The following ideas represent the future voice of the PC(USA). They also describe how we have understood ourselves for more than fifty years. They are diametrically different from how we saw ourselves before the 1920’s. Read them carefully. They are the words of your future. The occasion for these words is the published judgment of the highest church court applying a new rule just approved to sanction homosexuality. That court refused to allow any argument based on the Bible.
So, what does all this mean for the PCUSA and the larger church? As I have pondered upon these decisions this week, my answer has come in the form of another essential question: “What is the range of interpretations of Scripture and tradition that is possible within the body of Christ?”
After all, reaching back to the start of the Reformation that ended the Roman Catholic hegemony over Biblical interpretation, the question has never been whether one interpretation of Scripture is true and the other false. Whenever the church has engaged in that struggle everyone has lost.
If the highest court, in these rulings, is anticipating choosing a right and wrong between interpretations, it seems to me that we are in terrible trouble. The very fact that both these decisions prompted multiple jurors to weigh in with varied explanations of concurrence and dissent indicate that we have within the PCUSA different interpretations and points of view. We are not of one mind on this. It simply is the nature of the church to be of one mind only in Christ Jesus. Beyond our faith in Christ our many minds on many things enrich our lives together. http://www.mlp.org/article.php/AndersonLargesDecisions
If the highest court, in these rulings, is anticipating choosing a right and wrong between interpretations, it seems to me that we are in terrible trouble. The very fact that both these decisions prompted multiple jurors to weigh in with varied explanations of concurrence and dissent indicate that we have within the PCUSA different interpretations and points of view. We are not of one mind on this. It simply is the nature of the church to be of one mind only in Christ Jesus. Beyond our faith in Christ our many minds on many things enrich our lives together. http://www.mlp.org/article.php/AndersonLargesDecisions
Some, but not all of us, search the Bible to discover the truth. We believe that the truth is singular and that the truth can be found. We believe the Holy Spirit of God will speak to us through the whole counsel of His Word, the Bible. Naturally, we cannot know all the facts that can be known. That is too much for any mind to hold. Yet,what is made clear to us in the Bible is the truth and the truth is singular. We read in I John that “God is Love” – this is the truth. The statement “God is not Love” would be false. In the full context of the Bible we know that by this we mean that God is good and not evil. If I would choose to interpret this truth by asserting that “love is God” then the Church ought to say to me, “You are wrong.” The Church stands as the tester of false and true interpretations of the truth revealed in Holy Scripture. In the Presbyterian Church (USA) it is in our confessions we ascribe the best interpretations what the Scriptures teach regard right doctrine and faithful morality. In them we read that Scripture itself interprets itself. Since the source of all Scripture is the expression of the single Mind of God, we believe that all of Scriptures corresponds to all parts of Scripture.
What if the very institution what is charged with declaring what is true and what is false is itself false?
How can a Church be united when each person in it delivers a different Gospel? The last sentence of the words quoted above say it all. “Our many minds on many things enrich our lives together.” She lifts up our Union in Christ which is a fundamental Reformed doctrine. But her application of that doctrine betrays a confusion that is so blatant it hardly needs explanation. To the Corinthian Church Paul writes (under Divine inspiration) “God is not the God of confusion.” We read in Acts 19:32 (RSV)
32 Now some cried one thing, some another; for the assembly was in confusion, and most of them did not know why they had come together.
This, I fear, is the future of the Presbyterian Church (USA) and has been its recent past.
4 comments:
As a high school and college student in the late 60's and early 70's I realized that most Presbyterian ministers I knew (not many) didn't believe in the resurrection of Jesus, or his deity, or the inspiration of the scriptures. The Presbyterian churches I knew did not care much for theology or for the gospel of salvation from our sins through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. When I became orthodox and evangelical at the age of 18 I had to decide whether to stay in the church or not. Oddly most of the grace of God in my life had worked through a tiny segment of people who knew the gospel and shared it with me. God told me to stay where he had put me. It has often been a difficult road. But the terms of my placement in this church have not changed. I never expected the Presbyterian church to make decisions or policies based on the scriptures or the faith handed down from the apostles.
I think your story repeats itself with many of us. I never know where God plants me except that where ever I am that is where God's providence allows me to be. God even allows me to sin. God also provides a way to escape when I do. If God called me into the PC(USA) then surely God can call me out of it. Just as when God permissively places me in sin, He calls me to repent of that sin.
As I am sure you can tell, I am not the most discerning person regarding what is and what is not God's will. I do trust the Confessions when they teach that the Law of God is the will of God.
I find it increasingly difficult to discern that call - to stay within the denomination or to go. I know the longings of my spirit - like unto wanting a healthy marriage but knowing that the spouse is a chronically adulterous person - am I Hosea or do I cut and run? I came to faith outside of the PC(USA) but had been raised and now continue to minister within it, choosing to see it as much as a mission field as an expression of the Church of Jesus Christ. I increasingly find myself assuming that scripture will play no role in the determination of right and wrong but only obedience to the PJC's interpretation of the Book of Order. Lord have mercy. I wait for His calling out but will joyfully serve within as I await that call...
Thanks, Gary.
Wow! I can feel the passion behind your words. I have approached my task very much like you have. The Mission Field model is a noble vision. I think, however, the mission worker is often changed by the lost as much as he or she seek to bring them to repentance and grace. I know that I am corrupted by PC(USA). I have spent much effort just trying to restore my soul. Naturally, we know that only God can restore a soiled soul and only in His times using his providential ways.
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