PROTESTANT
ST STEPHEN WAS A PROTESTANT
and believed in FREE WILL
The word Pro-Testant does not mean to Protest, it etymologically means For (Pro) a testimony (testant). He did not have to say what he did and be stoned. He chose to reprove a dangerous mob, in the Spirit.
He said to them "Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always RESIST the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye."
OED (Oxford English Dictionary)
quote:
Protestant |ˈprɒtɪst(ə)nt|
noun
a member or follower of any of the Western Christian Churches that are separate from the Roman Catholic Church in accordance with the principles of the Reformation, including the Baptist, Presbyterian, and Lutheran Churches.
Protestants are so called after the declaration ( protestatio) of Martin Luther and his supporters dissenting from the decision of the Diet of Spires (1529), which reaffirmed the edict of the Diet of Worms against the Reformation. All Protestants reject the authority of the papacy, both religious and political, and find authority in the text of the Bible, made available to all in vernacular translation.
adjective
relating to or belonging to any of the Protestant Churches. the Protestant religion. the family were staunchly Protestant.
DERIVATIVES
Protestantization (also Protestantisation)noun,
Protestantize (also Protestantise) verb
ORIGIN mid 16th cent.: via German or French from Latin protestant- ‘protesting’, from Latin protestari (see protest) .
Proof Protestant means "for a testimony" etymologically.
or "public testimony"
I propose to try to prove to you here, that just as the Catholics have meddled with Wikipedia, they have also tried to present a purely critical and negative view of the word Protestant, infiltrating the OED in order to do so, with the objective to trick ignorant souls into the belief that if the word Protestant means solely "to protest" or object, that proves Protestants are "Johnny come lately" critics of the established Catholic church, and that their own name anachronistically proves the Catholics are the true church not them (such shallow souls lacking the insight Protestant criticisms of Catholicism are always that they are nothing like the Proto Church of the bible). When in reality all Protestant not only attacked the heretical practices of the Catholic sacerdotalist pseudo church in a negative critical fashion, they also made public declaration and testimony of self evident truths and doctrines of the protochurch, such as "The just shall live by faith" and "salvation by grace through faith alone". Bible believing Christians existed well before the sacerdotalist Catholics and the Orthodox did, however the first sacramentalist heretics also predated the Orthodox and Catholics (who later morphed into them), and Scofield states in his notes on the Book of Revelation that the first recorded name of these heretics was "the doctrine of the Nicolaitans" which translates as "higher than the Laity".
When analysing the word "Protest" the OED rightly gets down to tackling the word itself, by examining the meaning and etymology of the the two parts of the word Protest.
it states that the origins of the word "Protest" are:
Quote from the OED:
Protest
ORIGIN
1) late Middle English (as a verb in the sense ‘make a solemn declaration’):
2) from Old French protester,
3) from Latin protestari, from pro- ‘forth, publicly’ + testari ‘assert’ (from testis ‘witness’).
So the origin of the word "protest" according to the OED's own analysis is that it means to:
Publicly assert, Publicly witness, forth assert, forth witness.
and ‘make a solemn declaration’
None of this analysis of the origin of the word "protest" itself gives necessarily negative criticism as the only mode of witness or testimony to the public, or going forth into the world.
Protestant:
however analysing this word the truncated form of OED says only:
ORIGIN mid 16th cent.: via German or French from Latin protestant- ‘protesting’, from Latin protestari (see protest) .
but to their credit to does at least link to the word "protest" where the clearer information is included.
Even when referring to the declaration of Luther it states
the declaration (protestatio) of Martin Luther. and strongly infers, if not outright states, that the word protestario became the word Protestant, and means a declaration, and a declaration has an audience, you do not declare something to an empty valley, it is a public declaration.
https://www.etymonline.com/word/Protestant
under construction
DEFINITION OF PROTESTANT IN MODERN DICTIONARIES:
If you read large numbers of modern dictionaries for a definition of the word Protestant, you will find they often emphasize different facets of the Reformation, and some, if not most of these dictionaries, miss out definition 4 of the word
4. protestant (also prə-tĕs′tənt) One who makes a declaration or avowal.
The thing is, if we prove that the actual root or origin of the word itself is from the words PRO and TESTANT, and that they mean "Public Testimony" or "For a Testimony" do dictionary writers who choose to define the word with only negative connotations of criticizing man made Catholic practices like Indulgences have the intellectual right to do so, when the word is more about making a public testimony, a phrase that can be far more positive?
I can assure you when you look through lots of modern dictionaries, in different languages not just English, many choose more positive eternal truths to define the stance of Protestant believers, such as standing for "salvation by Faith alone" or, more properly "Justification by grace through Faith alone" sola scriptura (2 Tim 3:16) etc, not just negative issues like criticizing man made practices like indulgences and Catholic penances, or even the man made doctrines like Purgatory.
My main point in this analysis is to point out that if we exclusively define the word Protestant in dictionaries by using examples of negative protests about the man made rites, rituals and practices of Catholicism, it is like falling headlong into a trapdoor spiders trap, a Catholic trap, as I can absolutely assure you that Catholic scholars love that, as it gives them the opportunity to convince their uneducated and shallow proselytes that this means the very word Protestant is a word that proves they are critics of "the" preexistent Catholic church, with no claims of a church of their own. Whereas on the contrary Revelation chapter 12 tells us spiritual Israel (the real church) was out in the wilderness hiding from persecution between the ascension of Christ onward. This started with Jewish persecution, then Roman, and later by the sacerdotalist heretics who grew and grew in power.
Part of this pivots on the little examined short period of time just before the writing of the Nicene Creed when quote "Christians were killing Christian in riots on the streets." One has to ask if this was deliberately forcing Evangelical style believers out into the wilderness, who would probably have insisted the "the gospel by which we are saved" must be included in any attempt at a creed, shattering the ambitions of the sacerdotal;ist heretics wanting to bleed people dry in their pretence of being middle men who hand on the grace of God to "the laity".
WHEN WAS THE LATIN WORD protestantem FIRST USED?
Luther was fluent in Latin, Greek and Hebrew, as well as German. Dictionaries say the world Protestant is rooted in Latin, French and German.
under construction
WHAT'S IN A NAME?
I think probably, in the end, when all is said and done, most every church, sect and cult, would simply try to claim the word Christian, believer or saint, even if not exclusively for themselves. Just about everyone is willing to qualify a word like Christian, in order to make an effort to be clear on who they are and what they believe. I choose to distinguish myself primarily by the words "Evangelical Christian" or a "Good News Christian" as it is made clear in the new testament many times that our primary goal on Earth is to preach the "gospel by which we are saved" (1 Cor 15: 1-4 & Luke 24: 44-48 & John 3: 16).
THE PROTOCHURCH.
I believe the original church were called Christians, believers, and saints, no need for add-ons. But many heresies began to form even then, like Antinomianism, Judaization, and the Nicolaitanes.
The Catholics and Orthodox believe the Protochurch was called "The Holy Apostolic Catholic Church" from the beginning. So they say. That is their fantasy. Then in the so called Great Schism, Rome somehow wrested the word Catholic for themselves, and the Orthodox chose the word Orthodox to distinguish themselves, yet both words are not in the new testament. Quite how and why the word Catholic was obtained by Rome, without a struggle with the Byzantines, is not clear, for some strange reason (the word Catholic is in the Creed). But notice even they today try to distinguish themselves by qualification of the words Church and Christian.
IS PROTESTANT (for a testimony) IN THE BIBLE?
Saint Stephen, the protomartyr, was not the first Protestant, but he was the first "for a testimony martyr" other than Christ himself. So in that sense he was certainly a Protestant Martyr. It is only when the three words "for a testimony" are presented as one qualifying word "Protestant" that sparks begin to fly theologically, but I would say that it is a more biblical attempt to qualify the words church and Christian. That the word Protestant means to Protest against Romanism and Orthodoxy, and thus must be something that came AFTER them, is one of three goofy lies told by the Pope and the "Primus inter haereticus", the others being - that there idol ridden, ritual infested, heresy riddled pseud church is anything like the first church at all, and also - the Protestants and Evangelicals believe in thousands of churches, when it is almost unanimously believed among them all that there is ONE church, those who are born again by belief in Christ alone, the diversification being taking responsibility for their other doctrines.
And quite how the Orthodox Primus inter pares came known by a Latin phrase is mind-boggling.