The Heritage Anglican Network: Historic Anglicanism and the Forgiveness of Sin

By Robin G. Jordan

The following articles on absolution, attrition, confession, contrition, and penance were taken from A Protestant Dictionary. A Protestant Dictionary was published in 1904 and contains articles on the history, doctrine, and practices of the Christian Church. The object was to provide a handy work on the Romish controversy for Protestants. A Protestant Dictionary was produced under the auspices of the Protestant Reformation Society and gave special treatment to questions concerning the Book of Common Prayer. Many of these questions were treated from the legal as well as the theological standpoint and contain many details that at that time would have been of particular interest to Evangelical members of the Church of England. A Protestant Dictionary is a useful reference even today because it clearly documents the position of the reformed Church of England and historic Anglicanism on a number of key issues. I urge readers to take the time to read and digest these articles and to compare what is identified as the doctrine of historic Anglicanism in these articles with what is taught in their own church. I believe that they show how far the Anglican Church in Canada and the United States has fallen away from that doctrine. They also point to the weaknesses of the theology that has come to replace that doctrine in a number of churches.

Among the problems that have beset The Episcopal Church is the deep erosion of the biblical authority on a wide range of issues, the noticeable absence of clear-cut doctrine on these issues, and the general lack of faithfulness to the Bible and the Protestant Reformation in matters of doctrine and practice. In order to charge an Episcopal bishop with teaching doctrine contrary to the teaching of the Church the bishops of the Episcopal Church must first be polled to determine if they regard the particular doctrine in question as contrary to what the Church teaches. The likelihood that the bishop accused of teaching doctrine contrary to Church teaching will be charged and tried is very slim. The doctrine of The Episcopal Church is essential the doctrine of whoever are her bishops at a particular time.

Both the Anglican Church in North America and the Anglican Mission in the Americas manifest similar doctrinal fuzziness to The Episcopal Church. We see different churches taking different positions on essential doctrinal matters. A number of these positions are at odds with the doctrine of the Thirty-Nine Articles, the 1662 Book of Common Prayer, and the 1661 Ordinal, the recognized doctrinal standard of historic Anglicanism. They raise questions regarding these churches’ understanding of the gospel, the place of the sacraments in the spiritual life of the Christian, and other matters that have a bearing upon salvation.

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A Protestant Dictionary articles:
Absolution
Attrition
Confession, Auricular
Contrition
Penance