The Fatal Problem of the Protestant Way
Although Protestantism corrected many wrongs of the Catholic church and gave Christians a fighting chance to know Jesus, it has ultimately been a failed experiment.
Eternal life is to know God, not just about God. People are saved by knowing, loving, and obeying Jesus and the Father by the Holy Spirit. They must know God (Jn 17:3), and He must know them (Mt 7:21-23).
If they do this as the New Testament actually teaches, this “knowing” is an intimate union with God. It is being “one” with God as Jesus called for in John 17:11; 20-23.
This “knowing” God the Lord spoke of is akin to a wife who knows her husband. It is the same as Jesus who knew the Father while He walked in the gospel days.
Protestantism is fatally flawed and anyone who really wants to know God must stand guard against its premises which seem so reasonable, but which tend to produce horrible unwanted fruit. There is a way that seems right to man, but its way is the way of death (Prov 14:12; 16:25).
The fruit of those who claim to represent God is the acid test of authenticity. Jesus said “by their fruit you will know them.” Many things Jesus and the New Testament writers asked of the church from the beginning have never been done when God said He backs His people all the way. Many things Jesus and the New Testament writers spoke against have been done instead.
There have been masses of people emboldened by Reformation-derived teachings who do not display the fruit of the Spirit and who work against one another with conflicting visions of the faith when God called for unity. Many in the world have gotten bad impressions from Christians who were called to manifest the Spirit-given love of Christ as a witness to God. So many more things have also long been awry.
This is not to say Catholicism was better. It wasn’t. Both have been vulnerable to performing many wrongs God said never should be, and need not be if people of His name truly loved Him, but therein lies the rub …
The Reformation began in 1517 with the theological battle cry of “Solo Scriptura.” This means only the Scriptures. The Scriptures were to be the authority when the Scriptures themselves say only God is the Authority. Jesus said His sheep know and follow His voice. With the start of the Reformation and Sola Scriptura, it was “off to the races” for any who thought they could crack the code and decipher the whole meaning of Scripture.
Solo Scriptura and spinoffs derived from it meant Christians based their trust and confidence they have eternal life on whether they have the right teaching and obey that teaching as unto the Lord.
This has an appearance of wisdom but comes with the subtlety of Satan. It seems intellectually honest but comes with the blindness of the deceitful flesh.
It is a pinnacle of the reasoning and way of the flesh but is a producer of many unwanted results that have never been properly called out and clearly identified.
Many would bristle to read these words because they are yet under Protestantism’s spell. But fear not. This article is not heresy. It does what so many chasing Bible knowledge are hoping for. It points you to Jesus who is the Living Word.
Even so, many yet under Protestantism’s spell will need to deny what this article says. That is because if this article is true, millions who believe they have placed their faith and trust in Jesus are actually on the road to perdition. Millions who have a vested interest in lies would have to accept truths they in their heart do not want. Many yet under Protestantism’s spell will begin formulating counter arguments and alternative views to deny light they cannot see with their blinded eyes. This article is for those who only want to serve God. It is for those who will meet conditions Jesus stated for who could even hope to embark on the Way that leads to eternal life (Jn 3:3,5; Mt 18:3; Lk 14:26-33; Jn 12:24-25, and more).
Jesus gave many explicit conditions for who could even follow Him. In the mad rush by Protestant ministers to get people to say “yes” to Jesus, these conditions have often been swept under the rug along with so much else that was considered essential in the days of the early church.
It is madness to try to understand God’s truth and obey it if one fails at the outset to meet His conditions. God’s truth is revealed and we need God’s grace to see it (Jn 6:44-45; 1 Cor 2:9-14; 1 Jn 2:27, Mt 11:27; Jn 14:21). Dare people flout Jesus’ stated conditions of discipleship and hope they can figure out the things of God anyway? But the flesh of fallen humanity is that mad – even if it cannot fully see how mad it is, or in its madness, it wishes to deny it.
The Protestant way is a fruit of the madness of sin in human hearts who want heaven which God offers, and to avoid hell that He warns against. The Protestant way is a fruit of the madness of Satan also who stokes the needs and wants in vulnerable humans and leads them on by their own desires.
