March 3rd, 2013 A tradition in Christianity which found its
self-identity as “Protestant” in the sixteenth-century
Reformation. Protestantism began when the church, according to
Protestants, lost the Gospel during the middle to late middle
ages and reformers began to “protest” this loss. Martin Luther,
often seen as the father of Protestantism, rejected the Pope”s
claims to infallible authority, believed that the Gospel was
being lost to a system of works-based salvation, and confessed
the Bible alone was the only infallible and ultimate source of
authority for the Christian. Protestantism is not a church, but
a tradition which claims to have restored or reformed the
Gospel, and hence, the church. Protestantism is made up of
thousands of denominations (various expressions of the
Protestant faith) and boasts nearly four hundred million members
world-wide.