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As early as 1520, Martin Luther set the theological tone of the Reformation by publishing three pamphlets in which he described his belief regarding authority, grace, the sacraments, and the source of religious truth. Since the basic views unfolded by Luther on these four subjects conflicted with the Roman Catholic position and were adopted by most subsequent Protestant reformers, these beliefs became and have remained the most distinguishing beliefs of orthodox Protestants.

One of these distinguishing Protestant doctrines is known as the priesthood of believers and was popularized by Luther in his tract, Open Letter to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation. In this work Luther contended that the congregation of faithful saints was a body of priests, all possessing the same authority. "Our baptism," he taught, "consecrates us all without exception," making us all priests. "Every one," he added, "who has been baptized may claim that he has already been consecrated priest, bishop, or pope." To support this conviction, Luther quoted from Peter and Revelation:"You are a royal priesthood and a realm of priests" (1 Peter 2:9), and "Thou hast made us priests and kings by thy blood" (Rev. 4:9).

According to Luther's interpretation of the Bible, Christ shared all he possessed with all Christians and through faith all may become kings and priests with him. The New Testament Church emerged in Luther's theological framework as a kingdom of priests — a new and redeemed community. As a community of believers, Christians were to bear the burdens of one another, as Christ had done. This view was expanded to include the belief that all men were priests to each other.

Although Luther considered all believers in Christ to be priests, he taught that all should not exercise the public office of the ministry. No one, he said, had the right to administer the sacraments nor serve as teachers of the Word of God publicly without the consent of members of the church. "Only by consent and command of the community," he specified, should an individual "claim for himself what belongs equally to all." Consequently, the congregation of priesthood bearers had the responsibility of selecting one of their numbers and commissioning him to exercise authority on behalf of others.

"When a bishop consecrates," Luther explained, "he simply acts on behalf of the entire congregation, all of whom have the same authority." Suppose, he reasoned, a group of Christians settled in an isolated desert community without being accompanied by an ordained priest. These believers would have the authority to choose one from the congregation and endow him with the office of preaching, baptizing, administering the sacrament, and pronouncing absolution.

Luther rejected not only the doctrine of apostolic succession but also the view of the Catholic church concerning ordination. Roman Catholics assert that priests receive the power to perform the sacraments through ordination, but Luther believed that one received the right to exercise the priesthood not through ordination, but through the call to serve. Luther did not regard ordination as an integral part of the priesthood. Ordination, in his view, was regarded as a public acknowledgment or confirmation of the call by a congregation. Luther further maintained that through selection by a congregation, ministers received a commission rather than a special power, a commission granting them the right to exercise the priesthood shared by all believers.

Since the era of the Reformation, nearly all orthodox Protestants have endorsed the doctrine of the universal priesthood of believers. In contrast to the Catholic view of endowed authority, most Protestants endorse Luther's view of common authority and agree with him that Christ's authority was conferred upon the entire church and not merely upon the apostles. One major exception in this country to this endorsement by Protestants is the Episcopal faith, which holds to lineal succession.

Many Protestants also include in definitions of priesthood of believers the concept that Christians should place themselves under the direct authority of God, including receiving, through the Holy Spirit, direct addresses from God. Many also teach that the doctrine of priesthood of believers does not mean that everyone is a priest but that everyone has the responsibility to make the message of the Bible their message and in that respect should be a priest to their neighbor. All, however, do not await the call by a congregation prior to exercising the priesthood. Per iodically, enthusiastic revivalists emerge who insist that they have been commissioned by the Spirit to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ to all mankind.

A second doctrine popularized by Luther in 1520, that became the most distinguishing characteristic of orthodox Protestantism, was the concept of justification by faith alone or, in another term, salvation by grace alone. Luther endeavored to summarize succinctly the most essential aspects of his faith in his Freedom of a Christian and included in this treatise the belief that men are saved by the pure and free mercy of God, manifest to man through faith. Many medieval theologians considered the righteousness of God as "His demanding justice," but Luther concluded that God's righteousness is more than judging and is most clearly evident in his bestowal of faith and thereby salvation upon man through Jesus Christ. According to Luther, salvation is not earned. Man can never merit salvation by his own action. It is given, he explained, solely by the grace of God, for by God's grace some individuals are considered righteous and are made acceptable heirs of salvation.

