Protestants: who are they? Protestant Church: what is it, how did it arise? Main differences from the Catholic Church. List of countries where Protestantism is widespread Protestant Church

Protestantism(from Latin protestatio, onis f - proclamation, assurance; in some cases - objection, disagreement) - a set of religious communities (about 20,000 denominations), each of which identifies itself with the Church of God, Christ, believes that it professes pure faith , based on the Gospel, on the teachings of the holy apostles, but in reality it is a pseudo-Christian community, or sect. The basis of the doctrine of each Protestant community, as well as the basis of the norms of worship and worship of God, is the uniquely interpreted revealed teaching set forth in the Holy Scriptures, mainly in the canonical Books of the New Testament.

Protestantism was formed during the Reformation, in the 16th century. The reason for the start of the reform movements was the dissatisfaction of individual representatives of the Roman Catholic Church with abuses on the part of its pastorate, and above all by the popes. Martin Luther became the leader of the religious revolution. His plans were to partially reform the church and limit the power of the pope. Luther's first open speech against the policies of the Catholic Church took place in 1517. Luther then sent the theses to his friends. They were published in January 1518. It was also previously believed that the reformer publicly and vehemently condemned the trade in indulgences, but he did not deny the legality and effectiveness of indulgences, but only the abuses in issuing them. His 71st thesis read: “Whoever speaks against the truth of papal absolution - let him be anathematized and cursed.”

Other founders of Protestantism, in addition to Martin Luther, were J. Calvin, W. Zwingli, F. Melanchthon.

Protestantism, due to its rather free attitude to the methods and techniques of interpreting the Holy Scriptures, is very heterogeneous and includes thousands of directions, although in general, to some extent, it still shares Christian ideas about God the Trinity, the consubstantiality of the Divine Persons, and the God-Man Jesus Christ (Incarnation, Atonement, Resurrection of the Son of God), about the immortality of the soul, heaven and hell, the Last Judgment, etc.

A rather sharp difference between Orthodoxy and Protestantism is seen in relation to the doctrine of the Church, and this is natural, because if Protestants agreed with the Orthodox (or even Catholic) teaching, they would have no choice but to recognize their “churches” as false. In addition to the fact that Protestantism rejects the doctrine of the Orthodox Church as the only true and saving one, Protestants, partially or completely, deny the church hierarchy (clergy), the Sacraments, the authority of the Holy Tradition, on the basis of which not only the interpretation of the Holy Scriptures, but also liturgical practice is built, the ascetic experience of Christian ascetics, the veneration of saints and the institution of monasticism.

Five main doctrinal theses of classical Protestantism:

1. Sola Scriptura - “Only Scripture.”

The Bible (Holy Scripture) is proclaimed to be the only and self-interpreting source of doctrine. Every believer has the right to interpret the Bible. However, even the first Protestant Martin Luther noted: “The devil himself can quote the Bible with great benefit to himself.” Evidence of the recklessness of striving to understand the Bible only with one’s own fallen mind is the ever-increasing fragmentation of Protestantism into many movements. After all, even in ancient times St. said in a letter to Emperor Constantine: Scripture is not in words, but in their understanding.

2. Sola fide – “Only by faith.” This is the doctrine of justification by faith alone, regardless of the performance of good works and any external sacred rites. Protestants deny their significance as a source of salvation for the soul, considering them the inevitable fruits of faith and evidence of forgiveness.

3. Sola gratia – “By grace alone.”

This is the doctrine that salvation is a good gift from God to man and man himself cannot participate in his own salvation.

4. Solus Christus - “Only Christ.”

Salvation is possible only through faith in Christ. Protestants deny the intercession of the Mother of God and other saints in the matter of salvation, and also teach that the church hierarchy cannot be a mediator between God and people, believing that believers represent a “universal priesthood.”

5. Soli Deo gloria – “Only God be the glory”

Considering that Protestantism is not a single religious movement, but is fragmented into many particular ones, the above comments apply to different Protestant communities to varying degrees. Thus, Lutherans and Anglicans recognize the need for hierarchy, although not in the form in which it is present in the Orthodox Church. The attitude towards the sacraments in different communities is not the same: it differs both in the actual attitude towards them and in the number of recognized sacraments. Protestantism, as a rule, is alien to the veneration of holy icons and holy relics, alien to the doctrine of the appropriateness of prayers to God's saints as our intercessors. Attitudes towards the Mother of God vary greatly depending on the creed adopted in a particular “church”. Attitudes to personal salvation also vary greatly: from the belief that all who believe in Christ will be saved, to the belief that only those who are predestined to this will be saved.

Orthodoxy implies a living, active perception by a Christian of Divine grace, due to which everything becomes a mysterious union of God and man, and the temple with its Sacraments is a real place of such union. The living experience of the action of Divine grace does not allow for the limitation of the Sacraments or their perverted interpretation, as well as the belittlement or abolition of the veneration of saints who have acquired grace, asceticism as a way of acquiring it.

