Protestants believe in progressive revelation.
Then God reveals... –
Other doctrines which clearly developed were the afterlife,
- the Holy Spirit,
- the equality of Jews and Gentiles,
- bodily resurrection,
- Christ’s sacrifice as a development of the sacrifice of lambs, etc.
No doctrine emerges in the Bible complete with no further need of development.
Objection
Granted, some doctrines have developed. But Catholics go beyond the Bible when they develop doctrines, such as Mary and purgatory. There is no biblical check on the development, so that it can go off into false teaching and the traditions of men.
Reply to Objection
There is more evidence for acceptance of the doctrine of purgatory in the Church fathers than for original sin (accepted by all Christians).
One cannot have it both ways. If purgatory is unacceptable because it developed “late,” then original sin must be rejected with it.
Catholics can give plenty of biblical evidences of purgatory. At the time the Marian doctrines were developing, so were things like the canon of Scripture and Christology and the Trinity. If those things could develop many centuries after Christ, why is it objectionable for the Marian doctrines or eucharistic theology to also do so? The Church decided what was a true development and what wasn’t.
One simply needs to become familiar with Catholic biblical apologetic arguments. The idea of doctrinal development is a key, in any case, for understanding why the Catholic Church often appears on the surface as fundamentally different than the early Church.
Thoughtful Protestants owe it to themselves and intellectual honesty to ponder this indispensable notion before lashing out at the allegedly “unbiblical excesses” of Catholicism.
Development of Doctrine: A Corruption of Biblical Teaching?