The popular orthodox Protestant doctrine of grace needs to be considered in light of the historic belief regarding the nature of man and the atonement of Christ. Many Protestants endorse the popular Roman Catholic explanation that Adam, who was created righteous and without sin, stood as a representative of the entire human race. After the fall, there was a transmission of hereditary guilt from the first man to all mankind. All men inherit the original sin and are born without grace, with a soul that is spiritually dark. All are blind of understanding in spiritual things and are prone to evil. All have further incurred divine wrath, and all are subject to death.

Even though most orthodox Protestants have retained the traditional belief that all men are sinners because of Adam's rebellion against God and man's hereditary connection with him, the religious surveys of the 1960s indicated that one of the most significant deviations from the classical faith among members of denominations known for their orthodoxy was in the area of the nature of man and the fall of Adam. Slightly more than 60 percent of the Lutherans and Baptists who responded to three different polls expressed a belief that man could not help doing evil or that man by himself was incapable of anything but sin. A small majority also noted that they had retained the belief that Adam's sin was imputed to all mankind.

A popular contemporary description of the consequences of the fall and man's nature is a statement adopted in 1963 by the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest alliance of Protestant societies in the United States:

Through the temptation of Satan man transgressed the command of God, and fell from his original innocence; whereby his posterity inherit a nature and an environment inclined toward sin, and as soon as they are capable of moral action become transgressors and are under condemnation.

While orthodox Protestants insist that as a consequence of the transgression of Adam man is by nature a sinner and falls under the condemnation of God, they further proclaim that by His real suffering, Christ reconciled the world with God, redeeming all men from sin, death, and the power of the devil. Christ, they add, made satisfaction with his own blood, procuring for all sinners perfect righteousness, life, eternal bliss, and full acquittal of all who believe in him. Luther emphasized that Christ is our Redeemer "who suffered death in order that" man might be free from death, become His child, and be led to righteousness and eternal life.

According to many contemporary orthodox Protestants, Christianity is a redemptive religion in that it offers to mankind salvation from sin and guilt. Many teach that the sinner needs to be forgiven of his transgressions and purified, or that man needs to be justified and sanctified. Justification is frequently defined as the act, state, or process of being accepted as righteous by God. It is also identified as the process by which God brings man back into a right relationship with Him. Sanctification is often referred to as the process of becoming clean and pure. Two other words frequently employed by Christians when they discuss salvation are redemption and regeneration. Redemption is used to identify the act that frees man from the bondage of sin, and regeneration is regarded by most Christians as the rebirth which takes place when one receives the grace of God.

While there is a basic agreement among Catholics and Protestants concerning the general definition of these four terms, there is a major difference among them concerning how man is justified and sanctified or how one is redeemed. The precise meaning of these concepts, therefore, differs considerably among Catholics and Protestants and among those who are orthodox and liberal.

Orthodox Protestants generally agree that the transformation of man occurs by means of the atoning sacrifice of Christ and the regenerative and sanctifying influence of the Holy Spirit. They insist that the essence of Christianity has always been the belief that salvation from sin, guilt, and pollution comes through the "historical expiation" or the atonement wrought by Jesus Christ. And Protestants have traditionally emphasized that the term of salvation is simple acceptance of Christ as Lord and Savior.

Many early reformers, including Luther and Calvin, did not make a sharp distinction between justification and sanctification. They considered justification not only as God's forgiving man and establishing a new relationship with him but also as the Holy Spirit's operating within man to produce a new holiness. Sanctification was man's obtaining forgiveness of sins and righteousness.

As the years passed, other reformers, such as John Wesley, began emphasizing justification and sanctification in separate classifications. Wesley, early Pietist groups, and many leaders of the contemporary Holiness-Pentecostal movements developed a doctrine of Christian perfection, emphasizing that it was possible for individuals to obtain a kind of complete sanctification, or perfection, in this life.

