Instigator / Pro
1590
rating
91
debates
58.79%
won
Topic
#6037

Protestantism is more correct than catholic/orthodox

Status
Debating

Waiting for the next argument from the contender.

Round will be automatically forfeited in:

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Parameters
Publication date
Last updated date
Type
Rated
Number of rounds
3
Time for argument
Three days
Max argument characters
10,000
Voting period
Two weeks
Point system
Multiple criterions
Voting system
Open
Minimal rating
None
Contender / Con
1511
rating
6
debates
25.0%
won
Description

No information

Round 1
Pro
#1
definitions

Correct = Whatever the Christian God would agree with and approve of, the proper form of Christianity.

Catholic = the roman catholic faith, christians in communion with bishop of rome (pope) and following doctrines of the catholic church.

Orthodox = Oriental Orthodox and Eastern Orthodox Christians.

Protestant = Affirming the 5 solas and the ecumenical creeds established by the early church


Sola Scriptura


Sola Scriptura refers to the belief that only Scripture is infallible. It does not mean that church tradition and hierarchy has no authority, but it means that church tradition and authority should not be seen as equally authoritative or more authoritative than scripture. 

The Catholic Church believes that the pope can be infallible, the Orthodox Churches treat church tradition (as taught by church authority) as the ultimate authority. By their very nature humans are fallible, since the human intellect is limited. Only God has perfect intelligence, only God can never be wrong, Bible is the only word of God on earth hence only Bible can be infallible.


Sola Christus

No one within Christianity even disagrees with this. It means that salvation is through Christ alone. The thing is, to affirm this and also deny "sola fide" and "sola gratia" is a contradiction and thus catholcism and orthodoxy are self-refuting.


Sola fide (faith alone): Salvation is by faith alone, not by works.

Nowhere in the Bible does it say there are "mortal sins" or "venial sins" and that a specific number or type of good works is required to make up for specific levels of sin. The Bible depicts sin as all or nothing, if you have any sin then you are just as guilty as if you had committed every sin.


James 2:10

New International Version


10 For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.

This especially refutes catholicism because even the "smallest" sin is a MORTAL sin. There are no venial sins.

If you could be saved through works, Christ's sacrifice wouldn't have been necessary in the first place. Christ's sacrifice is necessary "for all have fallen short of the glory of God" and all humans sin.

Sola gratia (grace alone)
: Salvation is by God's grace alone.

This is implicit in "sola fide". There is a dichotomy between faith and works. You are either under a covenant of grace or a covenant of works, there is no in between. If you aren't 100% perfect and without sin and you aren't under grace you go to hell. If you are under grace then you are saved by faith and not works.

Soli Deo gloria (glory to God alone): All glory belongs to God alone.

Catholicism and Orthodoxy teach that there is a "treasury of merits" from which you can draw blessings. This comes not only from Christ, but from the saints. The saints have no merits though, for all human works are as filthy rags unto the lord as scripture says. Jesus says "none are good but God".

It is also counter-productive to spend time venerating and praying to saints when you could spend that time glorifying God himself. Every moment you spend venerating saints is time that you aren't spending glorifying God.


canon of scripture

The protestant canon of 66 books is the purest form of canon. The catholics use "deuterocanon" which literally means "secondary canon" and orthodox churches use even more extra books.

The Catholic Church only started insisting on including deuterocanon in the bible after the protestant reformation. Basically there is a difference between "essential canon" and "accepted canon". There are books in the Bible that always need to be there (the 66 books) and books that CAN be there which have varying degrees of credibility.

It's like how Muslims have a distinction between "disputed hadiths" and "authentic hadiths".

Now an objection that sometimes comes up with sola scriptura is "how do you get infallible canon from fallible church?"

You can get infallible canon from fallible church in the same way that you can get recommended a good surgeon by your general care practitioner. They don't need to be able to perform brain surgery to find you a good brain surgeon, because they know enough to know who is authoritative in that field and who isn't.

The early church wasn't infallible but it has enough authority and knowledge to figure it out.

More catholic than the catholics

Jesus wanted the church to be unified, he didn't say it had to be under one institution. The word "catholic" means universal, they are claiming to be the universal church of true christianity and that no one out of communion with them is christian. 

As a protestant, you are able to be more ecumenical than that. Ecumenical means accepting other forms of Christianity. As a protestant you can see catholics and orthodox as true christians, whereas they are much more likely to think it is their way or the highway.

So protestants are more catholic than catholics, protestants are able to accept any non-heretical denominations as part of the universal body of christ.

More orthodox than orthodoxy

orthodox literally means "correct" but calling yourself correct doesn't make you correct. All of the above arguments should make it clear that Protestantism is orthodox and Orthodoxy is heterodox.




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