If your church isn’t Catholic or Orthodox, it’s likely Protestant.
Protestants have been “protesting” since 1517, when Martin Luther famously nailed his 95 Theses to the church door. But what does that really mean today?
One of the central ideas in Protestantism is sola scriptura—the belief that scripture alone is the highest authority. Martin Luther emphasized this as a response to what he saw as corruption within the Catholic Church. While not entirely rejecting tradition, Protestantism placed individual interpretation of scripture at the forefront.
For the first 1500 years, Christians believed the Church was started by Christ and handed down through apostolic succession. They held that authority was rooted in three sources: sacred tradition, the magisterium, and scripture. The Protestant Reformation removed two legs from this three-legged stool, leaving only scripture.
This shift means the interpretation of scripture falls on you, your pastor, and your community. While this empowers individual faith, it can also lead to internal conflict and disagreements with others.
Five hundred years later, we now see over 1,000 Protestant denominations. Many of these groups share common beliefs through the creeds, but has important knowledge, tradition, and authority been lost along the way? What do you think?
I’d love to dig into this topic further in the comments!