Untitled article by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · New York · April 9, 1891

FromThe American Sentinel, Vol. 6, No. 15

A GENTLEMAN writes us:—

By Editor

I am sure you do not wish to do the Baptists any wrong. They emphatically deny being Protestants—they never came out of the Romish Church.

From this it seems that we must have alluded to Baptists as “Protestants,” and even now it does not appear to us that our error was a serious one. Webster defines Protestant thus:—

1. One who protests;—originally applied to those who adhered to Luther at the Reformation in 1529, and protested against, or made solemn declaration of dissent from, a decree of the Emperor Charles V. and the Diet of Spires, and appealed to a general council.

2. Especially, a Christian who protests against the doctrines and practices of the Roman Catholic Church; one who adheres to the doctrines of the Reformation.

Of course in the first sense Baptists are not Protestants, but in the second sense we trust that we make no mistake in applying the term to them. We are not prepared to think that the Baptists have ceased to protest against the doctrines and practices of the Roman Catholic Church, nor do we think that our correspondent wishes to be so understood. Doubtless in this sense he will agree with us that Baptists are Protestants.