The original forms of Protestantism were Lutheranism, Zwinglianism and Calvinism, Unitarianism and Socianism, Anabaptism and Mennoniteism, and Anglicanism. Subsequently, a number of movements emerged, known as late, or neo-Protestantism: Baptists, Methodists, Quakers, Adventists, Pentecostals. Currently, Protestantism is most widespread in the Scandinavian countries, the USA, Germany, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Canada, and Switzerland. The United States is rightfully considered the world center of Protestantism, where the headquarters of Baptists, Adventists and other Protestant denominations are located. Protestant movements play a major role in the ecumenical movement.

The theology of Protestantism went through a number of stages in its development. This is the orthodox theology of the 16th century. (M. Luther, J. Calvin), non-Protestant or liberal theology of the 18th – 19th centuries. (F. Schleiermacher, E. Troeltsch, A. Harnack), “crisis theology” or dialectical theology that appeared after the First World War (C. Barth, P. Tillich, R. Bultmann), radical or “new” theology that spread after World War II (D. Bonhoeffer).

How did the separations happen?

The Orthodox Church has preserved intact the truth that the Lord Jesus Christ revealed to the apostles. But the Lord Himself warned His disciples that from among those who would be with them there would appear people who would want to distort the truth and muddy it with their own inventions: Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.(Matt. 7:15).

And the apostles also warned about this. For example, the Apostle Peter wrote: you will have false teachers who will introduce destructive heresies and, denying the Lord who bought them, will bring upon themselves quick destruction. And many will follow their depravity, and through them the path of truth will be reproached... Having left the straight path, they have gone astray... the darkness of eternal darkness is prepared for them(2 Pet. 2, 1-2, 15, 17).

Heresy is understood as a lie that a person follows consciously. The path that Jesus Christ opened requires dedication and effort from a person so that it becomes clear whether he really entered this path with firm intention and love for the truth. It is not enough to just call yourself a Christian; you must prove with your deeds, words and thoughts, with your whole life, that you are a Christian. He who loves the truth, for its sake, is ready to renounce all lies in his thoughts and his life, so that the truth may enter into him, cleanse and sanctify him.

But not everyone embarks on this path with pure intentions. And their subsequent life in the Church reveals their bad mood. And those who love themselves more than God fall away from the Church.

There is a sin of action - when a person violates the commandments of God by deed, and there is a sin of mind - when a person prefers his lie to the Divine truth. The second is called heresy. And among those who called themselves Christians at different times, there were both people devoted to the sin of action, and people devoted to the sin of the mind. Both people resist God. Either person, if he has made a firm choice in favor of sin, cannot remain in the Church and falls away from it. Thus, throughout history, everyone who chose sin left the Orthodox Church.

The Apostle John spoke about them: They left us, but they were not ours: for if they were ours, they would have remained with us; but they came out, and through this it was revealed that not all of us(1 Jn. 2 , 19).

Their fate is unenviable, because the Scripture says that those who surrender heresies... will not inherit the Kingdom of God(Gal. 5 , 20-21).

Precisely because a person is free, he can always make a choice and use freedom either for good, by choosing the path to God, or for evil, by choosing sin. This is the reason that false teachers arose and those who believed them more than Christ and His Church arose.

When heretics appeared, introducing lies, the holy fathers of the Orthodox Church began to explain to them their errors and called on them to abandon fiction and turn to the truth. Some, convinced by their words, were corrected, but not all. And about those who persisted in lies, the Church pronounced its judgment, testifying that they were not true followers of Christ and members of the community of the faithful founded by Him. This is how the apostolic council was fulfilled: After the first and second admonition, turn away from the heretic, knowing that such a one has become corrupted and sins, being self-condemned(Tit. 3 , 10-11).

There have been many such people in history. The most widespread and numerous of the communities they founded that have survived to this day are the Monophysite Eastern Churches (they arose in the 5th century), the Roman Catholic Church (which fell away from the Ecumenical Orthodox Church in the 11th century) and Churches that call themselves Protestant. Today we will look at how the path of Protestantism differs from the path of the Orthodox Church.

Protestantism

If any branch breaks off from a tree, then, having lost contact with the vital juices, it will inevitably begin to dry out, lose its leaves, become fragile and easily break at the first onslaught.

The same is evident in the life of all communities that separated from the Orthodox Church. Just as a broken branch cannot retain its leaves, so those who are separated from true church unity can no longer maintain their inner unity. This happens because, having left God’s family, they lose touch with the life-giving and saving power of the Holy Spirit, and that sinful desire to resist the truth and put themselves above others, which led them to fall away from the Church, continues to operate among those who have fallen away, turning already against them and leading to ever new internal divisions.

