Many do not understand Protestantism
and its workings - this is normal
– but in a few words we are
going to explain it to you. A brief
timeline which will easily explain
the disagreements both old and current.
The
Reform is the starting point of it
all. The Reform denotes the reformed
protestants who at the time of the
Reforms wanted a more in-depth study
of the Scriptures. The first break-away
protestants created the Methodist
church, the others remaining in the
reformed church. Certain Methodists
then realised the importance of baptism
by immersion (for adults)… from
this were born the Evangelical church
and the Baptist church, the others
stayed Methodist. As a result
of better scratching the surface of
the scriptures, certain people discovered
that there still existed an enormous
spiritual dimension to be lived (healings,
spiritual gifts…), they aspired
to this, others preferred to stay
Baptist… of this movement was
born the biggest current movement
in Protestantism, the Pentecostal
movement.
The
Reform
The
protestant reform is not the only
church revival movement. However,
it distinguishes itself from other
reform movements by its magnitude,
it’s split from the church in
Rome and its political and social
implications. As the pre-emptors are
numerous (Vaudois, Waldensian), we
are speaking generally of the Reform
or the Reformation as designated by
the current religions which stem from
the writings of Luther (from 1520
onwards) in Germany, to those of Zwingli
in Switzerland and those of Calvin
in France.
This
wave quickly swept over to the rest
of Europe. In northern Europe many
royals and decision-makers adopted
Lutheranism, it became an official
religion. The majority of Lutheran
Churches adopted the Confession of
Augsburg, drawn up in 1530.
In France, the first successful synod
reuniting the reformed churches adopted
a confession of faith in 1959 named
the Confession of faith of La Rochelle.
In England, the Reform took on a specific
form, Anglicanism.
All
recorded religion at the time came
to being through a process of “training,
detraining and retraining”.
From this comes the idea of the permanent
Protestant Reform, this explains,
for example, the workings of revival
in the 20th century.
Evangelical
Churches
"Evangelical
churches trace their origin to various
protestant reform movements in the
16th century, in particular Anabaptist.
More generally, these churches consist
only of members wanting to be baptised
who profess their faith in Jesus Christ
and, in demanding baptism, make a
voluntary and personal act of repentance
and of faith.
For
this reason, evangelical churches
do not baptise small children. They
are churches of those who openly declare
their faith, this point distinguishes
them from multitudinous churches.
In addition, evangelical churches
assert the overriding principles of
the Reform, in particular salvation
by grace received through faith and
the “sola scriptura”:
that is that the word is inspired
by God and the scripture is the only
authority - it provides the theological
blueprint.
From the start of their history, evangelists
have affirmed with force the principal
of the separation of the Church and
the state.
They give equally as much importance
to evangelisation as to social action:
each Church is called to embody a
place of witness and service, it is
called to be a diaconal ministry.
Evangelic Churches can be organised
according to different principles
(Congregationalist, Presbyterian-Synodal,
etc).
Pentecostalism
Pentecostalism
was born from the revival movements
which manifested themselves at the
start of the 20th century, most notably
n the United States (under the driving
force of the pastor Charles Parham),
in India (William Seymour) and in
Wales (influenced by Evan Roberts,
a Methodist preacher). The
desire of the first Pentecosts was
to return to the foundation of the
primitive church and to relive
the experiences of the apostolic times,
more particularly, the day of Pentecost.
The Pentecosts are theologically distinct
in that they believe in the increased
presence of the Holy Spirit in the
believer through new birth, that is
to say there is a powerful transformation
communicated at thhis time of the
particular experience called the baptism
of the Spirit. This gives to the believer
particular gifts like talking in tongues,
prophecy or divine healing. These
gifts of the Spirit (or charismas)
are listed in the first epistle (apostolic
letter) to the Corinthians. The Pentecostal
churches bear witness to “the
evangel of the four angles???”
: Jesus saves, baptises, heals and
comes again. Moreover, they
situate themselves in the Protestant
Evangelic and Baptist tradition and
hold themselves to the principals
of the Reform : salvation
by grace, the authority of the Bible,
universal priesthood.