The Protestant way is an evolution of the futile methodology of the Scribes, Pharisees, and hypocrites who opposed Jesus. Their way of approaching and knowing God induced unjustified boldness so they were not afraid to oppose Jesus. The Lord sounded wrong to these Jews who knew their Bible but did not know God.
Sola Scriptura and the Protestant way was the brainchild of Gentiles who sought the path of the ancient Jews whose writings they grappeled with. The Protestants who primarily were of Europe refined a way of knowing God that had never produced sufficient fruit for the Scribes, Pharisees and hypocrites who Jesus railed against in the gospels. The history of the Old Testment Jews was at best a mixed bag. They had a long history of spiritual blindness and sin including worshiping other gods, defying God while stating they served Him, and resisting and killing prophets sent by God right on up to Jesus Christ (Mt 23:37-38; Acts 7:51-53).
Protestantism essentially established what they considered best practices based on the ancient way that had never been able to produce a people who could please God. Specifically, the Protestants dusted off all the many Old Testament commandments and admonitions to reverence the Scriptures and study the Bible. There are also New Testment verses reverencing the Old Testament Scriptures and “sound doctrine,” and these too served to validate the Protestant’s way of approaching God. It can be good in theory, but in practice it has countless failure points. Scriptures that tell people to study the Bible of course are not in themselves wrong, but as Jesus showed the Jews, there were things fundamentally missing in their hearts so they failed to see what the Scriptures actually taught.
The Protestant way therefore restored the recipe for success of the Jews who could never succeed; the Scribes, Pharisees, and hypocrites knew so much about God but did not know God. So it has been for so many “Christians” who at best had brush ups and occasional encounters with God but who ultimately did not know His voice or walk with Him.
The Jews who Jesus made an example of relied on the mind of man assuming they were God guided. They could not see they lacked the fruit of one guided by God and could be stubbornly confident in their way of approaching God that Jesus showed they should abandon.
So many hapless Protestants are like in kind. The common denominator with the Jews is they seek God with their mind of flesh. Many called Christian do not realize they do not seek or serve God with a new made alive spirit – but think they do and love to talk about it. Many who have followed what they were taught as best theological practices derived from a Protestant foundation are set on a course doomed to make them fall short. They build a house on sand, not the Rock, while proclaiming to stand on the Rock.
Jesus will not save us because we “rightly divided the word of truth” and had “sound doctrine.” He will save us if we directly come to Him and know Him and learn to walk in Him, in Spirit and truth. If we know Jesus, furthermore that is the only way we will ever learn and properly apply the lessons of the Bible.
But while Protestants may enjoy discussion and debate over matters of New Testament teaching, the overarching thrust of the New Testament is something so many fail to see.
While so many have supposed they were “earnestly contending” for the teachings of the Book, they fell short in what the book says, which is knowing its Author. There is a world of difference between knowing the book and knowing its Author.
The true way of Christ is the Author lives inside you and you have yielded to Him as He requires (Jn 14:15-24; Jn 15:1-11). Jesus in you is the hope of glory (Col 1:27). Jesus in you is the “law of the Spirit” of life who will free you from the “law of sin and death” (Rom. 8:2). Jesus who would live in you and infuse you with His uncreated life is the only valid Christian life (Gal 2:20).
If the Author of our faith, and Shepherd of our souls lives in you, He will ensure you do not stray far. He will grant you an understanding (1 Jn 5:20) no one can argue or beat out of you. If you are taught by God, then this is true eternal knowledge. Jesus is to be your Teacher above all teachers (Mt 23:8,10) with first right of refusal against all the words of errant men. If Jesus lives His life in you, then you will cease having confidence in the flesh.
The Protestant way however is conducive to placing confidence in the flesh while deceiving itself that it places confidence in God. The Reformation was as insidious as a false flag movement and it has continued to reap a deadly harvest of Christians in name only, or people who remain as permanent spiritual babes – always learning but never able to come to the knowledge of the truth (2 Tim 3:7).
The Protestant way produces these hateful outcomes by pointing people in the wrong direction while claiming to point them in the right direction. It makes all the right noises but has produced an ugly sight.
The highest will of God was Christians be all as one (Jn. 17:20-23), but the Protestants have defied this vital injunction far worse than the Catholic faith they sought to overthrow. Protestantism became a fountainhead of division while it argued over a faith calling for unity. It enabled the splintering of the faith by strong-minded men who divided from others because they thought they were following God more excellently.
