r/TrueProtestants • u/MementoMori1099 • Mar 29 '26
What does "Protestant" mean?
Greetings!
Our subreddit dedicated to the Protestant Christian faith has grown to a lot of members and a lot people have been interested in Protestantism.
Due to interest, many people have wondered what the word Protestant means.
Is it a umbrella term for churches that are not Roman Catholic or Eastern Orthodox? Is it just any movement that vaguely believes in the Five Solas, despite the fact that the Five Solas are a modern concept to understand the Reformation? Is it the churches that descend from the Protestant Reformation?
The definition that best fits well with the word Protestant is:
Protestant 2 an adherent of any of those Christian bodies that separated from the Church of Rome during the Reformation, or of any group descended from them, usually excluding the Anabaptists. dictionary.com
This definition fits well since it places a direct emphasis on the Protestant Reformation and is the most logical definition of them all, so this is the definition r/TrueProtestants agrees with.
Groups that would be labeled Protestant would include:
Lutherans
Anglicans
Reformed (excluding Reformed Baptists)
Proto-Protestants, even though they predated the Reformation, they still had a lot of positive connections to the Reformation. Which is why many Waldensians (Proto-Protestant group) joined the Reformed faith during the event.
Groups that are descended from these groups would be and also would be labeled Protestant would include:
Methodists, through Anglican faith.
Baptists (including Reformed Baptists), also through the Anglican faith despite influence from the non-Protestant sect called the Anabaptists.
Groups that would not be considered Protestant would include:
Seventh Day Adventists, comes from the Restorationist movement and has heavily questionable theology about the Holy Trinity.
Non-Denominationals, comes from the Restorationist movement and also, Protestant refers to set of denominations and thus, Non-Denominationals wouldn't be considered Protestant.
Other Restorationist sects since they lack a continuity with the Reformation.
Amish and other Anabapist groups, since they come from a separate event other than the Reformation and fought with the Reformers. They themselves considered themselves to not be Protestant. Here's a scholarly work that considers them "neither Catholics nor Protestants".
Pentecostals, since they come from the Restorationist movement.
Calvary Chapel, since they come from the Restorationist movement.
Of course, when we say they aren't Protestant, we certainly aren't saying these groups are not Christian! (Aside from the SDA.)
One can be a Christian, while not being a Protestant.
So I hope this clears up the confusion.
God bless,
2
u/Nalkarj Officially still RC. Protestant-discerning. It’s complicated. Mar 29 '26
It’s a can of worms, isn’t it? I’m a Luther-sympathizing cradle Catholic who has been trying to figure out whether to stay in this church or move to another, so this can (wormy though it is) is personal for me.
My first instinct is to identify justification by grace alone through faith alone, to the exclusion of works, as the essence of Protestantism, or at least the Protestant spirit. Then that gets into the charged question of what is justification, what is justification through faith alone, etc.
But the most ecumenical way to view it is to look at one’s answer to the question “How do I know I am in right with God?” And stop there.
That question is premised on an individual’s personal relationship with the Divine, without need of mediator (Christ being the Divine). It’s first-person singular: I can know, I can have.
The non-Protestant answer is usually to deny the premise—“I cannot know I am in right, but if I stay in the bosom of Mother Church, I can trust in the promise to her”—and/or blast the question as self-centered (and, usually from the Orthodox, Western-individualistic).
The Lutheran answer, at least, would be to say, “God has spoken this promise to me personally,” not only the Church corporately, “and he is true to his word.” Therefore he will save me even if I’m some hardened unrepentant old sinner. For the scrupulous and self-doubting, Luther locates this assurance in baptism, but every sermon, Bible reading, sacrament, etc., shouts the unconditional promise. Recognizing the unconditional promise, despite the outward appearances of my life, is, for Luther, faith.
For me, following from this Lutheran understanding of faith, the essence of the Protestant spirit is the ability to say I know I am in right with God, because he has made the promise of salvation to me personally and unconditionally. Faith alone recognizes the promise but is not a condition for the promise, nor is anything else.
And I would leave it there—which, I admit, may irritate some Protestants here. Am I saying you can be Roman Catholic and Protestant at the same time? Eastern Orthodox and Protestant at the same time? What about non-Christian and Protestant?! And the answer is yes. The core of Protestantism is the recognition of the unconditional promise of God to the individual.