ARCHIELUS BOOKS

Free sample of Theo-Logic.

Introduction

The New Testament does not prescribe an ecclesiological goal, a model for modern communities, or a perfect theory for newer groups to emulate.  The New Testament is a mirror that reflects the face of the living Church; it reveals to its audience what occurred, how the Church that Jesus built behaved.  It is sacred scripture; it is all truth, but not all the truth.  And nobody, not even Protestants, could admit that the Bible is the Word of God if it were not for the authority of the Holy Roman Catholic Church.

Scripture reveals that Jesus could write (cf. John 8:6), but he did not build his Church by writing a book.  The book, with the aid of the Holy Spirit, is a product of the Church.  Jesus appointed specific men as his new clergy; those men taught their faith, the Catholic faith is the faith of those apostles—that is what Catholicism claims.

Protestantism is a religion of the book—a religion of its interpretation of the book.  Ergo there are countless denominations within Protestantism because “orthodoxy” is defined by any individual or congregational interpretation.  The Catholic priesthood is false and every Christian is his own priest—that is what Protestantism claims.

Jesus said that the gates of hell would not prevail against his Church.  He made that statement after proclaiming who would be its foundation (cf. Matthew 16:18).  Either Jesus intended that the foundation, and what would be built upon it, would be “the pillar and foundation of truth” (1 Timothy 3:15, New American Bible), or he intended for Protestants to, metaphorically, break into the Catholic home fifteen centuries later, swipe its book, interpret that book in any way desired, then demand that their new interpretations of that book become the pillar(s) and foundation(s) of the Church(es).

In the 1990s, prominent Protestant Evangelical scholars wrote about the state of their faith—of their “church”.  In regards to the insignificance of Protestant Evangelical contributions to society, Os Guiness wrote:

[Protestant] Evangelical anti-intellectualism bears directly on many of the problems of evangelicalism—superficial or bad theology, the lack of a serious apology for the faith, the lack of a constructive public philosophy, and the continued defections of thinking evangelicals in the direction of Catholicism or Eastern Orthodoxy.1

He and other Protestant Evangelical insiders attempted to diagnose ailments and offer prescriptions—a hope that Protestant Evangelicalism could come out from the backwaters of culture and academia.   The sources of Protestant Evangelicalism’s problems were not a collection of tendencies, which they claimed as the root of Evangelicalism’s condition;2 the source was, and continues to be, a more intrinsic characteristic—an entropic genetic makeup, which this book will illustrate.

Protestantism was a revolutionary movement and, by definition, is identified by what it is not more than by what it is; resulting in an identity that is permanently marked by the accurate word Protest-ant—not an identity of something, but an identity of nothing.  That nothingness is what allows itself to be filled with any Christo-like whim, nationalistic fad, self-proclaimed significance, self-interpreted revelation, or hatred for what it abandoned: the historical Church.  Such confusion is acknowledged in how Catholics consider modern Protestants as separated brethren—as Christians and as brothers; yet not in full communion with the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.3 In other words, Protestantism, as an ism, cannot be defined as a something; it is an anti-something–a theory.  Furthermore, Protestantism keeps many members who do not claim to be Protestant at all—they claim to be, simply, Christian; Baptists, Church of Christ, and independent Christian Churches are a few examples.

Because there are, conservatively, tens of thousands of denominations or sects (euphemisms for schismatic disunity) within the Protestant panoply, it is impossible to accurately describe the phenomena as a whole.  It is especially difficult because, even if a description of a majority group is discussed, there is a significant minority that objects to the discussion on the basis that what is being described is not accurate—is not, as would be proclaimed, “true” Christianity or pertaining to the “true” Church.  Non-Catholic Christians are able to simultaneously draw upon their claimed unity and also use their division to insulate themselves from other Protestant communities—a strategy that always allows for a “true” Protestant “Church” to elusively exist.

This book is not about history, per se, nor is it about apologetics.  It is about the philosophical and mental processes that are inherent in nearly every antagonism between Catholics and Protestants—to show that Catholicism is the greater of two goods; more logical, biblical, fruitful, and what Jesus intended.  Though I would like non-Catholic Christians to contemplate the historical and biblical realities that this book touches upon, this book is primarily written for Catholic Christians, and therefore, is written in a more logical than seductive manner.  Understanding the Protestant mind is fundamental to understanding Protestantism and its goal of converting Catholics to Christianity.  Ultimately, this book will illustrate the validity of the Catholic Church’s legitimacy as Christ’s only Church—providing counter-arguments against non-Catholic Christians who are more zealous than mature.

Not being an book of only history and apologetics, I am freed from writing chronologically or exhaustively. To illustrate how Catholic and Protestant minds differ, I will, however, unpack historical anecdotes and hermeneutical strategies to provide context to the themes that this book raises.  The Protestant Reformation, as history has called it, was not the beginning of the differences between Catholicism and Protestantism.  The differences are not only in dogma or ceremony; there are differences in the human aspect—virtues and vices that may predispose preference, or retain organizational and theological faithfulness.

The Pilgrims who settled Plymouth in 1620, only one century removed from the Reformation, is my starting point, but I will jump around the calendar and topics as needed. The era will be given a disproportional amount of attention for one reason:  it encapsulates the Protestant mind, and especially the American Protestant Evangelical movement, in ways that no other era can.  American Evangelicals romanticize the era as an embryonic genesis of a Christian nation.  Catholics, on the other hand, believe that the Kingdom is at hand.