What does protestant mean ?

Question

Just wondering stll a young christain in traning and have questions ? thanks

Answer 1

I'VE ALREADY TOLD YOU

Answer 2

May you grow in grace. I come to know that it comes from the root word "to protest" , Luther and other even before him as well as after protested the doctrines as held by the Catholic church by placing 95 theses on the door of the church he made a bold stand against their practices. This is what help to launch the biggest seperation from the church and the result is the Protestant churches we have today. Some not claiming to any original churches of America seek to be known as interdenominational or non-denominational. I am still protesting even our doctrines(teachings) respectfully submitted. ya prince in the kingdom...(may god bless you)

Answer 3

The "protest" from which protestant, started with objections to doctrines and behaviour in the catholic church (small c, at this point, though the split with the Orthodox churches had already occured)
The intention was not to divide but to reform (hence Reformation) the church. On the whole the church declined to reform, rather declaring it was the protesters, the "protestants" who needed to repent and return to the authority of the catholic church, based in Rome (hence: Roman Catholic)
The dispute lead to fracture and war, rather than reconciliation as power, money and politics as well as theological differences became involved.
(Henry VIII being determined to get his divorces being only one prominent example of such.)

The protestant churches do not accept the ultimate authority of the pope, and deny some Roman Catholic doctrines which they consider unbiblical.
From the Catholic viewpoint, the protestants have broken away from the one true church whose first head was St Peter.

Answer 4

I'm a Catholic, and unlike others would have you believe, Catholics do not classify everone else as protestants.

There are four versions of Christianity today:

Catholicism: The oldest of the Christian Churches, who differ from the others in the beliefs of both Tradition and rational thought guiding dogma as opposed to just scripture, and salvation through faith and faith expressed in works as opposed to solely through faith.

Orthodox Christians broke away from the Catholic Church first. They are essentially Catholics who do not believe in the Pope. There are a few other minor differences.

Protestants broke away during the Protestant reformation. Most commonly Protestants differ in their beliefs of truth only through Scripture, salvation only through faith, and their use of an edited bible, discarding several books.

Neo-Christians are newer branches such as Jehovah's Witnesses and the Mormans. They have the same foundation of belief as other christian churches, but have many other vastly dissimilair beliefs. (IE The transportation of Jews to the Americas found in Mormanism)

Answer 5

Protestants are a branch of the Catholic church. They "protested" the teachings of the Catholic church and spun off into their own group(s). They put more authority in the Bible than do the Catholics, and they believe that salvation is by faith alone, and not a result of any good works.

The Catholics themselves spun off from the true Christian faith back in the fourth century. As one of the more successful perversions of Christianity they like to claim they are the One True Church and the only ones who can trace their lineage back to the apostles. This of course is not true; there are many churches today who hold the faith of the apostles and never varied from it as the Catholics did.

Since the Catholics claim to be the One True Church they categorize EVERYONE else as "protestant" and it's fairly common to consider every Christian who is not a Catholic to be "protestant". This couldn't be any less true. Both Catholics and protestants are splinter groups from true Christianity, which started with Jesus and his disciples and neither has nor has ever had any popes nor a home base in Rome.

Answer 6

A little something to do with Germany's Princes during the time of Martin Luther they coined the word Protestant you know.

Answer 7

"Protestant" is a blanket term for the many denominations that formed during or after the Protestant Reformation--Lutherans, Methodists, Presbyterians, Seventh-Day Adventists, Baptists, Anglicans, Pentecostals, etc etc etc. "Non-denominational" churches are still Protestant in practice, despite the misleading name... they just don't ascribe to one of the aforementioned denominations. Another way to define them is any Christian who is not Catholic or Orthodox, although that's a rather crude way of putting it.

Answer 8

Pejorative name given to Christians who were excommunicated by the Roman Catholic church during the time of the Reformers (Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, et al.).

Answer 9

A Protestant is a Christian who does not follow the Catholic faith. Methodists, Baptists, Presbytarians, etc.

Answer 10

A Protestant is someone belonging to a Christian ecclesiastical group which is in protest of the Church that Christ created, the Catholic Church.

In Christ
Fr. Joseph

Answer 11

Take a look at this branching tree of the Christian faith: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:ChristianityBranches.svg

Also wikipedia has a decent definition as well: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protestant

I hope these references are useful.