Correcting a Misperception Regarding Rome, Constantinople & Protestantism

Andrew Johann wrote,

I have more in common with unwoke Catholics and EOs than I do with those who hold the exact same doctrinal commitments as me.

Nathanael Strickland chimes in,

It’s because the Faithful of Protestantism, Catholicism, and E Orthodoxy consider each other to be heretics of the same religion in contrast to Liberalism which is an entirely different religion.

Darrell Dow offers kudos to Strickland,

Nathanael, this is concise and profound.

Bret L. McAtee drops a turd in the punchbowl of the group hug,

This is concise but it is most certainly not profound. Indeed Nathaniel’s analysis is inaccurate. Protestantism, RC and EO are themselves entirely different religions which uses the same language but fill that language with completely different meaning. I have no more in common with a RC or EO than I do with a Cultural Marxist. IF RC or EO ever get the whip hand they will be after Biblical Christians the same way that the Cultural Marxists are right now. History teaches this.

Anybody who finds the statement profound that “Faithful of Protestantism, Catholicism, and E. Orthodoxy consider each other to be heretics of the same religion” hasn’t yet thought through the massive differences between Christianity and what is not Christianity as expressed by RC and EO competing religions, and further has not studied their own history of the Reformation. When we read that history we find Luther supporting my analysis. Luther pithily proves my point in speaking to Rome,

“MAY GOD PUNISH YOU, I SAY, YOU SHAMELESS, BAREFACED LIAR, DEVIL’S MOUTHPIECE, WHO DARES TO SPIT OUT, BEFORE GOD, BEFORE ALL THE ANGELS, BEFORE THE DEAR SUN, BEFORE ALL THE WORLD, YOUR DEVIL’S FILTH.”

From Against the Roman Papacy, an Institution of the Devil pg. 349
Luther’s Works, Vol. 41

I have found that many Protestants, including those in the Reformed community do not understand that chasm that separates Rome and Eastern Orthodoxy from Protestantism. Part of this is because the Protestants have forgotten their reason for existence. It certainly is not the case that the faithful of Rome, Eastern Orthodoxy and Protestantism practice the same religion.


Author: jetbrane

I am a Pastor of a small Church in Mid-Michigan who delights in my family, my congregation and my calling. I am postmillennial in my eschatology. Paedo-Calvinist Covenantal in my Christianity Reformed in my Soteriology Presuppositional in my apologetics Familialist in my family theology Agrarian in my regional community social order belief Christianity creates culture and so Christendom in my national social order belief Mythic-Poetic / Grammatical Historical in my Hermeneutic Pre-modern, Medieval, & Feudal before Enlightenment, modernity, & postmodern Reconstructionist / Theonomic in my Worldview One part paleo-conservative / one part micro Libertarian in my politics Systematic and Biblical theology need one another but Systematics has pride of place Some of my favorite authors, Augustine, Turretin, Calvin, Tolkien, Chesterton, Nock, Tozer, Dabney, Bavinck, Wodehouse, Rushdoony, Bahnsen, Schaeffer, C. Van Til, H. Van Til, G. H. Clark, C. Dawson, H. Berman, R. Nash, C. G. Singer, R. Kipling, G. North, J. Edwards, S. Foote, F. Hayek, O. Guiness, J. Witte, M. Rothbard, Clyde Wilson, Mencken, Lasch, Postman, Gatto, T. Boston, Thomas Brooks, Terry Brooks, C. Hodge, J. Calhoun, Llyod-Jones, T. Sowell, A. McClaren, M. Muggeridge, C. F. H. Henry, F. Swarz, M. Henry, G. Marten, P. Schaff, T. S. Elliott, K. Van Hoozer, K. Gentry, etc. My passion is to write in such a way that the Lord Christ might be pleased. It is my hope that people will be challenged to reconsider what are considered the givens of the current culture. Your biggest help to me dear reader will be to often remind me that God is Sovereign and that all that is, is because it pleases him.

3 thoughts on “Correcting a Misperception Regarding Rome, Constantinople & Protestantism”

  1. When you write:

    “I have no more in common with a RC or EO than I do with a Cultural Marxist. IF RC or EO ever get the whip hand they will be after Biblical Christians the same way that the Cultural Marxists are right now. History teaches this.”

    I share some of your sentiments, but I’m not at one with your thinking. Bolshevism is a far more dangerous enemy to all of humankind (let alone Biblical Christians) than all the other false religions put together.

    _____

    Ron,

    Tell that to all the Reformers that Rome put to death in the most horrifying ways imaginable.

    Bret

    1. True, but I think we’re still not making some necessary distinctions. Solzhenitsyn wrote:

      “There is a word very commonly used these days: “anti-Communism.” This word was poorly selected. The primary, the eternal concept is humanity, and Communism is anti-humanity. We should say: That which is against Communism is for humanity. Not to accept, but to reject this inhuman Communist ideology is simply to be a human being. Such a rejection is more than a political act. It is a protest of our souls against those who would have us forget the concepts of good and evil. pp. 58-9. A concentration of world evil is taking place, full of hatred for humanity.” p. 82.

      Solzhenitsyn, ‘Warning to the West’, trans. The Bodley Head Ltd.

      Satan’s kingdom is composed of greater and lesser principalities and powers. Christ drew attention to this fact when He said: “This kind goeth out not but by prayer and fasting.” Communism is exponentially anti-Christ and anti-human.

      ___

      Ron,

      And Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy is also anti-Christ and anti-human.

      1. Maybe I should put it this way:

        I’d much rather have been subjected to the ‘tender mercies’ of a Fr. Alister Anderson than an Ilya Ehrenburg.

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