So, in the 11th century, the Local Roman Church separated from the Orthodox Church, and at the beginning of the 16th century, a significant part of the people already separated from it, following the ideas of the former Catholic priest Luther and his like-minded people. They formed their own communities, which they began to consider as the “Church”. This movement is collectively called Protestants, and their separation itself is called the Reformation.

In turn, Protestants also did not maintain internal unity, but began to divide even more into different currents and directions, each of which claimed that it was the real Church of Jesus Christ. They continue to divide to this day, and now there are already more than twenty thousand of them in the world.

Each of their directions has its own peculiarities of doctrine, which would take a long time to describe, and here we will limit ourselves to analyzing only the main features that are characteristic of all Protestant nominations and which distinguish them from the Orthodox Church.

The main reason for the emergence of Protestantism was a protest against the teachings and religious practices of the Roman Catholic Church.

As Saint Ignatius (Brianchaninov) notes, indeed, “many misconceptions have crept into the Roman Church. Luther would have done well if, having rejected the errors of the Latins, he had replaced these errors with the true teaching of the Holy Church of Christ; but he replaced them with his own errors; Some of Rome’s misconceptions, very important ones, were fully followed, and some were strengthened.” “The Protestants rebelled against the ugly power and divinity of the popes; but since they acted on the impulse of passions, drowning in depravity, and not with the direct goal of striving for the holy Truth, they did not turn out to be worthy to see it.”

They abandoned the erroneous idea that the Pope is the head of the Church, but retained the Catholic error that the Holy Spirit comes from the Father and the Son.

Scripture

Protestants formulated the principle: “Scripture alone,” which means that they recognize only the Bible as its authority, and they reject the Holy Tradition of the Church.

And in this they contradict themselves, because the Holy Scripture itself indicates the need to honor the Holy Tradition coming from the apostles: stand and keep the traditions that you were taught either by word or by our message(2 Thess. 2 , 15), writes the Apostle Paul.

If a person writes some text and distributes it to different people, and then asks them to explain how they understood it, then it will probably turn out that someone understood the text correctly, and someone incorrectly, putting their own meaning into these words. It is known that any text has different options for understanding. They may be true, or they may be wrong. The same is true with the text of Holy Scripture, if we tear it away from Holy Tradition. Indeed, Protestants think that Scripture should be understood the way anyone wants. But this approach cannot help to find the truth.

Here is how Saint Nicholas of Japan wrote about this: “Japanese Protestants sometimes come to me and ask me to explain some passage of Holy Scripture. “But you have your own missionary teachers—ask them,” I tell them. “What do they answer?” - “We asked them, they say: understand as you know; but I need to know the true thought of God, and not my personal opinion”... It’s not like that with us, everything is light and reliable, clear and solid - because we are apart from the Sacred We also accept the Holy Tradition from the Scriptures, and the Holy Tradition is the living, uninterrupted voice... of our Church from the time of Christ and His Apostles to this day, which will remain until the end of the world. The whole of Holy Scripture is based on it.”

The Apostle Peter himself testifies that no prophecy in Scripture can be resolved by oneself, for prophecy was never pronounced by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke it, being moved by the Holy Spirit(2 Pet. 1 , 20-21). Accordingly, only holy fathers, moved by the same Holy Spirit, can reveal to man a true understanding of the Word of God.

Holy Scripture and Holy Tradition form one inseparable whole, and have been so from the very beginning.

Not in writing, but orally, the Lord Jesus Christ revealed to the apostles how to understand the Holy Scriptures of the Old Testament (Luke 24:27), and they taught the same thing orally to the first Orthodox Christians. Protestants want to imitate the early apostolic communities in their structure, but in the early years the early Christians had no New Testament scriptures at all, and everything was passed on from mouth to mouth, like tradition.

The Bible was given by God for the Orthodox Church; it was in accordance with the Holy Tradition that the Orthodox Church at its Councils approved the composition of the Bible; it was the Orthodox Church, long before the appearance of Protestants, that lovingly preserved the Holy Scriptures in its communities.

Protestants, using the Bible, which was not written by them, not collected by them, not preserved by them, reject the Holy Tradition, and thereby close to themselves the true understanding of the Word of God. Therefore, they often argue about the Bible and often come up with their own, human traditions that have no connection either with the apostles or with the Holy Spirit, and fall, according to the word of the apostle, into empty deception, according to human tradition..., and not according to Christ(Col. 2:8).

Sacraments

Protestants rejected the priesthood and sacred rites, not believing that God could act through them, and even if they left something similar, it was only the name, believing that these were only symbols and reminders of historical events remaining in the past, and not a holy reality in itself. Instead of bishops and priests, they got themselves pastors who have no connection with the apostles, no succession of grace, as in the Orthodox Church, where every bishop and priest has the blessing of God, which can be traced from our days to Jesus Christ Himself. The Protestant pastor is only a speaker and administrator of the life of the community.