Although a comparison of beliefs of Protestants and Catholics concerning the fall and atonement reveals many parallels, a major difference centers on the concept of grace. Roman Catholics teach that grace is a gift of God that cleanses man and makes him like God. It is considered as infused power which imparts virtues to the soul, elevating the soul to a higher being. Catholics further believe that grace is dispensed through the institution that is clothed with the power of God. Men are justified, Catholics say, through faith and works, which include baptism and other sacraments. Since the sacraments are considered channels by which God dispenses grace, Roman Catholics teach that man begins to receive the grace of God and initially benefits from the atonement of Christ by receiving the sacrament of baptism and continues to receive grace through the instrumentality of other sacraments.

In contrast to the Roman Catholic position, Luther popularized the concept that grace is God's forgiving man, despite man's rebelliousness. This definition is currently held by many Protestants; and in harmony with Luther's basic teachings, many orthodox assert that God's freely given redemptive love is bestowed directly upon mankind without the need of an institution.

Another essential ingredient of classical Protestant theology is that faith is the channel employed by God to notify man of his new relationship to deity. Faith is considered as the "lively apprehension of grace made known and received." Southern Baptists recently described the process of salvation as held by most orthodox Protestants by declaring:

Only the grace of God can bring man into His holy fellowship and enable man to fulfill the creative purpose of God....Salvation involves the redemption of the whole man, and is offered freely to all who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, who by His own blood obtained eternal redemption for the believer.

While the Medieval Church considered salvation in light of the grace of God coupled with the most worthy actions of men, Luther insisted that works were not the means of salvation but were the fruits of faith. "The Christian who is consecrated by his faith does good works," Luther explained, "but the works do not make him holier or more Christian, for that is the work of faith alone. And if a man were not first a believer and a Christian, all his works would amount to nothing and would be truly wicked and damnable sins."

Modem orthodox theologians continue to emphasize that men are not saved by their works but through grace alone. Nevertheless, works are not neglected, for many Protestants currently emphasize that works, not of a ritualistic nature but of an ethical character, are necessary for salvation. Works are sometimes referred to as necessary evidences of faith. In conclusion, many orthodox insist that a genuine Christian is not only one who seeks to imitate the example set by Christ, but is also a person who enters into a living, personal relationship with Christ and "receives and rests upon Christ for salvation from guilt and corruption of sin."

Although Protestants traditionally have endorsed this view of justification by faith alone, they have been divided into two basic camps regarding man's role in the salvation experience. The Calvinistic wing has emphasized that man plays no essential role in the salvation experience, while the Arminian wing has insisted that while God proffers grace to mankind, only those who embrace this gift will be saved. During the colonial period most church members were Calvinists, holding to the concept of unconditional election or predestination, but in twentieth century America most orthodox Protestants teach that man is a free agent who plays a vital role in the salvation experience. A popular belief is that the free will of man enables him to accept or reject Jesus as his Lord and Savior.

In harmony with his view concerning the priesthood of believers and justification by faith, Luther adopted a definition of the church that did not include endowed authority or the institution as a sacramental agent, but emphasized the concept of the assembly of believers. According to the German reformer, the church was a community of believers in which the gospel was preached in its purity and the sacraments properly administered. He emphasized certain sacraments as essential, not for the receiving of grace but for the apprehension of faith and for proper worship. Faith, he taught, was apprehended by hearing the word and by receiving the Lord's Supper. Preaching was considered a vital part of the service during which communicants received the sacramental emblems. Luther further emphasized that there was no benefit from this rite unless faith was manifest in the recipient.

Although conflicting views concerning the sacraments have served as one of the major sources precipitating divisions among Protestants, nearly all orthodox Protestants endorse a number of concepts popularized by Luther in 1520 in his Pagan Servitude of the Church, commonly translated as the Babylonian Captivity of the Church. Luther described baptism and the Lord's Supper as two sacraments ordained by Christ, rejected the view that during the Mass Christ was the victim of the altar, denied that the bread was changed into the body of Christ, and recommended that communicants receive both sacramental elements, the bread and the wine.

