Priest George Maximov. "A question that the Protestants never ask."
When we – Orthodox Christians – talk
about the faith with a Protestant, we can hear a variety of questions
from him. Those about icons, about the baptism of babies, about the
veneration of saints and so on. But there is one question that they will
never touch themselves. But it is this question that is the most
important, where a fundamental difference between us lies. This question
is the teaching about the Church.
What is the Church of Christ? Any
Protestant will immediately say that the denomination, to which he
currently belongs, is the Church of Christ. Then the question is: when
did your denomination appear? The range of answers will vary from the
last year to the beginning of the Reformation. Well, where had the
church of Christ been before that time?
Many Protestants look at the church
history like this: there were apostolic times, and then there was the
apostolic Church. And then, allegedly already from the II century, there
were distortions in the teachings of the Church. Many bluntly say that
the Church lost its apostolic creed because it brought all sorts of
false practices and ideas into its purity. It may even be said that "the
true Church was destroyed by paganism"[1]. So, starting from the XVI
century, from the time of the Reformation, it was them, the Protestants,
that allegedly returned the pure apostolic teaching. Well, from the XVI
century – if we talk about the "old" Protestants: Lutherans,
Calvinists. And “new” Protestants, such as the Baptists, Adventists, and
Pentecostals, for example, appeared later. Since Protestants are known
for being fond of speaking that it is them and their denomination that
faithfully follow the Bible in their faith, we will consider their views
on the Church precisely through the prism of the Holy Scripture. Let's
see if this Protestant idea about the disappeared Church is consistent
with the Bible.
