You Can't Change the Truth to Make It True

Classical Protestantism is a farce that many do not want to admit. I’ve seen the dwindling decline of it in my own life. The Protestants I’ve spoken to leave their Protestantism as they grow up and decide on either being not affiliated with a Church institution or becoming secularists. There’s no in between. The Lutheran girl I spoke to with a crush all those years back in freshman year of college does not care about being Lutheran. The Calvinist I knew in college, left those doctrines when she graduated and went off into the real world. In fact, I saw either one became more liberal with your religion or yearning for something more traditional in my college experience - which is why we’re seeing a lot of people have an interest with Catholicism nowadays. There was never a yearning for what the reformers taught because they had their own pastors' teachings, but when that was insignificant, they decided to leave.

I wanted to speak my peace on this so-called “Classical Protestantism” because it’s been abandoned by the new movements of Christianity. The last time they held solid relevance in the lives of Christendom was the 20th century, now they’re hollow shells of themselves. I mean look, you’re not seeing Protestantism and its institutions in the headlines unless it’s because of their liberal doctrines and behaviors that conservative Christians dislike. The biggest thing I see related to Protestantism is the show, The Chosen, but that has a helping of numerous Christian sects helping out. You have Messianic Jews, Catholic scholars, and Protestant Pastors helping out the script to make sure it’s accurate and works out as a T.V. show. This is an ecumenical endeavor, it’s not a show baked with one form of Christianity over the over as a selling point. They want anyone, Christian and even the seeking non-Christian, to enjoy it. But I want to reiterate, Classical Protestantism isn’t in these movements. Surely, you have a trickle down of the thoughts of Luther, Calvin, Wesley in The Chosen due to Protestants helping out with the script. Yet, there remains a clear lack of that Classical Protestant theology I hear will save you from becoming Catholic. So let’s go over these Classical Protestant ideas, because they may be more sophisticated than their post-modern counterparts you hear from street preachers, there still remains the core ideas.

The core doctrine which makes Protestantism stand or fall is Sola Scriptura - Scripture is the authority of Doctrine. Alright, I’m going to make this concise because Lutherans love pointing out their doctrine is more nuanced than “if it’s not in the Bible, it isn’t true”. The original Classical Protestant idea of Sola Scriptura had a nuanced caveat that has been forgotten for centuries because of how ridiculous in reality it is. This doctrine has the idea that essential doctrine is clear, I can read scripture with the Holy Spirit the same as someone else and get the same conclusions. You see the issue before a generation in Luther’s time because you have a few Protestant sects who disagree with his takes: Eucharist theology, the Salvific nature of Baptism, Church hierarchy. The works. Thus, the Classical Protestant has two options: either the person who disagrees with you on essential doctrine is not with the Holy Spirit or the doctrine is false. And if this is false then Sola Scriptura as a concept falls apart because there is no objective way to interpret Scripture as the authority. The cornerstone of Classical Protestant theology is a farce; it is untenable in the real world. No one would take a claim like that seriously if they read a history book and I can’t blame Christians who have left these institutions for not knowing Sola Scriptura is false because quickly in history people gave up on this idea of clear doctrine. 

This leads to some Protestant apologists clinging onto Sola Scriptura as a valid doctrine saying they have essential doctrine when it’s a mess to decide what’s essential and what is not. Because Baptism either saves you or it does not, that is essential and yet there is a disagreement amongst the biggest Protestant sects in the world on this issue. This is only one of many issues that spring up because of this, you can’t figure out what is true and essential because that was never a goal of classical Protestantism. What I want to discuss next is ecclesiology because 200 years ago, if you were a Baptist you believed that your Church’s institution was the Church. This is why, as stupidly obvious this sounds, you have numerous Churches in the span of a mile from one another. It’s because if you were a Methodist, you believed that a Baptist was wrong about Religion in such a fundamental way that you cannot have communion with them. In the 21st century, Church affiliation is now down to mental ascent. One could go to a baptist Church and worship without holding to the confessions and creeds of that said Church. Which, according to the Classical Protestant model, is wrong because the Church still has an authority over its people. John Calvin believed the Church played a role in Christians lives as an Authority, to the point where he said that his Church discerned the canon of the Bible by discerning which books were in there with the Holy Spirit. This is an ecclesial claim, not a private interpretation meant for Calvin. To be in his Church at the time meant to submit to the Authority he has placed. This is not the case anymore, modern Protestants do not submit to their Churches like this anymore. Even Redeemed Zoomer, someone who advocates for Churches to have strong institutions, disobeys his own institution daily (his sect has given way to the liberalism of Mainline Christian denominations). What was essential to these Christians of the Classical Protestant variety is not to those in the modern day. It was essential that the body of believers remained in their own institution but now you have Christians who aren’t affiliated with any Protestant branch all over the place. 

And lastly, you have a change of theology in Protestantism after World War II. This is an open secret to anyone studying theology after World War II. Due to the Holocaust, Protestant theologians had to ask themselves if Jews were still the people of God after such horrifying experiences. That isn’t the issue, what was however, was that you saw a removal of the Church as the new Israel in this theological change. The Church lost its theological significance as God’s people for the favor of this Theological Novum. The classical view of the Church being the new Israel was changed because of World War II. This was a change of theology was not present in the history of Christianity until then. It doesn’t mean that all mainline denominations had the novum that the state of Israel was to be supported, although it led to that in infamous cases, but that the Church in God’s covenant was removed. This change is a huge one which explains why Classical Protestantism feels murky and more like an idea rather than a reality in our modern times. It makes sense that if the Church isn’t the new Israel, the pillar of truth as said in Scripture because Church authority has been downplayed, then you have a generation of Christians going in and out of denominations more than ever before. Which led to our post-modern time where mainline denominations are cratering. 

Classical Protestantism has changed so much that one cannot even assent to it the way the reformers had before. I haven’t even mentioned the doctrines Luther and Calvin believed: prayer to saints, Marian veneration, Marian doctrine… etc. Protestantism is always changing, but not with authentic knowledge but changing one’s mind about a doctrine. Nowadays to be a classical protestant, one submits to ideas rather than authority which is not the basis for Classical Protestant thought. You cannot start preaching that you have the right form Religion to then make caveats to your doctrine when they don’t work in practice. That isn’t how truth works, you don’t get the truth by working on the bedrock of something false to get there. Protestantism changes every century, with new ideas replacing the old ones that didn’t work in favour of not being seen as wrong. Classical Protestantism remains a dead option for many because it is a set of ideas that only make sense in a world before the 20th century.