From Baptist Doctrine to Presbyterian Worship with a Belief System Analysis

Religion, and its many aspects, is where humans turn to for answers when they encounter aspects of and questions about their lives that are otherwise unexplainable. Yet religion takes on a decidedly individual role for different people and groups. Some people's beliefs may be in multiple gods, others in just one. Some people may believe in the concept of the soul, others… well, not so much. In my case, I was born and raised in a Christian home, so I shall look at religious beliefs as they pertain to my own upbringing, and also provide insight on my own religious history.

Initially, I followed the Baptist branch of the faith alongside my parents before membership at the church that we attended began to dry up, after which we moved to another church that followed Presbyterian doctrine, but was also closer to where we lived. We stayed involved with church activities throughout my childhood. I was even a member of the church youth group in high school and attended regularly youth sessions once a week, and was present every Sunday.

After I moved from Florida to Iowa, however, my church attendance only continued for so long before I fell out of practice, due in some ways to personal transportation issues and the schedule that my uncle follows (as he was my only transportation to church services). As I am unable to keep track of when my uncle is available, and since I tend to sleep in on weekends as well as because of the ever-changing sermon times at the church that I usually attend with my uncle, all of these factors have led to this drop in my church attendance.

However, I still have made it to church services with my parents, especially at Christmas, whenever I get a chance to see them. Ad since they are moving up to Iowa, I hope I can at least turn to them for access to church services when they do. Maybe in the future, when I am independent of transportation problems or decide to seek out church services close to where I live should I choose to, I can begin regular church attendance independent of my family. Moreover, with my future goal of personal independence, I hope that can happen before too long.

For now, however, I shall take a wait-and-see approach on any resumption of church attendance. It is the best I can do right now, as it is. Meanwhile, I shall provide insight into what I consider the answers to the big questions as to where life takes us, as will be described in a class I am taking which covers these subjects.

On the subject of death, the concept of heaven and hell is one of the central points to just about any Christian faith and connects to the concept of sin and forgiveness. Literally, sin is the act of not following religious doctrine regarding human ethics (that is, the Ten Commandments) and Christian doctrine states how naturally easy it is for humans to breach upon ethical practices and thus we are all prone to sin at one time or another. Therefore, God gives forgiveness for any committed sins to anyone who believes in the acts of the Holy Son, Jesus Christ - whose ultimate act of death on the cross is, by its nature, a direct symbol of such forgiveness.

In addition, that forgiveness leads directly into the concept of reincarnation, since God's forgiveness is what saves those who believe from the eternal damnation of hell, and paves the way to heaven. In other words, God "so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." (John 3:16, NIV) Additionally, the concept of the soul fits right into this concept, as the human body is short on time for its entire existence, but the soul is what lives on forever.

However, there is a cause and effect factor at play here - and some sins are very unforgivable, even by God's standards. Not only that, but if you fail to repent your sins you will suffer the consequences later. Recall that sin means eternal damnation, and you shall understand exactly what this means. Consider what the Book of the Revelation, which presents hell, literally, as a lake of fire, and presents God's list of true believers as the so-called Book of Life, states in this regard. According to these scriptures, the Devil and the Death Reaper are upon the Day of Judgment exiled straight to the lake of fire, along with anyone whom has no listing of their name within the pages of the Book of Life. No passing Go, no collecting two-hundred of anything other than the infinite millennia of eternal damnation that all of these unfortunate souls will regret forever.

Which would undoubtedly be terrible, to say the least. Therefore, it is obviously better to believe in God than to face your sin alone, knowing you cannot make up for it out of your own right. More importantly, salvation becomes within reach once you do confess. Therefore, it is in your interests to confess, because the alternative is much worse.

And so, although I have not regularly attended church services in who knows how long, I have touched on enough of my personal position on religion to highlight core beliefs in my faith, from the concept of the soul to the consequences of sin. I acknowledge, however, that everyone has their own religious beliefs and those may differ from mine. Rest assured, though, that I stand firm to my position. Believe me, I would not have it any other way.