As Saint Ignatius (Brianchaninov) says, “Luther... passionately rejecting the lawless power of the popes, rejected the legal one, rejected the episcopal rank itself, the consecration itself, despite the fact that the establishment of both belonged to the apostles themselves... rejected the Sacrament of Confession, although all Holy Scripture testifies that it is impossible to receive remission of sins without confessing them.” Protestants also rejected other sacred rites.

Veneration of the Virgin Mary and saints

The Most Holy Virgin Mary, who gave birth to the human race of the Lord Jesus Christ, prophetically said: from now on all generations will please Me(OK. 1 , 48). This was said about the true followers of Christ - Orthodox Christians. And indeed, from then until now, from generation to generation, all Orthodox Christians have venerated the Most Holy Theotokos, the Virgin Mary. But Protestants do not want to honor and please her, contrary to Scripture.

The Virgin Mary, like all the saints, that is, people who have walked to the end along the path of salvation opened by Christ, have united with God and are always in harmony with Him.

The Mother of God and all the saints became the closest and most beloved friends of God. Even a person, if his beloved friend asks him for something, will definitely try to fulfill it, and God also willingly listens and quickly fulfills the requests of the saints. It is known that even during his earthly life, when they asked, He certainly responded. So, for example, at the request of the Mother, He helped the poor newlyweds and performed a miracle at the feast to save them from shame (John 2:1-11).

Scripture reports that God is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for with Him all are alive(Luke 20:38). Therefore, after death, people do not disappear without a trace, but their living souls are maintained by God, and those who are holy retain the opportunity to communicate with Him. And Scripture directly says that departed saints turn to God with requests and He hears them (see: Rev. 6:9-10). Therefore, Orthodox Christians venerate the Most Holy Virgin Mary and other saints and turn to them with requests that they intercede with God on our behalf. Experience shows that many healings, deliverances from death and other help are received by those who resort to their prayerful intercession.

For example, in 1395, the great Mongol commander Tamerlane with a huge army went to Russia to capture and destroy its cities, including the capital, Moscow. The Russians did not have enough strength to resist such an army. Orthodox residents of Moscow began to earnestly ask the Most Holy Theotokos to pray to God to save them from the impending disaster. And so, one morning Tamerlane unexpectedly announced to his military leaders that they needed to turn the army around and go back. And when asked about the reason, he answered that at night in a dream he saw a great mountain, on the top of which stood a beautiful shining woman, who ordered him to leave the Russian lands. And, although Tamerlane was not an Orthodox Christian, out of fear and respect for the holiness and spiritual power of the appeared Virgin Mary, he submitted to Her.

Prayers for the dead

Those Orthodox Christians who during their lifetime were unable to overcome sin and become saints do not disappear after death either, but they themselves need our prayers. Therefore, the Orthodox Church prays for the dead, believing that through these prayers the Lord sends relief for the posthumous fate of our deceased loved ones. But Protestants do not want to admit this either, and refuse to pray for the dead.

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The Lord Jesus Christ, speaking about his followers, said: the days will come when the Bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days(Mark 2:20).

The Lord Jesus Christ was taken away from His disciples the first time on Wednesday, when Judas betrayed Him and the villains captured Him to take Him to trial, and the second time on Friday, when the villains crucified Him on the Cross. Therefore, in fulfillment of the words of the Savior, Orthodox Christians have observed fasting every Wednesday and Friday since ancient times, abstaining for the sake of the Lord from eating animal products, as well as from various types of entertainment.

The Lord Jesus Christ fasted for forty days and nights (see: Matt. 4:2), setting an example for His disciples (see: John 13:15). And the apostles, as the Bible says, with worshiped the Lord and fasted(Acts 13:2). Therefore, Orthodox Christians, in addition to one-day fasts, also have multi-day fasts, of which the main one is Great Lent.

Protestants deny fasting and fasting days.

Sacred images

Anyone who wants to worship the true God should not worship false gods, which are either invented by people or by those spirits who have fallen away from God and become evil. These evil spirits often appeared to people in order to mislead them and distract them from worshiping the true God to worship themselves.

However, having commanded the construction of the temple, the Lord, even in these ancient times, also commanded that images of cherubim be made in it (see: Ex. 25, 18-22) - spirits who remained faithful to God and became holy angels. Therefore, from the very first times, Orthodox Christians made sacred images of saints united with the Lord. In the ancient underground catacombs, where Christians persecuted by pagans gathered for prayer and sacred rites in the 2nd-3rd centuries, they depicted the Virgin Mary, the apostles, and scenes from the Gospel. These ancient sacred images have survived to this day. In the same way, in modern churches of the Orthodox Church there are the same sacred images, icons. When looking at them, it is easier for a person to ascend in soul to prototype, concentrate your energy on praying to him. After such prayers in front of holy icons, God often sends help to people, and miraculous healings often occur. In particular, Orthodox Christians prayed for deliverance from Tamerlane’s army in 1395 at one of the icons of the Mother of God - the Vladimir icon.

