1. Authority:
A. There is no proper authority to justify Protestantism.
B. The idea of sola scriptura (the scriptures are the sole authority of Christianity) is not in the Bible, nor does it work in real life, as shown by the many irreconcilable Protestant denominations with all of the various and irreconcilable doctrinal statements and ways of worship.
C. What really happens is that every individual Protestant becomes his own authority interpreting the scriptures as he will.
D. Despite their good intentions this creates a relativistic, liberal Christianity.
2. In order to get around this, many Protestants these days will say that the Bible is not the sole authority; it is the highest authority:
A. This is a distinction without a difference.
B. As with sola Scriptura, there is nowhere in the Bible where it says that the Bible is the highest authority.
C. Whether you say that there is no other authority to appeal to, or no higher authority to appeal to, the Bible is still the final authority with nowhere else to go if you disagree with what it says.
D. This is the fundamental problem with Sola Scriptura.
E. As Orthodox we believe that the Church, as represented by the scriptures, the fathers, the councils, the icons, the saints, etc is the authority and that is what is actually in the Bible. (1Tim. 3:15; 2Thess. 2:15)
3. One example of the difference between the Orthodox and the Protestants is how liberals and conservatives view the Constitution:
A. Liberals tend to believe that the Constitution should be read in the light of modern society. They don’t care about a historical connection with the founders. They only care about what it means to them today.
B. Conservatives, on the other hand, look at the original intent of the framers and seek to stay true to it.
C. Protestants do not have a historical connection with the Apostles, and seek to interpret the Bible as they understand it today.
D. The Orthodox have a historical connection to the Apostles and seek to maintain that original understanding.
4. Sola Fide:
A. This is the idea that we are saved by faith alone. Works in no way contribute to our salvation.
B. It is also not in the Bible. The scriptures say that we are saved by faith, but never by faith alone. In fact, the scriptures say that we are not saved by faith alone. (James 2:14-18)
C. If taken to its logical conclusion, (which admittedly most Protestants do not) “faith alone” allows us to do anything we want and still go to Heaven. “As long as l have faith it doesn’t matter what I do.”
D. It misses the idea that salvation is the process of becoming godlike and adheres to the idea that conversion is all that salvation is.
E. They will, generally speaking, admit that sanctification (process of becoming Christlike) involves works, but they don’t see it as an aspect of salvation so they tend, in practice at least, not to see it as necessary.
F. So salvation becomes conversion alone. In that light, even though it’s wrong, faith alone is understandable.
5. Primary and Secondary Doctrines:
A. This is a misguided attempt at unity, and to fulfill the Biblical injunction to be of one mind, (2Cor.13:11) that states that there are some doctrines that are necessary for our salvation and some that are not.
B. Protestants only demand agreement on the few doctrines they call primary or essential.
C. These will tend to be ones such as the Trinity, incarnation, virgin birth, life, death, resurrection and ascension of Christ.
D. Doctrines such as baptism, communion, confession, free will, predestination etc. would be considered unnecessary to salvation and therefore okay to disagree upon.
E. There are no scriptures which indicate that some doctrines are not essential for our salvation. This view also reveals a misunderstanding of salvation.
6. If salvation is a one time event consisting of us declaring one’s belief in Christ, then there can be doctrines that aren’t important for our salvation, but if salvation is the process of becoming God-like, then all doctrines become important:
A. Why would Jesus have given us unimportant doctrines and/or doctrines not necessary for our salvation?
7. Many Protestants have a juridical view of salvation:
A. It postulates a God who is angry with man because of sin. Man has broken God’s law and must come under eternal judgment as a result. God’s anger and need for justice can only be appeased by the death of his Son.
B. Salvation then is reduced to our believing in Jesus who has appeased the Father’s wrath through his death.
C. Once we have believed, then the Father’s wrath is removed and we are “saved”.
D. Notice how under this system our primary need is to be saved from God.
E. It is difficult to fully love a God from whose wrath one needs to be saved.
F. Contrast this to the Orthodox understanding that one’s need is to be saved from oneself, and the Father sends Jesus because he loves us, not because he is angry with us. (Jn.3:15)
8. Another problem with this Protestant understanding is that it divides the Trinity as the Father is angry and the Son is merciful:
A. This anger creates a need in God, as his wrath needs to be appeased by the death of his Son.
B. God, of course, has no needs.
9. Rock and Roll Worship:
A. It has always been the Protestant way to go into the culture, find out what the people want and give it to them.
B. Martin Luther used bar tunes for many of his hymns.
10. One problem with pop music worship is that, since it is basically party music, it creates an atmosphere where Christianity is seen as a feel good party religion:
A. People will always be more affected by the way in which they worship than by preaching.
B. Many people forget what was preached ten minutes after they leave church, but the worship sticks with them and gets inside them.
11. Because of this party mentality, virtually all asceticism is lost, and with it almost all understanding that salvation is the process of becoming godlike:
A. The two are intimately tied together. If you lose one you will normally lose the other.
B. People who worship in this way will therefore tend towards believing that life should be good, without pain, heartache, and in general, anything bad happening to them. This leads to popular books such as “Where is God When it Hurts”.
C.That title would have seemed absurd to the early church when becoming Christian meant that there was a pretty good chance that you would be persecuted. Many were imprisoned, tortured, and killed.
12. Another problem with pop music worship is that the words tend to be shallow:
A. The beat of rock/pop music doesn’t tend to allow for any sort of in-depth theology or Church history.
B. It lends itself more to emotional love songs to Jesus.
C. How far can those emotions carry one when hard times and/or persecutions arise?
11. Rock and roll/pop music worship gives a false sense of the Holy Spirit:
A. In this type of worship a certain style of music is played with relatively simple lyrics. The same songs are played over and over producing a certain feeling in the worshipper, and that feeling is said to be the Holy Spirit.
B. In fact, this is simply a human emotion stirred up by the type of music, simple lyrics, worshipful attitude, and repetitive songs.
C. If one used the same type of music, the same type of simple lyrics, repetitive songs, and worshipful attitude, but instead of singing to Jesus one sang to a different deity, one would get the same feelings.
D. This shows that the feeling produced in the Protestant worshipper is not the Holy Spirit, but simply a human emotion produced by the style of worship.
12. Protestants, for the most part, have done away with the sacraments:
A. If they have them at all, they have, generally speaking, stripped them of all substance, made them purely symbolic, and therefore virtually meaningless.
B. There can be no grace in the sacraments outside the Church because the sacraments were only given to the Church (which is the Orthodox Church).
C. The only thing left in Protestant worship is singing, preaching, and fellowship.
D. One can get all of these outside of Church.
E .All one needs is some worship music, recorded and/or online sermons, and some Christian friends.
F. So, other than fellowship, why go to church at all? Many Protestants these days have a hard time answering that question.
