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You know.. For quite a while now I've been saying that Protestants are heretics which is all good and true, but never did it ever occur to me that because Protestants are heretics, they are not Christian at all.

As we all know, Protestants are deemed to be schismatics and heretics by the most Holy Roman Church. At the same time, we still have some people referring to them as Christians, when St. Robert Bellarmine describes why this is impossible:

"A manifest heretic is not a Christian, as is clearly taught by St. Cyprian, St. Athanasius, St. Augustine, St. Jerome and others."

By this very statement we can conclude that Protestants are not Christian and should not be referred to as such. It doesn't matter what Benedict XVI or any of the other post-Conciliar popes say Protestants and the schismatic "Orthodox" are not Christian.

I'm sure that this is not a big revelation to most people here, but I never realized that I was calling Protestants Christian this whole time. I just thought I'd share for all others who may not realize that they are calling Protestants that which they are not.

I don't think most Protestants are manifest heretics.  They are material heretics, but not formal ones.  Most really don't know any better.  Most Orthodox certainly are not heretics.  Once again, they are material schismatics, but not formal ones.  Luther was a formal heretic.  Most modern Lutherans are not.

A manifest heretic is anyone who openly professes heresy and remains obstinate in it. Most Protestants would not convert to the Catholic faith even if you told them that their beliefs were heretical and proved to them that they are. You need to understand that the vast majority of people are not good-willed and are influenced not by truth, but by emotionalism and convenience. Protestants are manifest heretics and are OPENLY in denial of the Roman Church. You cannot say that these people do not know what they are doing if they have the use of reason. In fact, their very identity is contingent upon their contradistinction with us, the true Church of Christ-- The Holy Roman Church. They ARE heretics. If they were not heretics, their identity would rest upon being in denial with us.

Btw, "material" heretic and formal heretic (as is commonly defined) are both myths. This is an argument that N.O. Catholics use to "refute" any doubt sedes have about whether or not the past few claimants to the papacy have been legitimate (and I'm not a sede btw, I'm just saying). A material heretic is not a heretic at all. Formal heretics are just heretics, plain and simple. Saying "formal" is just redundant, really.

While I don't recommend the Dimond Brothers for most things, they do have very good info among their many bad seeds. See here for refutation of material heretic: