Truth

How many of you actually know what it means to be protestant? How many of you actually KNOW what it is that "protestants" are supposed to believe? Does being protestant mean that you don't have to uphold to or hang on to any sort of standard of belief? Is it the symbol of ultimate defiance? I believe what I believe, but as long as I say I believe in Jesus than everything is fine! It has to be. Even though that statement makes everyone who isn't Catholic incredibly uncomfortable. There are somewhere around 20,000 different denominations roaming around out there in the realm of "christianity".

"Only one of those can be right."

That's a statement that a friend of mine spoke to me while challenging my beliefs. As much as I hated hearing it, and made every attempt to dutifully argue against it (I was, after all, a "good" evangelical), he was right. Only one of those can be right. So how do you know which one?

I know the arguments you are going to make for your "denomination". I made all of them. Trust me. I think the best one I thought up was "As long as everyone believes that Jesus died on the cross, rose from the grave, conquered death, is the Son of God, came to fulfill the prophecies, then all is good. The rest are semantics and worship rules." Okay. Fine! It's a good argument (I did think it up myself). Then answer me this, if that is true, why are the majority of protestants anti Catholic? What is it about protestants that causes them to say this statement over and over again: I'm sure some of them are "saved"? There is something about believing in a lie that causes us to need to disprove the truth.

The Catholic church hasn't exactly helped her cause. Truth be told, she was filled to the brim with people who were very content to know almost nothing about their faith, their church, or their belief system, and they went out telling everybody a bunch of nonsense. Shame on those people. They, themselves, almost prevented me from ever coming to see the truth. I am grateful that God placed people in my life people to answer my questions, challenge my viewpoints, and help me to see the Truth.

Churches tell us all the time to "question and study what we're told". So, have you really done that? Have you really studied and questioned the history of your particular church, or biblical line of thinking? If you go to a Baptist church, have you studied John Calvin? Are you aware that he is the "founder" of your church beliefs? Have you looked at the history? Have you asked questions? Do you believe in sola scripura (scripture alone) or sola fidelis (faith alone)? Do you even know what those are? Do you actually know that scripture itself opposes those perspectives despite the fact that they are the backbone of everything protestantism is based on? Do you believe the division of churches is what Christ prayed for when He prayed for us to be united as one?

I challenge you to examine. Question. Challenge. Seek answers. Keep seeking until you're satisfied. Do you really want to risk eternity on your reticence? There is such thing as one Truth. I can assure you that it isn't what's true for me and what's true for you...