Do non-Catholic Christians practice pennance?

Question

Pennance is a prayer or act of mercy that brings a person's will back into conformance with the will of God after the person has been forgiven of sin. it is a visible sign of an internal conversion of the heart.

If non-Catholic Christians practice pennance, who assigns the pennance?

Yes, pennance is VERY biblical. "But Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, "Behold, half of my possessions, Lord, I shall give to the poor, and if I have extorted anything from anyone I shall repay it four times over."
Luke 19: 8

Protestants do not know their Bible very well.

Answer 1

Anti-Catholics often base their attacks on the practice of doing penances to atone, make reparations, or for one's sins. However, they fail to realize that the atonement penances involve is temporal rather than eternal. Catholics are not trying to pay off the eternal debt of their sins by doing penance. Christ paid all that off in one fell swoop almost two thousand years ago. No more payment of the eternal debt of our sins is needed. In fact, no more payment of the eternal debt of our sins is . And though it would surprise many Protestants to learn it, this precise point was vigorously and vociferously stressed by the Medieval Catholics that Protestants (wrongly) credit with coming up with the whole system of penances.

These Christians recognized the fact that Christ's merits on the cross were superabundant, that is, more than enough to cover the debt of our sins. This fact is often ignored and sometimes even denied in Protestant preaching, as when some Protestants, especially Calvinists, claim that Christ's sufferings were sufficient but not more than sufficient to cover the sins of the elect, but the Medieval Christians understood it.

this teaching is then a puzzlement for Protestants who deny the need for penances. "If Christ's sufferings were more than sufficient," they ask, "why then should we do penances?"

Even if a person is in a state of forgiveness they may have impaired fellowship with God and need to correct this. Acts of sorrow over one's sins (penances) are a key way in which this is done.

When God forgave David for his sin concerning Uriah, he still left David the temporal punishment of having his infant son die and having the sword pass through his house (2 Sam. 12:13ff). Similarly, when Moses struck the rock a second time God forgave him (for Moses was obviously one of the saved, as his appearance on the Mount of Transfiguration illustrates), though he still suffered the temporal penalty of not being allowed to go into the promised land (Num. 20:12). And finally, even physical death itself is a temporal penalty that is our due because of original sin, and it is a penalty which remains even when our sins are forgiven by Christ. Forgiven Christians still die.

'My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor lose courage when you are punished by him. For the Lord disciplines him whom he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.'

Penance is one way in which we willingly embrace this discipline in order to learn from it. And it is entirely biblical.

Virtually nobody who has read the Old Testament will deny that the ancient Jews did acts of penance—external deeds of sorrow and reparation for sins—as part of their spiritual discipline.

Thus before the time of Christ we read:

"Then the Israelites, all the people, went up to Bethel, and there they sat weeping before Yahweh. They fasted that day until evening and presented burnt offerings and fellowship offerings to Yahweh.' (Judges 20:26)

"When Ahab heard these words, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and fasted. He lay in sackcloth and went around meekly. Then the word of Yahweh came to Elijah the Tishbite: 'Have you noticed how Ahab has humbled himself before me? Because he has humbled himself, I will not bring this disaster in his day, but I will bring it on his house in the days of his son'" (1 Kings 21:27-29)

"Alarmed, Jehoshaphat resolved to inquire of Yahweh, and he proclaimed a fast for all Judah. The people of Judah came together to seek help from Yahweh; indeed, they came from every town in Judah to seek him" (2 Chronicles 20:3-4)

"There, by the Ahava Canal, I proclaimed a fast, so that we might humble ourselves before our God and ask him for a safe journey for us and our children, with all our possessions. I was ashamed to ask the king for soldiers and horsemen to protect us from enemies on the road, because we had told the king, 'The gracious hand of our God is on everyone who looks to him, but his great anger is against all who forsake him.' So we fasted and petitioned our God about this, and he answered our prayer" (Ezra 8:21-23).

So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and petition, in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes" (Daniel 9:3).

"Put on sackcloth, O priests, and mourn; wail, you who minister before the altar. Come, spend the night in sackcloth, you who minister before my God; for the grain offerings and drink offerings are withheld from the house of your God. Declare a holy fast; call a sacred assembly. Summon the elders and all who live in the land to the house of Yahweh your God, and cry out to Yahweh" (Joel 1:13-14)

"'Even now,' declares Yahweh, 'return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.' . . . Blow the trumpet in Zion, declare a holy fast, call a sacred assembly" (Joel 2:12, 15).

the idea of fasting, like other penances, is clearly endorsed in the New Testament: "When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that it will not be obvious to men that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you" (Matthew 6:16-18).

Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn, and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up" (James 4:8-10).

"And I will give power to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth" (Revelation 11:3).

Answer 2

once again you have "assumed"that i dont know my bible very well.or at least you have unwisely generalized.
with all your supossed knowledge,you still live in a state of spiritual infancy.
were supossed to be christian brothers working togather to help those on the outside,to help bring them to christ.not drive a seperation between us.
god bless ya!

Answer 3

Orthodox do
Many Protestants I know fast but they do that on their own.

Answer 4

Biblical basis for penance:

"And when Ahab heard those words, he rent his clothes, and put sackcloth upon his flesh, and fasted and lay in sackcloth, and went about dejectedly. And the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying, 'Have you seen how Ahab has humbled himself before me? Because he has humbled himself before me, I will not bring the evil in his days'" (1 Kgs. 21:27-29).

"[B]ecause your heart was penitent, and you humbled yourself before the Lord . . . and you have rent your clothes and wept before me, I also have heard you, says the Lord" (2Kgs. 22:19).

"Then I turned my face to the Lord God, seeking him by prayer and supplications with fasting and sackcloth and ashes" (Dan. 9:3).

"For it is for thy sake that I have borne reproach, that shame has covered my face. . . . For zeal for thy house has consumed me, and the insults of those who insult thee have fallen on me. When I humbled my soul with fasting, it became my reproach. When I made sackcloth my clothing, I became a byword to them" (Ps. 69:7-11).

"But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by men but by your Father who is in secret" (Matt. 6:17-18).

"I pommel my body and subdue it, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified" (1 Cor. 9:27).

"Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you men of double mind. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to dejection. Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you" (Jas. 4:8-10).

"And I will grant my two witnesses power to prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth" (Rev. 11:3).

Answer 5

There is no pennance in Christianity, it is not biblical, but a man made tradition set up by the Catholic church that puts a heavy burden on their people and deceives the people. I was forgiven for all my sins when I was born again. I do not have to work for God to forgive me. I thank Him for the forgiveness I already have.

Answer 6

they want everything to be in the Bible even though their version of the Bible has been maliciously edited by Martin Luther.

Answer 7

Non catholic Christians do not practice penance for this reason:

Matthew 6:7 KJV, Jesus speaking . . .
But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.

Coincidently, this verse has been changed in the catholic bible.

Answer 8

No, we don't practice penance.

"When we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." 1John1:9

Answer 9

Do most Catholics practice penance?
Of course we should but really how many abstain from meat on Fridays or do other penance today?

Answer 10

Penance is not something that can be imposed from outside one's self. It can only be something that is generated from within.

Answer 11

No. We do not have the benefit of a priest telling us it is okay if we do a couple of "hail Marys".

We work our own out with God through fear.