Unity: Are Presbyterian & Reformed Churches Christian?

"In remembrance of Me"

A man we simply called the “General”, a calmly reassured man with broad shoulders, a full beard, and the knowing look of an ancient burning bush in his eyes held aloft a large, thick, well-worn Bible and plainly spoke, “This is not the Word of God.” I was never quite sure those words were for the dramatic effect they had, as he went on to explain how Jesus is the Word and, while certainly precious Scripture, his black-bound behemoth of a book was so much paper, ink, and animal skin that would one-day pass away. And, while we rightly defend the Bible as God’s written revelation and more than mere symbol and image, we ought never to view it as too holy a thing to touch. The Eastern Orthodox poured over what is to be meant by an icon of worship, even reversing the course of their confessing once or twice, but I think we’d all agree that Jesus as Word is gloriously beyond the measure of Scripture as Word.

But I told that to brace the impact of questioning if P&R’s are  Christian.  I’m not even very qualified to make all but the most rudimentary and flawed assessment of someone’s Christian status, let alone assail denominational confession of Christian faith. Still, I know, as John records in 13:35 of his Gospel, that Jesus says, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (ESV), to the laying down of one’s own life in the cause.  And it seems a key focus of Jesus’ prayer in the Garden, “that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may [continually] know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me” (NASB, 17:22b-23).