However, Protestants, due to their error, reject the veneration of sacred images, not understanding the difference between them and between idols. This stems from their erroneous understanding of the Bible, as well as from the corresponding spiritual mood - after all, only someone who does not understand the difference between a holy and an evil spirit can fail to notice the fundamental difference between the image of a saint and the image of an evil spirit.

Other differences

Protestants believe that if a person recognizes Jesus Christ as God and Savior, then he already becomes saved and holy, and no special works are needed for this. And Orthodox Christians, following the Apostle James, believe that Faith, if it does not have works, is dead in itself(James 2 , 17). And the Savior Himself said: Not everyone who says to Me: “Lord! Lord!” will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in Heaven(Matt. 7:21). This means, according to Orthodox Christians, that it is necessary to fulfill the commandments that express the will of the Father, and thus prove one’s faith by deeds.

Also, Protestants do not have monasticism or monasteries, but Orthodox Christians do. The monks work zealously to fulfill all the commandments of Christ. And in addition, they take three additional vows for the sake of God: a vow of celibacy, a vow of non-covetousness (not having their own property) and a vow of obedience to a spiritual leader. In this they imitate the Apostle Paul, who was celibate, non-covetous and completely obedient to the Lord. The monastic path is considered higher and more glorious than the path of a layman - a family man, but a layman can also be saved and become a saint. Among the apostles of Christ there were also married people, namely, the apostles Peter and Philip.

When Saint Nicholas of Japan was asked at the end of the 19th century why, although the Orthodox in Japan have only two missionaries, and the Protestants have six hundred, nevertheless, more Japanese converted to Orthodoxy than to Protestantism, he replied: “It’s not about the people, but in teaching. If a Japanese, before accepting Christianity, thoroughly studies it and compares it: in the Catholic mission he recognizes Catholicism, in the Protestant mission he recognizes Protestantism, we have our teaching, then, as far as I know, he always accepts Orthodoxy.<...>What is this? Yes, that in Orthodoxy the teaching of Christ is kept pure and whole; We did not add anything to it, like Catholics, and did not subtract anything, like Protestants.”

Indeed, Orthodox Christians are convinced, as Saint Theophan the Recluse says, of this immutable truth: “What God has revealed and what He has commanded, nothing should be added to it, nor anything taken away from it. This applies to Catholics and Protestants. Those are adding everything, but these are subtracting... The Catholics have muddied the apostolic tradition. The Protestants set out to correct the matter - and made it even worse. Catholics have one pope, but Protestants have one pope, no matter the Protestant.”

Therefore, everyone who is truly interested in the truth, and not in their own thoughts, both in past centuries and in our time, certainly finds their way to the Orthodox Church, and often, even without any effort from Orthodox Christians, God Himself leads such people to the truth. As an example, here are two stories that happened recently, the participants and witnesses of which are still alive.

US case

In the 1960s, in the American state of California, in the cities of Ben Lomon and Santa Barbara, a large group of young Protestants came to the conclusion that all the Protestant Churches they knew could not be the real Church, since they assumed that after the apostles the Church of Christ had disappeared , and it was supposedly revived only in the 16th century by Luther and other leaders of Protestantism. But such a thought contradicts the words of Christ that the gates of hell will not prevail against his Church. And then these young people began to study the historical books of Christians, from the earliest antiquity, from the first century to the second, then to the third, and so on, tracing the continuous history of the Church founded by Christ and His apostles. And so, thanks to their many years of research, these young Americans themselves became convinced that such a Church is the Orthodox Church, although none of the Orthodox Christians communicated with them or instilled in them such thoughts, but the history of Christianity itself testified to them this truth. And then they came into contact with the Orthodox Church in 1974, all of them, more than two thousand people, accepted Orthodoxy.

Case in Benin

Another story happened in West Africa, in Benin. In this country there were no Orthodox Christians at all, most of the inhabitants were pagans, a few professed Islam, and some were Catholics or Protestants.

One of them, a man named Optat Bekhanzin, suffered a misfortune in 1969: his five-year-old son Eric became seriously ill and suffered from paralysis. Bekhanzin took his son to the hospital, but doctors said that the boy could not be cured. Then the grief-stricken father turned to his Protestant “Church” and began attending prayer meetings in the hope that God would heal his son. But these prayers were fruitless. After this, Optat gathered some close people at his home, persuading them to pray together to Jesus Christ for Eric’s healing. And after their prayer a miracle happened: the boy was healed; it strengthened the small community. Subsequently, more and more miraculous healings occurred through their prayers to God. Therefore, more and more people came to them - both Catholics and Protestants.