In addition to popularizing the doctrines of priesthood of believers, justification by faith alone, and two sacraments, Luther unfolded in his Reformation treatises another concept that became a distinguishing characteristic of historic Protestantism‹the scripture as the sole norm or standard of faith. Luther contended that tradition was an unreliable source for Christian belief and conduct, for he reasoned that popes, fathers, and councils had issued innumerable, conflicting decisions. After rejecting the belief that the Roman pontiff could not err in matters of faith and that the universal church alone could properly interpret the Bible, Luther advocated that scripture should be regarded as the sole authority for religious truth, that all essential aspects of the Christian faith were included in that work, and that the Bible should be interpreted by the community of believers. Christians, Luther explained, were to rely on the Spirit of God rather than the church or the pope to guide them along the path of truth and righteousness.

One concept concerning the scriptures that is popular among many orthodox Protestants and is sometimes referred to as a fundamentalist doctrine is the belief in the verbal, plenary inspiration of the Bible. Although fundamentalism better represents a mood or attitude than an organization, an interde nominational, militant crusade emerged at the turn of the century which was known as the fundamentalist movement. Many concepts enunciated by the fundamentalists in the, early twentieth century are currently regarded as essential aspects of the Protestant faith by many Americans, especially individuals residing in the South.

The fundamentalist movement originated in the northeastern metropolitan areas of this land in response to an increased reorientation of Christian thinking among members of various denominations. After liberalism became a dominant force in some congregations, many ministers and lay mem-bers sought to preserve various theological concepts that had been popular among Protestants since the sixteenth century.

A variety of fruitful seeds of this crusade were planted during a series of Bible conferences in this country, some of the most celebrated being held in Niagara in 1886, 1895, 1901, and 1914. As the years passed, one of the influential vehicles employed by those seeking to preserve the historic faith was the publication in 1909 of twelve pamphlets entitled "The Fundamentals." This work, which was widely circulated, included articles written by a variety of Americans and was financed by two lay brothers, Lyman and Milton Stewart, founders and leading stockholders in the Union Oil Company of Los Angeles. Eventually, the crusade created such a storm and led to strife within so many communities that fundamentalism was turned by some into a term of reproach and the movement dissolved. Most beliefs, however, which leaders of this crusade sought to preserve are being perpetuated by various groups in modern America. Many articles which originally appeared in The Fundamentalist have been revised and republished and are currently available in the book The Fundamentals for Today.

A variety of ideas concerning the inspiration of the Bible that were advanced in the turn-of-the-century Bible conferences were concepts promulgated by three Princeton professors: Charles Hodge, Archibald Alexander Hodge, and Benjamin B. Warfield. Basing their belief on doctrinal traditions popular among many Lutherans and Calvinists of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, these scholars concluded that God would not reveal his will through a fallible work, emphasizing that when originally written, the Bible was verbally inspired and inerrant in all its parts.

Defining their attitude concerning the Bible, fundamentalists persisted in saying that "inspiration" conveyed the concept that the scriptures are God's breath, for, they declared, God "breathed out" or spoke through the mouth of a prophet. "Plenary inspiration" was referred to as the belief that all the scriptures are inspired, plenary denoting full or complete. Many Protestants today also declare that in all its parts the Bible was inspired, for they assert there is no section of the scriptures that was not breathed out by God.

The word "verbal" was also a term that was frequently discussed by fundamentalists. Verbal inspiration was defined as God putting words into the mouths of the prophets. According to one noted preacher, W. B. Riley, the words recorded by the prophets were the very words of God, for God employed the human tongue and pen to express himself. His will, Riley added, was revealed through the lives and lines of many men "who spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. Multitudinous were the penmen and various were their styles of writing, but the oneness of purpose they expressed informs us "that a single entity lies back of it all;...Jehovah thought, while Moses, the Prophets, and Apostles wrote."

