy

Catholic are not the only ones to have Bishops. Jesus started the office of the elders of His church. This is not a RCC creation.
1 Tim 3:1, 5:17, Act 1:20, Jn 15:16 to name a few of the Biblical Christian reference of Bishop, elders, priest, deacon elections. Many many others in all Chrisitan Bibles. To deny this is just not true.

Answer 3

I did not read all the answers so if there is duplication forgive me.
a)Bishop may not appear in all translation, but that is a result of translating. Check out two translations of Philippians 1:1, the NIV and KJV:
Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus,
To all the saints in Christ Jesus at Philippi, together with the overseers[a] and deacons:

and

Paul and Timotheus, the servants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons:

b) it is just semantics, all churches need some sort of organization, and churches in the Bible (1st Century) had different forms of Church Government.

c)Protestants and Catholics may have some minor doctrinal differences (The Virgin Mary's intercession for example) but agree on the important things.

So in conclusion, we have a form of Bishop/overseer, we just call 'em something different.

(Can I also say some of you answerers are immature? Don't get all upset about it! Or claim to be the only Christian organization with any truth to it!)

Answer 4

Because most "protestant" churches formed through "protest" of the corruption they felt the Catholic church had brought to "true" christianity.
Some still have bishops (mormons, episcopals, etc.), but most don't.

Interesting historical note: "bishop" comes from a greek term, and originally meant the local leader of a group of christians in a particular town. They were chosen from regular people -- nearly all of them married and with children -- and in some cases weren't even baptized christians when they became bishops. As late as 680 AD there were still no restrictions on marrying or having children to be a bishop, the idea of celibacy for bishops and all other Catholic clergy only came after that time.

Answer 5

Well, Episcopalians have them as do Methodists and I believe most of the Lutheran denominations. I don't know about any of the others, but I'm not going to say one way or the other since I don't know. Also, it would have been good to put the verse from the Bible on which you base your statement. A better way to have phrased your question, unless you were wanting to sound less than polite, would have been something like "What churches besides the Roman Catholic have bishops?".

Answer 6

Today, a main role of bishops is part of the hierarchy. As much as they are supposed to be shepherds of local flocks, what usually happens is that they deal more in a managerial role. (At least, that has been my experience.)

I think the reason many Protestant churches don't have bishops or an institutional structure like the RCC is that they have seen the weaknesses that come with such a hierarchy and people who have abused the power that comes with it for their own greed. I can't say I necessarilly blame them for not wanting bishops.

Answer 7

Bishops are more common in organizations founded in Europe, especially during the middle ages. It used to be that bishops were in almost every organization in the middle ages, from churches to governments.

Many protestant denominations are founded in the United States, where more people wanted to organize them using modern nomenclature and even democratic means.

Answer 8

I believe that the people who keep spouting the only mediator between man and God is Christ, have never really read the bible through. They completely ignore anything Jesus says to the Apostles about forgiving sins and to "Do this in remembrance of me", and go and baptize people. It's like they know OF Jesus but, the do not KNOW him. I would be very worried because of the Scripture that says he will say "Away from me you evil doers, for I do not know you"

Answer 9

There are a series of Greek words that were used for the office of bishop; bishop, pastor, shepherd, and overseer are four of them. Depending on the context, each is appropriate in it's place.

Answer 10

A better translation of the Greek word for bishop is overseer.

This is a job description not a title.

Matt 23:1-10 shows that Christ's followers would avoid religious titles.