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“Those that follow Calvin and Luther to the letter have done so by their own election, and because they personally find agreement with Calvin and Luther ... not because Protestant doctrine sees infallibility in Calvin or Luther.”

I never said that Protestants believed they were infalliable. I said that they found them authoritative, particularly in their intepretation and application of Scripture. Many have modelled their churches, even if they don’t understand why, after the principles of Luther, Calvin and Zwingli.

Why for example, do you have a cross instead of a crucifix? Or a bare room without adornment? All these questions have their answers in them from Calvin, Luther and Zwingli for the most part.

Even your argument here, that the conscious should stand supreme, is the same.

I was a Mennonite myself, and I am thankful for my time with them. They are good people. I have known a great number of Baptists and they are salt and light. However, my path was not with them. Peace and blessings, sir.

Many Lutheran parishes have crucifixes (depending on where the original members immigrated from), most have stain glass windows with various Biblical and theology scenes. Though with the rising cost of such things, they are rare in many newer churches. We don't have many statues in the altar area, because of the general aversion to relics as worship of such, but that isn't universal either.

My Lutheran parish has more of that stuff than my wife's Catholic one. What is interesting is the latter is by choice. For a while, they only had the processional crucifix, and only one statue in the corner.

Calvin and Luther were right about many things, and wrong about some others. Their opinion is noteworthy as the opinion of an educated scholar of Protestant Christian theology (just as the opinion of the Pope/Vatican is noteworthy as that of a Christian scholar). They’re probably more noteworthy to Protestants than the Pope/Vatican simply because we are more likely to find merit in their particular interpretations.

I fully understand that Protestant denominations have independently adopted many Calvinist and Lutheran interpretatations of Scripture ... not simply because Calvin and Luther said them, but because we believe find them Biblically justifiable.

Still ... quoting Luther or Calvin is insufficient justification for any specific doctrine. The sinlessness and/or perpetual virginity of Mary are among the beliefs of Calvin and Luther that I (and many other Protestants) have found unjustifiable.

>> I have known a great number of Baptists and they are salt and light. However, my path was not with them. Peace and blessings, sir.

Thanks. Back at ya.

SnakeDoc