Another explanation of the meaning of verbal inspiration was prepared by Dr. Lewis Sperry Chafer, the president of the Evangelical Theological College of Dallas, Texas. "In their original form," President Chafer explained, the scriptures "were as perfect as any and all of his works, and were expressed with infinite accuracy which was and could be secured only through divine control of the precise words in each and every case."

Although fundamentalists held that the Bible was "verbally inspired," most rejected the mechanical theory of the activity of the Holy Spirit. Leaders of this movement did not believe that the authors of the Bible were in reality little more than stenographers. They insisted that their belief denied the presence of error in the Bible. As explained by J. Gresham Machen, the Holy Spirit "so informed the minds of the Biblical writers that they were kept from falling into the errors that mar all other books."

Admitting that God had not revealed in all cases the precise method in which he revealed his will to man, fundamentalists suggested that "it might have been as varied as the persons to whom the message came." Nevertheless, they insisted that "in no case was the human agency, as to its limitation of vocabulary, restriction in literary style, or misunderstanding of facts, allowed to lessen the absolute, final, and divine character of the message."

Leaders of this movement did recognize, however, that the scriptures were originally written in Hebrew, Aramaic, or Greek, that all the original versions have been lost, and that current versions of the Bible were translations of other translations and of records that were copied and recopied. Consequently, W. B. Riley asserted that to claim "inerrancy for the King James Version, or even for the Revised Version, is to clothe with the claim of verbal inspiration a company of men who would almost quit their graves to repudiate such equality with prophet and apostle."

While considering the subject of the transmission of the Bible, fundamentalists admitted that some errors and variations crept into the text through mistakes of copyists and translators. Nevertheless, they insisted that such errors were comparatively few and the imperfections were generally speaking not significant alterations.Such a recognition did not detract from their "unqualified allegiance to the doctrine of Verbal Inspiration."

The basic beliefs concerning verbal, plenary inspiration of the Bible as advanced by fundamentalists are evident today in the writings and sermons of members of various American denominations. Many Lutherans, Baptists, and members of the Church of Christ and various Reformed bodies hold this concept as a fundamental Christian belief.

Many Lutherans, Baptists, and members of other religious communities who are striving to preserve the historic tradition have rejected verbal inspiration. Many orthodox Christians insist that verbal inspiration makes the authors merely stenographers who have lost their free will and ability of self-expression. Some contend that ideas can be expressed by employing different words and when God conveyed his thoughts to the prophets, they in turn expressed accurately the revela-tions in their language, employing individualistic styles.

Orthodox Protestants, however, are generally known for retaining a belief in plenary inspiration. Individuals who are seeking to preserve classical Protestantism tend to agree that the entire Bible is the written word of God. Rejecting the view that the Old Testament is merely an advisory authority, they insist on the divine authority of the Old and New Testaments, saying that all the Bible and only the Bible is the word of God. Moreover, they usually assert that the Bible authors are trustworthy teachers of doctrine and reliable historians, narrating historical facts and recording events in an orderly, accurate, dependable manner. They also tend to endorse the judgment of early church leaders who decided the books that should be included in the Old and New Testaments and maintain that God guided them to protect the writings of the prophets. Most reason that if God declared that which the people should know, then he also must have provided the means whereby the words would be preserved and transmitted accurately to mankind. Consequently, in harmony with views popularized by fundamentalists in the early twentieth century, many contemporary Protestants state that only minor mistranslations appear in the modern versions of the Bible.

Many American clergy in recent years have rejected the traditional belief in the inerrancy of the Bble. But when nearly 900 Lutheran ministers belonging to the Missouri Synod were asked if they believed the Bible to be the "inspired and inerrant Word of God not only in matters of faith but also in historical, geographical, and other secular matters," 76 percent responded that they "agreed" or "definitely agreed" with the statement. Less than 34 percent of the ministers of other faiths (American Baptists, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, and Methodists), however, indicated an agreement with this belief.

In addition to emphasizing the verbal, plenary inspiration of the Bible, fundamentalists of the early twentieth century proclaimed a variety of other doctrines that are popular among many orthodox Protestants of today. Frequently fundamentalists issued doctrinal statements that included the following nine articles of faith.

