Protestantism (1983: Doomsday)

This 1983: Doomsday page is a Stub. Even though it is part of the 1983: Doomsday Timeline, its creator or creators have more work to do before it can be complete. You are welcome to give suggestions at the Talk Page.

Protestantism is the diverse community of Christians not connected with the ancient Catholic and Orthodox churches was widely dispersed in the northern hemisphere on the occasion of the great disruption now known as "Doomsday" on 26 September 1983. Remnants of most of the denominations and countless independent local congregations remain, having gained renewed importance in a post-apocalyptic world.

History

Beginning with Martin Luther, the unrest among Catholics grew throughout the 1500's to produce an official break with the historical western church. Mid-century the movement became known as "Protestantism." Followers of the teachings of Luther, John Calvin and others would grow into a body of Christians numbering over 600 million prior to massive destruction of membership in population centers in Europe, China and North America. This had been about half the estimated number of Catholics worldwide. By the 1980's the "mainline" denominations had largely declined to insignificant numbers in Europe and as such are almost unknown in 2011 in the land of their origin. However, Pentecostal and Baptist congregations, founded by scattered missionaries before and since, are found in most provinces.

By far a minority in South and Central America, most Protestant churches not in the affected nations lost the crucial support from more prosperous churches instrumental in their founding. Some of these churches would flourish as stranded missionaries would become self-sufficient leaders and promoters of local leadership as well. Other churches would fail, their members either joining surviving protestant congregations or returning to the Catholic Church from which most had come.

Protestant Denominations Today

African-American denominations

More to come

Baptist

More to come

American

More to come

Independent

More to come

Thomas Road Baptist Church - Lynchburg, Virginia

Southern Baptist Convention (SBC)

The Southern Baptist Convention, pre-Doomsday, was one of the largest denominations in the United States.

Doomsday wiped out the national organization and left the individual member churches in surviving areas of the country on their own.

As with other denominations in the wake of Doomsday, some SBC member churches eventually disbanded or were merged with other congregations as pastoral staff and congregants were lost to radiation, illness and/or violence. Those that survived tended to bunch together in local and regional alliances. Some shed their Southern Baptist identity altogether, although maintaining their Christian and Protestant creeds.

In the late 1980s, SBC churches in the area of the United States that reconstituted itself as the Confederate States of America connected with one another, even going so far as to form the Confederate Baptist Convention (CBC). Even after the post-Doomsday CSA dissolved, these churches still maintained relations, even while renaming their parent organization the Southern Baptist Convention.

It remains the only known example of a Baptist organization crossing state lines in the former U.S., until the 21st century.

In the 2000s, Southern Baptist churches in the American survivor states began to connect with other churches outside their respective regions. The churches found that besides numerous theological differences considered to be non-essential to the core of the Christian faith and Baptist creed, that the regional alliances had strengthened to the point where reforming the SBC on a continent-wide basis was going to be difficult.

Most churches were interested in working together, while maintaining their independence and not surrendering it to a newly formed, continent-wide successor to the old SBC.

West Texas Baptist Convention (WTBC)

More to come

Churches of Christ

More to come

Episcopal

More to come

Lutheran

Post-DD Lutheranism in North America is concentrated in former Missouri and Minnesota, though there are numerous Lutheran churches all over the continent.

More to come

Methodist

More to come

Fundamentalist/Holiness

More to come

Charismatic/Pentecostal

These churches, distinguished by the theological view of continuationism, the New Testament "gifts of the Spirit" still being available to modern Christians (as opposed to the view of cessationism, which states that those gifts ceased after the first few generations of Christians passed in the first century AD), are most likely found throughout the southern and western former U.S. They tend to be independent congregations in that none are affiliated with any denomination, though they work with other local churches to varying degrees.

The biggest denomination, as it were, is the Assemblies of God (AoG), which is nominally governed out of Cape Girardeau, Kentucky, but practically split into 29 regional groups, all of which have as much authority as the national organization.