This is proof of flesh muddying up the mix. The Protestant way is a work of the flesh and evil spirits of false religion.
Yes God works in all things. Yes there have always been godly people in the Protestant era. Yes there is always a remnant. Yes good also has occurred in the Protestant era. Jesus said few will be saved. The Protestant way could permit God’s will, to be sure, but it has overwhelmingly been a maker of broad ways leading to destruction (Mt 7:13-14).
The Reformation revived and evolved ancient heresies. For example, it gave us “once saved always saved” from Calvinism and derivations of it on the liberal side of the theological spectrum. And, on the conservative side it produced many who understand the letter of the law, and live not in the spirit of it (Rom 7:6). These are the sort who practice “dead works” and “will worship.”
All these “Christians” may nonetheless be bold in their “faith” and work to advance it. They may decry false teaching and cults but be a cult themselves which has merely escaped detection.
Although God did work through people of the Reformation, it was not a pure work of God. Again, we can say that by the test Jesus gave: the fruit. We can say it also by the other test God gives: of the spirits (1 Jn 4).
A test of the spirits is what manner of spirit one is of (Lk 9:55). Jesus rebuked people for many spiritual errors and just because one may declare Jesus came in the flesh, that is not proof they are of God regardless of a literal reading of John’s word. John’s test of the spirits in 1 Jn 4 dealt with a specific problem of Gnosticism. But a full test of spirits is broader than that focused test intended for a specific problem. in 1 Jn 4:2 John said, “By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God …”
There are those who do confess Jesus has come in the flesh but who also preach from false spirits and who say amen to many lies. Did John mean to establish a law that a false prophet or teacher who at least says Jesus has come in the flesh is therefore sent by God and all they say is as from the mouth of God? No! Of course not!
But Protestantism produces blind guides of the blind. It produces those who will wrestle over words, and strain at a gnat and swallow a camel. It produces many who search the Scriptures because in them they think they have eternal life, but they have never truly come to Christ (Jn 5:39-40). It also produces many who have come to Jesus, but then replace the voice of the Lord with the voice of men. They become followers of themselves and of men, and not of God while declaring themselves followers of Christ.
Their error is rarely discovered because such ones can tout true spiritual teachings like letting Jesus be Lord, obeying Him, trusting Him, being guided by Him – while they fail to do these things in practice and fail also to notice how badly they fail. Such ones have their explanations for every wrong thing they do so as to declare it right. The light in them is darkness.
Ultimately so many who have practiced the Christian faith in the way of the Protestants have become sons of hell who reproduce after their own spiritual kind (Mt 23:15) . They make disciples of men, and not of God who nonetheless proclaim they are disciples of God.
Ultimately also, so many who have practiced the Christian faith in the way of the Protestants have been those who talk and teach about love, but do not have the love of God in them as Jesus said of the Jews who resisted Him in Jn 5:42.
Ultimately also, so many who have practiced a form of Christian faith in the ways of the Protestants are of their father the devil while they will argue, debate, and proclaim they are of God in Christ (Jn 8:42,47).
They do their own will while saying “God’s will be done.” They are their own lord while declaring Jesus “Lord.” If you corner them on such things as spoken of here, they may bare fangs like the brood of vipers they are. Or they will practice passive aggression and politely tell a truth giver they disagree, and that will be the last they pay heed to him.
And like the Scribes and Pharisees before them, those who call themselves Christian may see these terrible traits as true for others, but not for themselves even if they do apply equally to themselves.
These people take confidence in what they believe. They do not abide in Christ. They abide instead in mental constructs in their heads. They lean on their own understanding even if their “understanding” says lean on Christ.
They become resistant to God’s truth because they believe they already have it. They guard against God’s truth because they believe they already have it.
Satan has used their own godly intentions against them. They are checkmated by Satan, and he laughs. The devil is not intimidated by a person who studies the Bible, or praises God, or declares the name of Christ (Mt 7:21-23). None of these practices will save them even if they take them as confirmation they are on the narrow way.
Jesus says the way to eternal life is difficult and narrow, and few find it. Many see Jesus’ warning and then proceed on a broad way they call the narrow way. Humans are capable of being so blithely unaware that they can say amen to these things and still be those to whom it applies.
Only knowing Jesus will save us. And that is the only valid Christian life.
