Tom do you have a preference when it comes to any particular denomination? Does your wife share the same belief as you? Were you raised in one particular denomination? , have you changed in anyway in your beliefs or pretty much held the same convictions since you became a believer?
You start a lot of thought provoking threads and get some controverial thoughts going have you always done that or is that something you just started doing?
My personality is just that way. My brain tends to run at 100% all the time, so interesting questions just pop into my head. I also enjoy creating threads and reading people's responses, so there you go.
Honestly, my core beliefs have not changed much. As my knowledge and understanding of my religion increases, so does my faith and trust in its core principles. On cultural and political issues with respect to religion, my beliefs have swung greatly. I am very independent-minded, but I was raised in a very conservative household (odd considering no one else in my family tree seems to be conservative... don't know that story...). In this respect, I pride myself very much on putting Jesus's teaching of loving God and loving others above all else, a teaching that governs every other belief I hold...
I have never known anything other than Presbyterian. And honestly, I don't see how it is much different from other denominations. I find myself so at home in non-denominational environments... It's bare-bones Calvinism and emphasizes the simplicity of faith over needless complexity. In my opinion, it does not fall very far from the tree of the original Reformation. What makes the denomination distinct is the use of "elders" to govern the church, but unlike certain church groups, each church seems to maintain their own self of individualism. Elders are appointed within the members themselves... people you know, see, and talk to every day. It honestly feels very much like a democratic church. The Greek word
presbuteros means "elder". Presbyterian leaders (some, nowadays, not all) prescribe to the
Westminster Confession of Faith, which includes the belief in
sola scripture "by scripture alone" and
sola fide "by faith alone". You can pretty much sum up the denomination with the Apostle's Creed...