I. We believe in the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as verbally inspired of God, and inerrant in the original writings, and that they are of supreme and final authority in faith and life.

II. We believe in one God, eternally existing in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

III. We believe that Jesus Christ was begotten by the Holy Spirit, and born of the Virgin Mary, and is true God and true man.

IV. We believe that man was created in image of God, that he sinned and thereby incurred not only physical death but also that spiritual death which is separation from God; and that all human beings are born with a sinful nature, and in the case of those who reach moral responsibility, become sinners in thought, word, and deed.

V. We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures as a representative and substitutionary sacrifice; and that all that believe in Him are justified on the grounds of His shed blood.

VI. We believe in the resurrection of the crucified body of our Lord, in His ascension into heaven, and in His present life there for us, as High Priest and Advocate.

VII. We believe in "that blessed hope," the personal, pre millennial and imminent return of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

VIII. We believe that all who receive by faith the Lord Jesus Christ are born again of the Holy Spirit and thereby become children of God.

IX. We believe in the bodily resurrection of the just and the unjust, the everlasting, conscious punishment of the lost.

Although many orthodox Protestants of today agree that elements of the popular fundamentalist doctrinal statements harmonize with their convictions (such as the belief in the Trinity, the virgin birth of Christ, the substitutionary atonement, and salvation through faith), several doctrines included in the formal fundamentalist declarations would not be endorsed by many contemporary Protestants who are known for their theological conservatism. In addition to the concept of "verbal inspiration," many orthodox reject the fundamentalist view concerning the "personal, pre-millennial and imminent return of Jesus Christ."

In considering eschatology (the doctrine of the final world events, including the second coming of Christ, the resurrection, and judgment), most conservative Protestants of modern America profess that at the end of the world Christ will not come to inaugurate a millennium but to judge the dead. The Savior's first act, some specify, will be to resurrect the bodies of all men, after which the public judgment will commence. When orthodox consider the doctrine of the resurrection of the body and of hell, many depart from beliefs that were popular among Protestants of colonial America. Some who are orthodox in most respects emphasize a belief in a spiritual resurrection that includes man's total personality but precludes a physical body of flesh and bones. Some also deny that hell is a place where men suffer everlasting physical punishment in the traditional sense of the term. While conservatives adopt conflicting views concerning life beyond the grave, most teach that the unrighteous will be consigned to a place of everlasting punishment and the righteous will dwell forever in heaven with the Lord.

Fundamentalists popularized a number of beliefs representing the historic faith that were not included in the formal fundamentalist doctrinal statements; many of these tenets are generally held by orthodox Protestants of modern America. Conservative Protestants, for example, are known for their description of the trinitarian God as a spirit, an immaterial being without form or bodily parts, and of a God who is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent. Most have also retained the popular traditional belief concerning angels and devils. Orthodox Christians assert that God made a great multitude of finite spirits called angels. All were created good, but a part sinned and fell, becoming evil spirits who exert their power over the minds and bodies of men.

Even though most orthodox Protestants reject evolution as God's method of creation and insist that Adam was specially created by a divine act of God, some conservatives have reevaluated their faith concerning the creation. In some orthodox circles, individuals disagree about how God created man. A few who classify themselves as orthodox in most respects reject the "immediate-creation theory." Some reason that science traces the biological ancestry of Adam back to dust or a small organism while the Bible traces his spiritual ancestry back to God. Like the fundamentalists, many conservative Protestants are also divided over the issue of the period of time involved in the creation of the world. Some conclude that God created the world out of nothing in six literal days of twenty-four hours each, while most hold that the world was created out of nothing during six long eras of eons.

Summarizing classical Protestantism, many authors describe the centrality of the word of God in the faith and practice of these Christians. Jesus Christ is considered the head of the Church and is known as the word of God made flesh. The word of God is also expressed in the Bible, especially the redemptive message of free grace made possible through the atonement of Jesus Christ. The preached word is considered the attempt by the church to keep the word relevant in the lives of Christians; and the enacted word is referred to as reliving "the drama of God's encounter with man."