In 1975, the community decided to form itself as an independent church, and the believers decided to pray and fast intensely in order to find out the will of God. And at that moment, Eric Bekhanzin, who was already eleven years old, received a revelation: when asked what they should call their church community, God answered: “My Church is called the Orthodox Church.” This greatly surprised the Benin people, because none of them, including Eric himself, had ever heard of the existence of such a Church, and they did not even know the word “Orthodox.” However, they called their community the "Orthodox Church of Benin", and only twelve years later were they able to meet Orthodox Christians. And when they learned about the real Orthodox Church, which has been called that way since ancient times and dates back to the apostles, they all together, consisting of more than 2,500 people, converted to the Orthodox Church. This is how the Lord responds to the requests of all who truly seek the path of holiness leading to the truth, and brings such a person to His Church.

Saint Ignatius (Brianchaninov). The concept of heresy and schism.

St. Hilarion. Christianity or Church.

Saint Ignatius (Brianchaninov). Lutheranism.

• Protestantism represented in Moscow temples and communities Lutherans, Baptists, Seventh-day Adventists, Pentecostals and Evangelical Christians.
• The only one preserved historical Lutheran church - Evangelical Lutheran Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul (1903-1905).
• Moscow Central Church Evangelical Christian Baptists occupies a historic building from the 1860s, where even the oak benches are from that period.
• A unique organ from the late 19th century century by the famous master Ernst Rover, a monument of history and culture, is also preserved in the church.
• ‒ the largest of the six churches of Evangelical Christians.
• Pentecostals and Seventh-day Adventists have their own houses of worship.

Protestantism emerged in Europe in the 16th century, breaking away from Catholicism during the Reformation. The oldest branch of Protestantism in Moscow is Lutheranism. The first Lutherans appeared in Russia simultaneously with the advent of religion itself, back in the 16th century. These were artisans, doctors and merchants who came to serve at the court of the Moscow kings from the northwestern part of Europe. There are churches and communities of Baptists, Seventh-day Adventists, Pentecostals and Evangelical Christians in Moscow. Particularly active growth of these communities in Moscow occurred after the collapse of the Soviet Union, in the 1990s.

Lutheran churches in Moscow

The first Lutheran church appeared in Moscow in 1576. After about 65 years of its existence, a split occurred in the community (beginning with a quarrel between the wives of military men and merchants), and in the 1640s the Lutheran parish was divided into two camps. As a result, the officers built a separate church for themselves, and two Lutheran churches appeared in Moscow. Their buildings burned down several times, their parishes changed their location, but “worked” until the 30s of the 20th century. The parishioners of the temples were mainly Germans, and to a lesser extent Swedes and Finns. Only one historical Lutheran church has survived to this day - this Evangelical Lutheran Cathedral Saints Peter and Paul in Starosadsky Lane(Starosadsky Lane, 7/10, p. 10).

The building of the Church of St. Peter and Paul was built in 1903-1905. It is curious that the building is based on the old manor house of the Lopukhins’ estate. The church was originally consecrated as a Lutheran cathedral. In 1937, like many churches in the Soviet Union, it was closed and nationalized. At first it housed a public cinema, then a production studio called Diafilm. In the 1990s, the church was returned to believers. Divine services are held here every Sunday in Russian and German.

In 1912, on (Nalichnaya St., 1), which was originally intended for the burial of Moscow Catholics and Lutherans, a chapel appeared (architect V. Rudanovsky). It was intended for funeral services for the deceased for the denominations that were part of the Cemetery Improvement Committee: Evangelical Lutheran, Catholic (Polish and French churches), Reformed, Anglican. For quite a long time, the Vvedenskoye Cemetery was called German or Infidel Cemetery. As a temple, the chapel was consecrated in 1994 in honor of the Holy Trinity and is today the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Ingria (Finnish Church).

Baptist Temples

In 1884, the Union of Russian Baptists was created in Russia. In 1944, they united with evangelical Christians and formed the All-Union Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists (ALL-Union Evangelical Christians-Baptists), who are called Baptist Christians. The active growth of the ECB community occurred after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the opening of borders in the 1990s. According to the Russian Union of Evangelical Christian Baptists, there are 28 Baptist communities in Moscow, but not all of them have their own buildings.

Moscow Central Church of Evangelical Christian Baptists is located today in the center of Moscow (Trekhsvyatitelsky lane, 3, metro station Kitay-Gorod). It occupies a building that was converted into a residential building for a Reformed church in the 1860s. After the socialist revolution of 1917, members of the reform community left Russia, and the building passed to Evangelical Christians. But not for long - in 1937, the church premises were nationalized and a dormitory was set up in it. In 1965, the Christian-Baptist community resettled the hostel residents at its own expense, buying them separate apartments. The church preserves the unique late 19th century master Ernst Rover, famous in Germany, which today has the status of a historical and cultural monument. It is curious that even the original oak benches from 1867 have been preserved in the hall.

