12 Anti-Gospel Presuppositions of Protestantism
I. God declares people righteous without making them righteous. “Sinner” is not past tense.
II. Perfection is defined as perfect law-keeping in this life.
III. The new birth is defined as a realm or ability to see/experience something that is not our own essence as believers.
IV. “Flesh” is inherently evil, not merely weak.
V. “Earth” is not merely weak, but inherently evil.
VI. “Sin” is the essence of the material world, and not a “master” separate from it.
VII. Sanctification (the Christian life) is a rest. John Calvin believed New Testament sanctification is the Old Testament Sabbath rest. It is the belief that the Christian life is a rest from works because all works are still under law.
VIII. God’s kingdom is presently on earth.
IX. Hell was also created for man.
X. Single relationship to the law for both believers and unbelievers.
XI. One judgment.
XII. Salvation of the soul and body happen at the same time.
Paul's Passing Thoughts 
I might add that another protestant pre-supposition is the “church” being the “bride of Christ”. The expression “bride of Christ” is found nowhere in scripture. Moreover, believers are described in a “body” metaphor, where Christ is the “head” and believers are various “members” of the “body”, thus the use of the Greek word, “ekklesia”, for “assembly”.
Additionally, believers are also referred to as “friends of the bridegroom” and “wedding guests”. This begs the question, how can the friends and wedding guests also be the “bride”? The answer is, they can’t and they aren’t. A study of traditional Jewish wedding ceremonies is very insightful in this area. On the wedding day, the bridegroom leads a procession of his friends through the streets of the village to go and meet the bride. This usually occurs at midnight. There is much pomp and celebration that occurs along the way, and as the procession continues, people exit their homes bringing a torch or lamp along with them to help light the way, and so the “wedding party” grows larger and larger as more and more “guests” join in celebration with the bridegroom. The groom then receives his bride, and the two, along with the entire party of friends and guests return to the bridegrooms house where the wedding ceremony occurs. Elements of this tradition are clearly visualized in the parable of the wedding feast (Matthew 22), and the parable of the ten virgins (Matthew 25)
A plain grammatical interpretation of Revelation 21 reveals exactly who the “bride” is.
Revelation 21:9-10
“And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, ‘Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb’s wife.’ And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God…”
Here in plain terms, the bride is clearly and explicity shown to be the New Jerusalem. Protestants get around this by saying, well it’s not the “city” itself but the inhabitants of the city. Christ can’t “marry” a city. Oh really? So how does Christ “marry” an assembly of individuals?
This is not the first instance of a city being refered to in “spousal” terms. Jerusalem was referred to as an unfaithful wife who played the harlot with other gods (Ezekiel 16). God wrote her a bill of divorcement. (Jeremiah 3). Jerusalem is the “mother” of Israel and the inhabitants her chirldren (Matthew 23:37, Luke 13:34). So there is precedent in scripture for a city to be referenced as a wife and a mother.
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Another comment I can hijack and make into a post.
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Hey, if you want me to post on that, then at least let me flesh it out a little bit more. I was merely trying to be brief for the sake of the comment. 😉
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Ya, shore it up a little and we will send it in.
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Andy! Thank you!!!
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