The Sacrament of Penance, also known as the Sacrament of Reconciliation is a Sacrament most Protestant churches don’t know. The exception to this rule are some Lutheran churches. What is this Sacrament and where does it come from? According to the Catholic Encyclopedia:

Penance is a sacrament of the New Law instituted by Christ in which forgiveness of sins committed after baptism is granted through the priest’s absolution to those who with true sorrow confess their sins and promise to satisfy for the same. It is called a “sacrament” not simply a function or ceremony, because it is an outward sign instituted by Christ to impart grace to the soul. As an outward sign it comprises the actions of the penitent in presenting himself to the priest and accusing himself of his sins, and the actions of the priest in pronouncing absolution and imposing satisfaction. This whole procedure is usually called, from one of its parts, “confession”, and it is said to take place in the “tribunal of penance”, because it is a judicial process in which the penitent is at once the accuser, the person accused, and the witness, while the priest pronounces judgment and sentence. The grace conferred is deliverance from the guilt of sin and, in the case of mortal sin, from its eternal punishment; hence also reconciliation with God, justification. Finally, the confession is made not in the secrecy of the penitent’s heart nor to a layman as friend and advocate, nor to a representative of human authority, but to a duly ordained priest with requisite jurisdiction and with the “power of the keys”, i.e., the power to forgive sins which Christ granted to His Church.

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The Nicene Creed

The Nicene Creed is an ecumenical Christian statement of faith and accepted as such in the Catholic Church (and all churches in communion with this church) plus most branches of Protestantism (Reformed Churches, Presbyterian Churches, Methodist Church and of course the Lutheran and Anglican churches.

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In Europe, the Reformation and the following Iconoclasm are standard part of history taught in High School. At least everybody heard about it. A history teacher will typically explain the differences between Catholics and Protestants and the reasons why the Protestants were against having statues in churches and against veneration of other persons than God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. Since someone with a scientific degree in history explained all this to me, I never had any reason to question this. Until I read some documents myself, that didn’t seem to say the same. For example, all Reformers (Calvin, Luther and Zwingli) write about the Virgin Mary in quite a positive way and think very highly of her. She clearly has a special place.

To my great surprise, I learned that Luther believed in Mary the Mother of God (Theotokos), Mary’s Perpetual Virginity, The Immaculate Conception and even in the Assumption of the Virgin Mary (before it was a Catholic dogma). Luther was of the opinion that Mary should be honored because of this. In my modern eyes, this is a VERY Catholic point of view.

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When comparing the Bible in Protestant and Catholic churches both versions differ. Why is that? Why do Protestants have fewer books? Where does the Bible come from? Is Tradition a Catholic invention?

In this article I try to give a more verbose explanation than the one given in “A Journey into the Land of the Spirit” #1. There I explained that the origins of the differences lie in Church history. Basically, Protestants try to be ‘as original as possible’ by using books translated from Hebrew, originating in Palestine, whereas Catholics follow the Tradition, i.e. they use the books that were used by the Christians in the Roman Empire, based on the Greek Septuagint. I will conclude with my own point of view.

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