What are the basic beliefs of the Presbyterian Church? What makes them different from other Christian denominations? Do Presbyteries believe the Pope is an antichrist (something to do with being a false prophet)?
To my understanding, the primary difference between the Presbyterian Church and other mainline Protestant Churches, e.g. the United Methodist Church, the Disciples of Christ, the American (as opposed to Southern) Baptist Church, and the various varieties of Lutherans, is the system of church government. The Presbyterians have an essentially federal system in which each congregation has a fair amount of autonomy and sends clerical any lay representatives to regional church assemblies which in turn send elected clerical and lay representatives to multi-state assemblies which in turn send elected representatives to a national assembly. The function of the national assembly, the General Assembly now meeting in Denver, Colorado, is to set broad policy for the whole denomination. If the local congregation doesn’t like the national policy, it is free to pull out of the denomination with its church building, which generally is owned by the local congregation.
Each Presbyterial congregation hires its own minister. The ministers are not assigned from some central office as is the case with the Methodists.
The American Presbyterian Church has its historical roots in the Church of Scotland and the teachings of John Knox. There have been serious revisions of 16th century thought in its theology. Its American roots are in immigrants from Lowland Scotland and Northern England.
To my understanding the Pope is not regarded by Presbyterians as the Anti-Christ, although old John Knox may well have thought so.
Presbyterianism is more or less based on Calvinism. The name comes from their organizational system, a hierarchy of elders. “Presbyr” is the Greek word for “Elder.”
Their basic doctrines are pretty standard Fundamentalist Christianity. What they emphasize is the sovereignty of Christ and that the Bible as the living “Logos” is the only source of authority on Earth. Presbyterians reject the authority of Bishops and Popes, especially Popes, as they believe that no man can be the head of the church but Christ.
The difference for Presbyterians is really about authority and organization. A system of elders as opposed to an authoritative hierarchy of priests, bishops and popes.
There is some language to that effect in the Westminster Confession of faith, which forms part of the basis of Presbyterian doctrine:
You got a date on that puppy, Cynic, or anything that indicates that it has any more than historical significance. We could, you know, start beating Congregationalists about the head and shoulders for hanging witches, or Catholics for strangling Montezuma.
Here’s the American Revised Version, which is somewhat less imflammatory:
Sorry about the confusion. I just googled for the WCF without realizing there was an updated version.
I know that modern Presbyterians don’t think the Pope is the anti-Christ, I just thought it was an interesting piece of archaic language.
I spent a fair amount of my youth going to a Presbyterian church, and there was never any antagonism expressed toward any other religion. They even sponsored “field trips” to other Christian churches, as well as to a Jewish synagogue, in order to teach brotherhood and tolerance to all. I don’t know if that particular church was typical of all Presbyterian churches or not.
Prebyterians stress ecumenicism as part of their creed. They don’t speak in terms of right or wrong belief, it’s all a question of emphasis. They believe in a kinship with other Christians.
Hate to be too much of a lawyer on this but there are actually two rather opposed Presbyterian denominations in the USA. There is the very liberal PCUSA and the quite fundy PCA (Presbyterian Church in America). They are as night and day and I have known people in the PCA who were convinced that PCUSA people were definitely bound for the worst parts of HE-double-hockey-sticks. 
As I type this I have before me The Book of Confessions of the Presbyterian Church (USA), published in 1994. It contains the then current version of the Westminster Confession of Faith. According to the footnotes the version adopted by the a committee of the British parliament in 1647, just after the First English Civil War, and a year before the execution of Charles II, contained this language:
“There is no other Head of the Church, but the Lord Jesus Christ; nor can the Pope of Rome, in any sense be head thereof; but is, that Antichrist, that Man of Sin and Son of Perdition, that exalted himself, in the Church, against Christ, and all that is called God.”
You might get the idea that the Roundheads didn’t much like the Pope–note that this is before the Cromwellian schisim that resulted in what we know as Presbyterians.