For a long time, the church in Trekhsvyatitelsky Lane was the only Baptist church in Moscow. That is why, when in the 1990s the community bought a large plot of land in the south of Moscow for the construction of another church, it was simply called: Second Church of Evangelical Christian Baptists (Varshavskoye Shosse, 12a).

The third large Christian Baptist church, interesting also for its architecture, is located on the northern outskirts of Moscow, in the Bibirevo district (Leskova St., 11). It's called "Calvary". The parish arose in the early 1990s of the last century, but the building was completed only in 2010. The church holds services in Russian, English and Tajik.

The church in Zelenograd has its own building (Moscow, Zelenograd, building 1144, near Filaretovskaya Street), near the metro station. Voikovskaya (Good News Church on Klara Zetkin Street, 25Zh).

Evangelical Christians

As stated above, Evangelical Christians united with Baptists in 1944. But in the 1990s, separate, independent associations of Evangelical Christians began to appear in Russia, not included in the same community with Baptists. Today, according to the Union of Evangelical Christian Churches, there are six churches of this movement in Moscow. Near the station m. Tushinskaya, on Vasily Petushkova Street (29) is located, perhaps, the largest in Moscow. In 2000, the community bought the building of the factory's former cultural center. The All-Russian Union of Evangelical Christians (ALL) currently operates as a coordinating body.

Pentecostal Temples

The first Pentecostal organizations in Russia appeared in 1907 in Finland, which was then part of the Russian Empire. Soon they arose in St. Petersburg, and then spread throughout almost all of Russia. Much credit for this belonged to I. Voronaev, who managed to create a single Pentecostal movement from disparate ones. During the Soviet era, Pentecostal houses of worship were closed as part of a nationwide anti-religious campaign. And only after the unification of Evangelical Christians with Baptists in 1944, Pentecostals also received the right to gather for services in houses of worship.

After the collapse of the USSR, the first Russian congress of Pentecostals immediately took place in 1990. According to the Russian Church of Christians of the Evangelical Faith (RCEC), today there are five communities in Moscow. Several parishes hold their services in the north-west of Moscow, indoors Church "Living Spring" on Fabricius Street, 31A. The central office of the Russian Church of Christians of the Evangelical Faith (RCEC) is also located here. This former kindergarten building was purchased by the community from the city in 1995. Also has its own building Church "Rosa"(Krasnobogatyrskaya st., 38, building 2).

Seventh-day Adventist Temples

Like the Baptists, Seventh-day Adventists appeared in Russia at the end of the 19th century. The first Adventist community was formed from Germans living in Crimea, but was initially recognized by the authorities as a sectarian heresy. Adventists received the right to hold open services only in 1906, when this teaching was officially recognized as one of the types of Baptistism, which by that time had already been permitted in Russia.

The traditional date of the “birth” of Protestantism is considered to be October 31, 1517, when the German priest Martin Luther nailed 95 theses on the door of the Castle Church of Wittenberg, the Saxon capital, in which he outlined his disagreement with the tenets of Catholicism. These theses became the basis of Lutheranism - the first major movement in Protestantism. Later, Luther found imitators who believed that their way of honoring God would be more faithful - this is how the teachings of Jacques Calvin and Ulrich Zwingli, and later some others, appeared. Well, let’s look at how Protestants differ from Orthodox and Catholics below.

From the history of Protestant teachings

The first shoots of Protestantism emerged in the 12th century. These were the religious communities of the Waldensians and Albigensians. Later, Lollards and followers of the Czech reformer Jan Hus appeared - the Hussites. All of them came into sharp conflict with the Catholic Church and were destroyed. They even had to declare a crusade against the Albigensians in 1209.

Modern Protestantism as a set of religious teachings arose, as the name implies, as a protest against the ideological dictates of the Roman Catholic Church. By the end of the 15th century, the spiritual crisis of Catholicism became so obvious that the Pope even had to issue a special bull prohibiting clergy from maintaining brothels. Can you imagine what kind of nativity scene the sacred throne was at that time? Naturally, this situation could not please everyone; dissatisfaction was brewing, and the last straw that overflowed the cup was Pope Leo the Tenth's permission to sell indulgences - certificates of remission of sins. Permission was given on October 18, 1517, and within 13 days Luther’s “95 Theses” appeared.

The era of the Reformation (16th century) gave rise to a number of Protestant denominations. These include:

• Lutheranism;
• Calvinism;
• Zwinglianism;
• Anglicanism;
• Anabaptism.