Some churches in western North America continue to loosely associated themselves under the banner of Calvary Chapel, a Los Angeles-area church that was destroyed on Doomsday. Calvary Chapel churches are continuationalist in practice and belief, but put their main emphasis on systematic teaching of the Bible to their congregants on a regular basis. More to come

Presbyterian/Reformed

Presbyterian Church USA (PCUSA)

Mere months before Doomsday the historic and long-awaited merger of the "Northern" and "Southern" Presbyterian Churches was accomplished - the religious news outlet proclaimed the Presbyterian Church (USA) to be "the" Presbyterian Church of record. Plans were well on the way to move the New York City (UPCUSA) and Atlanta (PCUS) headquarters to Louisville, Kentucky. That move did not occur. As a result, the new ecclesiastical organization would remain in name only. Member congregations would bind together for a while with local presbyteries and some regional synods, but with very little travel and even less long-range communication, the denomination largely failed to function.

Presbyterian Church in America (PCA)

A decade before ministers and concerned laymen in the PCUS had broken with the denomination and formed a new one, taking the name "Presbyterian Church in America" (PCA) after the UPCUSA congregation in Washington, DC, had objected to the proposed name of "National Presbyterian Church" (its local name). In a repetition of its historical forefathers, the Orthodox Presbyterian Church (see below), the PCA held to a conservative point of view. In the years leading up to 1983, the young denomination had extended an invitation to the OPC and the RPCES, 'sister denominations,' to merge to form a larger denomination with common beliefs (to still be called the PCA). The OPC did not join at that time, but the Reformed Presbyterian Church, Evangelical Synod, finalized the merger less thatn a year before 'doomsday.' As a result, with 'new blood,' the PCA had new vitality with historical roots going back to Scotland! Part of the merger, though, brought most of the organization to Atlanta, Georgia, in 1982. Because of this, the young denomination began its "teenage years" without a 'parent' when that city was destroyed. Destruction also came the PCA's official schools near Chattanooga, Tennessee, and St. Louis, Missouri. Like with the PCUSA, the PCA lost the connectivity which made it "Presbyterian." However, its largely rural roots fostered strong presbyteries such as Calvary Presbytery in what became the Republic of Piedmont and Western Carolina Presbytery in what would become Blue Ridge. Even before political alliances were formed, these two presbyteries had convened a General Assembly meeting in 1986 at the denomination's Conference Center near Rosman, NC (BR). That same year a new seminary in Greenville, SC (RoP), was established for the teaching of ministers. As of 2010, connections have been made to scattered PCA congregations as far away as Hawaii, where the congregations had largely dissolved or joined the conservative Presbyterian Reformed Church of Australia (see below). As the history of the PCA post-DD has been put together in recent years, it appears that regional organizations have continued in virtual "synods" still considering themselves part of the PCA. Lacking large city churches (like Coral Ridge near Orlando and "Tenth" in Philadelphia), the denomination has largely remained a collection of like-minded Christians that have held tenaciously to their old identity.

Orthodox Presbyterian Church (OPC)

Founded in the 1936, the Orthodox Presbyterian Church (originally Presbyterian Church of America, but changed after then PCUSA objected to similarity), the sturdy, but small denomination had almost ceased to exist by way of merger with the PCA. However, after its scattered congregations lost their "heart" in Philadelphia (with the destruction of both headquarters and Westminster Seminary), they celebrated their fiftieth anniversary a shadow of themselves. Consequently, many of the congregations began to join with PCA presbyteries throughout North America for most of their religious outreach. As a result, as widespread communication and improved transportation became common after the turn of the century, the OPC and the PCA reconsidered their earlier negotiations, merging in 2003 to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the PCA.

Presbyterian Reformed Church (Australia) (PRCA)

With the destruction of the three largest cities, the Presbyterian churches of Australia saw a large drop in membership. The conservative denominations, though, fared better since they largely drew from suburbia and smaller towns. With the influx of Americans in 1983 and 1984, the two most conservative denominations (both descendents of the RPCES of America) joined in 1985 to be known by the name of the larger of the two - the Presbyterian Reformed Church (Australia). With the formation of the kingdom of Hawaii, that nation's conservative Presbyterians largely elected to join the PRCA as well.

Others

More to come