In 1958 the Westminister Confession was adopted by the Presbyterian Church in the United States with this language substituted for the “the Pope is a poophead” language of the 1647 confession:
“The Lord Jesus Christ is the only head of the Church, and the claim of any man to be the vicar of Christ and the head of the Church, is without warrant in fact or in Scripture, even anti-Christian, a usurpation dishonoring to the Lord Jesus Christ”
Still pretty strong language but not pointed directly at the Pope (it being equally applicable to the pretensions of the Queen as the head of the Church of England) and without the Puritan name calling.
In 1967 the unified Presbyterian Church in this country adopted its first confession in some 300 years in the prosaically named Confession of 1967. I don’t see any Papal bad mouthing in the 1967 document. It represents the American church’s present statement of belief.
I essentually grew up in a Presbyterian church as my father was an ordained minister and mother would have been if she hadn’t been before her time. Anyhoo, “field trips” were a regular part of the summer bible class program. In the small towns I grew up in, summers had congreatations of Methodists, Lutherns and Presbyterians sharing services while the ministers were out on vacation. Seriously, for at least a couple of services in the summer, everyone would head over to another church and do their thing.
I always found it wierd how the Methodists would randomly should “amen” and “brother” and stuff like that during the service. Presbyterians had their services labeled as “stuffy”.
I do remember my father turning down an invitation to some roman catholic memorial service or something because back then communion could only be shared by Catholics. He didn’t think the pope was the anti-christ or anything, but certainly he took the view that a persons relationship was with god and you didn’t have to go through an intermediary priest.
Heehee, ChinaGuy, I’d forgotten about the “God’s Frozen People” aspect of the Presbyterian Church. Presbyterians definitely seem to favor reason over emotion (at least as compared to Baptists and Pentecostals).
One aspect that I particularly remember from the Presbyterian church is the emphasis on education. If you can read the Bible for yourself and think about it yourself, it will strengthen your relationship with God. (Don’t know if that’s doctrine or not, but it’s a sentiment that was emphasized in every Presbyterian church I’ve attended.) There are a number of colleges and universities founded by the Presbyterian church.
I was also raised in the Presbyterian church, and have no recollection of it being particularly fundamentalist.
In fact, we children were encouraged to think for ourselves - when we were given a Bible verse to memorize we were also supposed to figure out what it meant (yeah, out of context) for ourselves.
“Presbyr” is the Greek word for “Elder.” - Diogenes the Cynic
Actually, the Greek word for elder is (sorry, no fancy fonts) “Presbus” or “Presbuteros.” Note, of course, that the lower-case upsilon is often represented by the latin “y.” I think that the term “Presbyterian” comes from the Greek “presbuterion” which means “council of elders.” This term is used in the NT.
(I used the Liddell and Scott lexicon which is a standard one.)
Also - I spent a lot of time in a lot of different denominations growing up because my parents wanted to expose me to what was available, but when I was confirmed, I was confirmed Presbyterian. It’s about as Protestant as you can get, theologically speaking, but it seems that there is relatively considerable freedom of beliefs for Presbyterians. I am not a person of any particular faith right now, but I respect the Presbyterians.
I meant to write “presbys,” (or even you want to get really persnickety, [symbol]presbus[/symbol].
“Presbyr” was a typo.
Ok. Oh, so that’s how you do the font. I assumed that you were just some hack who found something online or something and posted it without knowing what you were talking about. There seems to be a lot of those around. Anyway, sorry for underestimating you.
Um, not just back then. Only Catholics who have completed their First Communion can receive the Eucharist, and Catholics not in good standing with the church aren’t supposed to. (Although really, they can’t enforce this at a Mass-how do they know if you’re Catholic or not.)
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When I was in high school (Catholic boys’ school), I occasionally attended Sunday Mass in the chapel. The priest celebrating (celebrant?) always invited anyone who wasn’t Catholic up to Communion. I always wondered how proper that was, but never cared enough to ask. I think it depends largely on the priest, the pastor, the archbishop and the community’s attitude, if you follow.
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I minored in Classical Languages in college. My Latin is better than my Greek, though.
[symbol]eirhnh soi[/symbol]
Well, they’re not supposed to do that! But cool priest-my best friend, who was a Presbyterian, used to come to Mass with me sometimes and she’d just go up and take communion.