The first three are named after the founders, the fourth term refers to the English state church. There is a romantic history associated with the emergence of Anglicanism. The loving King Henry the Eighth, unable to obtain permission from the Pope for a divorce from Catherine of Aragon (Spanish), broke off relations with Rome and ordered the creation of his own, “pocket” church, which successfully divorced him from his unloved first wife (later he was married five more times). It is clear that in reality the break with Catholicism served the interests of the English political elite, and the mentioned episode was just a small touch accompanying this act.

Anabaptism is not a homogeneous teaching and includes a number of independent movements that have survived to this day. These are Mennonites, Hutterites, Amish and a number of other denominations. They deny taking the military oath, recognize baptism performed only by adults, and have some other differences. The largest number of Anabaptists live in Germany and North America.

Features of the Protestant faith

The difference between Protestants and Orthodox is much greater than between Catholics and Orthodox, since the latter two movements largely preserve the religious tradition that developed in the first centuries of Christianity, in contrast to later Protestantism. Reformed churches have become a convenient tool in the hands of the bourgeoisie developing in modern times, and they lack a number of concepts and institutions that are found in Orthodoxy or Catholicism. For example, Protestants do not have saints; they do not recognize confession, repentance and communion. They have no monks, and therefore no monasteries; there is no fasting, no elders, who for many Orthodox are spiritual mentors.

Protestants believe that anyone who reads it can interpret the Bible. Sincere adherents of this Christian movement may argue that they have saints, but they only attach a completely different meaning to this concept than the Orthodox. Protestantism arose as a “light version” of Catholicism, understandable and accessible to semi-literate medieval burghers and peasants, each of whom interpreted the teaching in the way that was most convenient for him. Hence the large number of denominations that arose both in the 16th century and later.

Protestantism and liberalism

An overly free interpretation of Christian dogmas led to the emergence of the so-called Protestant business ethics. The main criterion for pleasing God is work and business. The derivatives of such an attitude to business are the recognition of success as pleasing to God, and failure as a statement of lack of virtue. Hence the word “loser”, widely known to us from popular Anglo-Saxon culture, is a loser, as a manifestation of the highest degree of contempt and ridicule. Naturally, the Orthodox believer in this case views Protestantism not as a religion, but as an ideological guide to doing business.

The perception of homosexuality as a variant of the norm, and not a sexual perversion, is also a logical development of the liberal views generated by Protestantism. Catholicism and Orthodoxy treat this issue much more patriarchally, in accordance with the spirit of early Christianity. Some other problems of our time - for example, feminism - also developed from the Protestant model of perceiving the world. The attitude towards “gender equality” accepted in Protestant countries seems unnatural and wild to the Orthodox. In fact: if humanity is divided into two sexes with different body functions, different sets of chromosomes (women have two X chromosomes, men have one X chromosome and one Y chromosome), even with slightly different mentalities (hence the idea of “female logic”), then it is more correct to talk not about equality, but about complementing each other.

Can we reach mutual understanding, or is the difference between Orthodox and Protestants too great for this? Yes of course we can! How can any two people understand each other, regardless of the views they hold. There would only be a desire to understand and realize the extent of the influence of religion on the life of an individual!

Protestantism is one of the three main movements of Christianity, with millions of followers around the world. Despite such wide distribution, both people professing other religions or belonging to other Christian denominations, as well as atheists who begin to study religion as a cultural phenomenon, ask the question: the Protestant Church - what is it and what is it about? Today we will look at the reasons why it appeared, how Protestantism differs from other Christian movements.

To begin with, it is worth explaining the origin of the name of the religious movement. Many people mistakenly believe that the word “Protestantism” comes from “protest,” but this is completely wrong. In Latin, protestatio means “solemn proclamation”, “statement”.

In the 16th century, the Reformation movement, which was essentially anti-Catholic, began to gain more and more strength in Europe. Supporters of the Reformation believed that the Catholic Church had moved too far away from real early Christianity, that Catholics were often guided by theologians' reinterpretation of the dogmas of faith, and not by the Holy Scriptures, which alone contained the true will of God.

The ideological inspirer of the religious revolution was Martin Luther, who in 1517 openly opposed the policies of the Catholic Church, condemning the practice of issuing indulgences (this is an exemption from committed sins; at that time, clergy often succumbed to the temptation to forgive sins for a monetary reward, which is officially prohibited). He nailed to the church door a paper containing 95 theses, which fully reflected his position and attitude towards church ministers who had departed from true Christianity.

Now there are many Protestant movements around the world, the most ancient of them:

• Lutheranism;
• Anglicanism;
• Calvinism;
• Mennonite;
• Anabaptism;
• Zwinglianism.

Distinctive features

Protestantism differs in many ways from Catholicism and Orthodoxy in its relative freedom of choice and worldview. Let's consider the main features of Protestantism that run counter to the ideas of followers of other movements of Christianity:

To better understand how the Protestant Church differs, to understand what it is, it is worth diving deeper into the history of medieval Europe and studying the reasons why another split in Christianity occurred.