While living as committed Christians and followers of Jesus
Christ, Presbyterians hold some beliefs that are different from what other
Christians believe. A while back, the Presbyterians Today magazine
cited eight such belief differences in an article by Presbyterian pastor James
Ayers.
Where do you stand on each of these eight topics?
1.) Good works or grace? Conventional
wisdom says that good people go to heaven and bad people go to hell. Are
you good enough for heaven? Are you sufficiently righteous to go to
heaven when you die? Presbyterians have always insisted that, as we are
all sinners at birth, no one is ever good enough on their own to deserve
salvation. We are saved only by God's grace. Despite our failures
in life, God already has decided to save us as evidenced through the
incarnation, death and resurrection of Jesus.
2.) Reincarnation or eternal life? Some
Eastern religions say that after we die, we are reborn as another person or as
an animal. They believe that the world is an endless cycle of death and
re-birth. Therefore that one continually gets "another chance"
until we finally get it right. Presbyterians believe that Scripture does not
teach reincarnation. Instead, it points us toward eternal life in the
presence of God. Think about it ---- isn't belief in reincarnation just a
severe form of believing in righteousness by one's works, as one lives over and
over until we have attained a certain level of goodness?
3.) Fate or predestination. Some believe
that every event may be caused by previous events. If so, they say, it is an
illusion to suppose that your decisions actually change things in your
life. If you do a good deed, that is what you were fated to do. If
you do something evil, that is just the outworking of your predetermined
fate. This is different from the Presbyterian doctrine of predestination,
which says God chose us before the world was formed, but we are predestined to
be free to make the choices made in our lives. We make many choices every
day. Predestination teaches us that God has given us a new and big freedom ----
the freedom to fulfill our own destiny as we understand it.
4.) Alter or table? An alter is a place
where a sacrifice is offered, and it is often viewed with special
reverence. In the traditional Roman Catholic understanding the priest
during Mass re-offers Christ on the alter as a sacrifice to God.
Presbyterians believe the sacrifice of Christ has already been offered once and
for all. The sacrifice needs no repetition, and the action of the priest
cannot make it occur again. Therefore, Presbyterians see the Lord's
supper as taking place at a table rather than at an alter. Although many
communion tables are rather ornate, the table itself holds no particular
significance or holiness for Presbyterians.
5.) Purgatory, heaven, hell. Where do
people go when they die? Many people would say "heaven or
hell." Yet in the Middle Ages people thought that if heaven is where
the saints stand in the holy presence of God, and hell is where the wicked get
sent, what about those people who have not had a chance to have all their sins
forgiven? Their lives would still be impure when they die, so how can
they exist in heaven, alongside the holiness of God? Thus, the doctrine
of purgatory was created ---- a place where any sins not forgiven since
the last confession with a priest, would be purged. Presbyterians believe
God will indeed redeem us and cleanse us from all our sins, and we will
be readied for heaven, without needing to postulate a third possible place to
go when we die.
6.) Ranking sins. In Roman Catholic
thinking, when you die you are carrying the guilt of all the sins you have
committed since your last confession. If your sins are venial (relatively
slight), you now work them off in purgatory. A mortal sin, in contrast,
cannot be resolved in purgatory. An unconfessed mortal sin means you are damned
to hell. Presbyterians do not believe that sins can be graded this
way. Sin is sin. Forgiveness is God's free gift in Christ.
Confession and assurance of pardon by a priest, are not what enable God to
forgive us, Rather, direct confession to God in confessing our sins, is
what enables us to recognize or feel or experience that we are forgiven.
7.) To whom do we pray? When you have
problems, you may ask your friends to pray for you. But why restrict
yourself to present-day friends? Why not also ask Radiant Christians from
previous centuries to offer up their intercessions on your behalf?
This is perhaps the most positive way to think of praying to the saints.
Yet there is a problem here. Asking Mary (the mother of Jesus) or Saint
Joan to pray for you becomes praying to Mary or Saint Joan.
But praying is an act of worship and devotion, and this
should be offered only to God, in the Presbyterian view.
8.) Authority figures. Where is the
authority of the church based? Our differing understandings of
appropriate church governance are perhaps the greatest source of disagreement
among Christians. We have different ways of ordering our lives together
as communities of faith. Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Methodist and
Episcopal churches believe that temporal authority is carried in the office of
the bishop. The doctrine of the "historic succession of
bishops" means that bishops receive their authority from previous bishops,
all of whom received their authority from still earlier bishops.
Catholics and some Anglicans trace this authority back to the apostles
themselves. Presbyterians believe church authority is not carried in
individuals this way. Instead, church leaders can declare the will of God
only on the authority of Scripture. However, Presbyterians are on record
that their way is not THE way, but simply the way that works best for them.
Now that you have taken the test, how
"Presbyterian" do you think you are?
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These thoughts are brought to you by CPC's Adult
Spiritual Development Team, hoping to encourage you to pursue some personal
spiritual growth this summer at CPC.
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