“Provoking Christian Insights” series

Part 18

Can I not be Catholic and still be Christian?

Knowing what you believe.

Many people believe that if you are not a member of the Catholic Church you cannot be a Christian. Truth is that Jesus said, “Take up YOUR cross and follow Me” and “He that believes in Me shall be saved.” This has little to do with church membership in the local church, but rather, membership in the heavenly church.

This also puts those churches, or groups, that don’t believe in the Diety of Jesus Christ out of the business of being saved.

So why are there various groups believing in the same Jesus?

Last time (see column 917) we talked about the breaking away from the Catholic Church by protest, thus creating the name “Protestant.” These groups became denominations, or church groups in their own right.

I wondered why my friend attended a “Reformed” church, another an “Evangelical” church, and yet I belonged to a “Baptist” church, and some others belonged to a “Orthodox” church. Every one of these churches believe in the Diety of Jesus.

Now as a drip-dry Baptist I understood that there were differences with Catholics who practiced baptism by sprinkling, but after all this division, many of the new “Protestant” churches still practiced sprinkling of infants. Here is where the rubber meets the road in practice.

Most baby baptizing churches will today allow “re-baptizing,” or baptizing as a confessing adult a person who was baptized as a baby.  Back in the days of Martin Luther this practice could get one killed. Over time some of these practices changed. Our Baptist church was next door to a Methodist church, and occasionally a Methodist would be brought over for “immersion baptism.”

While most denominations baptize “into Christ,” and there are some that baptize into their denomination.

The Reformation

I don’t know that we have to know all there is to know about the Reformation, a period of time when the protestant church remade itself into various denominations. Most of your relatives have come through this period of time and have suffered some sort of persecution at the hands of partisan believers. Here are some things to ponder about what was going on in the 16^th Century.

There was an outbreak among the German peasants in 1524-1525. Some blamed Luther for his remarks against the authority of the Catholic church and the power of the Pope. Luther had argued that as Christians we should be free to interpret the Scriptures and that we were all equal as believers. Two years earlier the Zwickau Prophets and Andreas Karlstadt took stands that opposed civil authority by force. In those days Princes ran the country and there were certain types of “Mystical Religion,” and “seditious tendencies” also associated with the Anabaptists that brought inappropriate force against “heresy.” There was also a belief that “Christians should kill the godless.”

The magistrates (civil rulers) were granted the right of resistance in matters of religion to resist the tyrannical imposition of spiritual matters over civil rule. They became guardians over the people’s religion. They could decide what beliefs were acceptable within the princes’ own territory. Luther had blasted the Church in hopes of overturning the three walls protecting the papal hierarchy.

Luther felt the congregants should be able to choose and oversee its own pastors. Because of infant baptism the church had many unregenerate persons. There would have to be a period of over-site until the true gospel took hold in their lives. Luther, Melanchthon and Calvin, the religious leaders of the time began to follow the same beliefs on the role of the civil magistrate. Calvin engineered a more thorough and independent ecclesiology than Luther. He chose cooperation with the magistrate. But for Calvin, the magistrate had no role in actually making decisions about spiritual matters. The magistrate would enforce spiritual standards made by the church.

Actually, though Luther supported the persecution of the Anabaptists. It was the Anabaptists and not Lutheranism, or the Reformed movement that were closer to Luther’s earliest stated ideals on the relation of the civil magistrate to religious beliefs. If they would have set aside their differences they could have formed a powerful alliance.

The Anabaptists’ rejected the role of the Christian magistrate. If Luther would have accepted baptism and the Anabaptists accepted Christian magistrates, the history of the Reformation may have been different. Due to their small numbers, the Anabaptists had very little influence.

These things were going on while American was being colonized and had a great effect on the desires for freedom among the colonists. Even though the Dutch in the areas of New York had some toleration, religious freedom was building in the more radical American colonies of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island. The walls of religious papacy were coming down. The reformed churches had more political and social impact than the Anabaptists. The increasing democratic nature of these congregations molded political thought. The reformed churches were also flexible. The colonies founded by the Puritans were generations ahead of other colonies in the nature of their representatives and governmental structures.

Though I am making a very complex period simple, Luther’s doctrine of the priesthood of believers and its two kingdoms of church and state was divided and the right of the individual highlighted by the Anabaptists and their allied congregations. Even though they didn’t have great numbers they had a very profound effect. There were other influences including Catholic, humanist, Jewish, Deist, and followers of Enlightenment.

All the twists and turns in this movement had a pondering effect on what would become our republic.

Today we are many, not exactly what Luther envisioned, not even in the church named for him, but we are that collection of religious equals who look to the Holy Scriptures for our inspiration. We as “protestant” and “Reformed,” and “Evangelical” Christians have only God’s Word to “boss” us and in our congregations allow the inspired word of God to “boss” our “bosses” in the church and pray that in our government “In God We Trust” will remain our motto and our theme.

(Inspiration and explanation Inspiration for this article was taken in part from “The Revolutionary,” Liberty Magazine, July/August 2007).

INSPIRATION: “The Pharisees therefore said to one another, “You see that you are not doing any good; look, the world has gone after Him,” John 12:19 NASB

Write: croneis@earthlink.net