In the first 500 years of its existence, the Church authoritatively settled many issues such as Jewish law requirements (Council of Jerusalem – Acts 15), Christ’s deity (Council of Nicene – A.D. 325), the canon of Scripture (Council of Rome – A.D. 382), the dual natures of Jesus (Council of Chalcedon – A.D. 456), etc.
In contrast, it’s been over 500 years since Martin Luther launched his “Reformation” based on the ideal of Scriptural authority alone and rather than unite the Church, it has caused nearly constant schism resulting in hundreds of disagreeing denominations. Luther’s optimistic statement above, has been proven decisively false, bearing witness that sola scriptura (the Protestant’s foundation for schism with the Church) is a theological failure.
If this claim seems overreaching, below is a list of the continuing theological debates within Protestantism which are significant due to theological / ethical importance (e.g., salvation or morality), pedigree (e.g., academic or popular), or position variance (whether quantitative or qualitative). For the sake of brevity, I stopped at 75.
| 1. Abortion 2. Adam’s Historicity* 3. Alcohol Consumption 4. Apologetic Method* 5. Bible Application 6. Baptism* 7. Biblical Authorship 8. Biblical Higher Criticism 9. Biblical Inerrancy* 10. Christ’s Atonement* 11. Christian Education 12. Christian Spirituality 13. Church Definition 14. Church Government 15. Church Growth* 16. Communion* 17. Contraception 18. Covenant Theology* 19. Creationism* 20. Creeds and Councils 21. Destiny of the Unevangelized* 22. Dispensationalism* 23. Divine Foreknowledge* 24. Eastern Orthodoxy and Evangelicalism* 25. Predestination |
26. Entertainment 27. Essentials of the Faith 28. Eternal Security* 29. Evangelicalism’s Definition 30. Evolution* 31. Faith’s Definition 32. Faith’s and Reason 33. Family Ministry 34. Free Grace Salvation 35. Free Will 36. God’s Will* 37. God and Time* 38. God’s Providence* 39. God’s Attributes* 40. Gospel Conditions 41. Hell* 42. Hermeneutics 43. Judaism and Christianity 44. Justification* 45. Law and Gospel* 46. Marriage / Divorce / Remarriage* 47. The Millenium 48. Mind-Body Problem* 49. Miracles / Gifts* 50. Natural Law |
51. New Testament Use of the Old Testament* 52. Old Testament Genocide* 53. Old Testament Canon 54. Pauline Soteriology* 55. Paul’s Status in Rom. 7 56. Peter’s Importance 57. Prosperity Gospel 58. Psychology 59. Purgatory 60. Rapture Timing* 61. Revelation Interpretation* 62. Sabbath Observance 63. Salvific Pluralism* 64. Sanctification* 65. Science and Religion* 66. Social Activities 67. Spiritual Gifts 68. Spiritual Warfare 69. Tithing 70. War* 71. Warnings in Hebrews* 72. Women in Ministry* 73. Works and Judgment* 74. Worship Styles* 75. Youth Ministry* |
*Indicates that the topic even has its own multiview debate book(s) such as these:
Douglas Beaumont 