Article - Neither Catholic nor Protestant but Christians ONLY
The “politically correct” idea of choosing one’s religious faith (whether it be Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, etc.) is contrary to the teaching of the New Testament. According to the Scriptures, there is only ONE faith (Ephesians 4:5). 1 Timothy 4:1-5 prophesies that there would be a departure from THE faith. The first full-fledged departure was the Catholic Denomination (fully developed around A.D. 606: date of the first formally recognized “universal pope” Boniface III). This was almost 600 years after the church of Christ was established on the Day of Pentecost around A.D. 30 (Acts 2:1, 38, 41, 47). In 1054 the Catholic Church divided into the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church. In the 1300s and 1400s members of the Catholic Church began to challenge many doctrines of the Catholic Church. In the 1500s the European Protestant Reformation began under the influences of Martin Luther (Germany, Lutheran Church, 1521), Huldrych Zwingli and John Calvin (Switzerland, Reformed Churches, including Presbyterian, Scotland, John Knox through Calvin’s writings of 1534). All these divisions and reformations were merely protests against and attempts to REFORM the Catholic Church rather than RESTORE the New Testament church. Hence, none of the Protestant Movements were Restoration Movements, but rather departures from the already departed Catholic Church. They were merely divisions off of the Catholic Church and not the restored church of Christ. To be part of the true faith of the Bible, you must be part of THE FAITH of Christ (not Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, etc., John 14:6) and NOT part of the Catholic or Protestant “faiths”. I plead with Catholics, Protestants (and other “faiths”) to become Christians only and added members of the body/church of Christ (Matthew 16:18-19; Romans 16:16). You will not be able to obtain “the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” until you reject all Traditions/Churches of men (Mark 7:6-7; Ephesians 4:1-6)!
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