A Divine Spark or Sinners All?

The question is: are we born with a divine spark of God within us as the Gnostics taught, or are we born sinners in need of God's redemption? To put it another way, do we simply need knowledge about who we really are, or do we need a Savior to give his life on a cross for us?

Presbyterian News Service carried an article about the Presbyterian Youth Triennium, Jesus sightings. In it Jerry Van Marter, of the Presbyterian News Service, quotes Rev. Cheryl Goodman-Morris, saying, as she gestured toward the communion table, “It’s not permanent, [hopefully speaking of sadness and loss of hope], — that’s why it’s so important to practice the faith in community, to see the spark of divinity in Christ and yourself.”

If this is an authentic quote it is pure gnosticism. On the other hand they also posted an article, [RNS] Heavy Metal guitarist plays a new tune , about Brian Welch, once known as "Head" of the "hard core band Korn."After years of decadence and extreme darkness, Welch was overwhelmed with the love of Jesus Christ. The article lists several events which led to his conversion including receiving a Bible.

The author of the news article, Michelle Rindels, of the Religion News Service ,writes. "he opened his Bible, read a verse in Ezekiel that said “the soul who sins is the one who will die,” and immediately flushed all his meth down the toilet." This is transformation because of Christ's gift of salvation. It is not gnosticism.

Any righteousness we bring to God the Father can only belong to Jesus Christ and is not some god spark within us. Calvin writes of this in his chapter on the Lord's Supper in his Institutes of the Christian Religion.

"This is the wondrous exchange made by his boundless goodness. Having become with us the Son of Man, he has made us with himself sons of God. By his own descent to the earth he has prepared our ascent to heaven. Having received our mortality, he has bestowed on us his immortality. Having undertaken our weakness, he has made us strong in his strength. Having submitted to our poverty, he has transferred to us his riches. Having taken upon himself the burden of unrighteousness with which we were oppressed, he has clothed us with his righteousness."