At its recent meeting, the General Assembly Council
issued a statement effectively affirming a Presbyterian
minister’s denial, at a Presbyterian conference, of the
Biblical teaching that reconciliation to God is made possible
only by the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
Meanwhile, the Office of the General Assembly is distributing
overtures that will be considered by the 213th General
Assembly when it meets in Louisville in June. Among them is an
offering from Sierra Blanca Presbytery, which either was sent
joshingly, with tongue firmly in cheek, or, if serious,
provides an ironic commentary on the state of official
theological reflection in the Presbyterian Church (USA).
'Our salvation'
The council’s statement was intended to address the
controversy caused by the Rev. Dirk Ficca, a Presbyterian
minister and a keynote speaker at the Presbyterian Peacemaking
Conference last summer. There he implicitly urged abandoning
Jesus’ teaching, “I am the way and the truth and the
life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John
14:6) and replacing it with the belief that all get to God by
whatever methods they choose.
The Biblical teaching that Ficca denied has been affirmed by
the Church for two millennia. Within the Reformed tradition,
it has been crystallized in the slogan “Christ alone.”
The alternative presented by Ficca is known as religious
pluralism, the belief that all religious beliefs are equally
valid.
In upholding the legitimacy of Ficca’s remarks, the
council said that they themselves were “committed to the
Lordship of Jesus Christ and
our salvation through
Christ” (emphasis added). Conspicuously absent was the
historic Christian doctrine that Jesus Christ is Lord of all
and the sole path of salvation for all people.
The council concluded, “We affirm the propriety of open
dialogue at GAC-sponsored conferences to explore emerging
perspectives and we urge speakers to further explore what our
constitution may say on their topic to educate the
participants about historical Presbyterian/Reformed doctrine.”
A defense against fiction
While denominational staff and elected leadership vigorously
defend the right of a Presbyterian minister to deny basic
Christian doctrine at a Presbyterian conference, Sierra Blanca
has issued a call to man the barricades against an onslaught
of fictional books written by non-Presbyterians.
Overture 01-25 asks the assembly to “communicate
to pastors and sessions throughout our church that the
currently popular
Left Behind series of books and the
movie based upon this series of books is based upon an
interpretation of the Bible (specifically the book of
Revelation) which is not in accord with our Reformed
understanding of Covenant Theology.”
It further asks the assembly to “instruct the appropriate
agencies of the General Assembly to provide assistance and
resources to congregations where dispensationalism is causing
confusion and dissension to the Reformed faith.”
'Whatever'
The juxtaposition of the overture and the council statement
rewards exploration.
If Ficca and the elected and staff leadership now supporting
his views are to be believed, an adequate replacement for “Christ
alone” would be “Whatever” since, in their
opinion, Jesus is just one of many valid paths to God.
Needless to say, this aggressive denial of Scripture is, to
use Sierra Blanca’s language, “not in accord with
our Reformed understanding.” And it has indeed caused “confusion
and dissension to the Reformed faith” within our
congregations.
Yet, concerning this threat from within, Sierra Blanca remains
silent.
Perhaps Sierra Blanca merely was following a precedent set by
the 2000 General Assembly, which overwhelmingly denied the
existence of any substantive theological differences within
the PCUSA.
In rejecting an overture from Beaver-Butler Presbytery, which
recognized eight areas in which evangelicals and liberals are
unable to find common ground, one commissioner declared, “We
do not disagree over significant issues.”
“Significant issues,” according to Beaver-Butler,
include: Biblical authority and interpretation, the atonement,
sanctification and salvation. The commissioner’s opinion
carried the day, as the assembly voted 453-71 to remain in
theological denial.
The 2000 assembly simply may have been following the lead of
the 1996 assembly, which rejected a request to identify the “essential
tenets” of the Reformed faith. What makes that refusal so
puzzling is that PCUSA ordination vows specifically ask
ministers and elders if they “sincerely receive and adopt
the essential tenets of the Reformed faith …”
An affirmative response is required for ordination. Yet, in
answering “Yes,” our officers are agreeing with that
which does not exist, since the tenets officially remain
undefined. Requiring officers to agree with a statement that
no one is willing to make could cause “confusion and
dissension to the Reformed faith.”
On the issue of essential tenets, which would appear
essential to the ability of pastors and sessions to
distinguish between dispensationalism and “our Reformed
understanding of covenant theology,” Sierra Blanca
remains silent.
ReImagining theology
Perhaps what is needed is to have denominational staffers with
theological expertise respond when theological issues threaten
to cause confusion and dissension among the faithful.
Perhaps, but the last time that was tried, the staffers
nearly had their heads handed to them. When Joe Small and John
Burgess of the Office of Theology and Worship composed a brief
critique of the 1993 ReImagining conference, reaction was
swift and furious.
Small and Burgess were publicly lambasted by many, including
their supervisor, for daring to disagree with statements made
by non-Presbyterians at a non-Presbyterian event, this despite
the fact that the conference was underwritten by a
Presbyterian grant and attended by numerous high-ranking
denominational staff members.
A pattern
A pattern is emerging.
A dispensational understanding of Christian theology is more
conservative than the Reformed theology articulated in the
PCUSA’s
Book of Confessions. Ficca’s
pluralism is far more liberal. Dispensationalism is attacked.
Ficca is defended.
Beaver-Butler courageously identified areas in which beliefs
and practices promoted by the PCUSA have departed from the
Reformed understanding of Christian faith. Its request to
recognize those distinctions was denied. Ficca was invited to
keynote a denominational conference.
Even some principled liberals managed to acknowledge that
aspects of the ReImagining conference went beyond the bounds
of Christian faith and practice. Yet, when denominational
theologians named those areas, they were pilloried – and
the rights of Presbyterians to plan and attend similar events
still are being aggressively defended. Now, Sierra Blanca
Presbytery wants denominational theologians to critique a
fairly recent, conservative theological movement that may lie
behind a popular series of novels.
Left behind
The pattern that emerges from these examples, to which many
others could be added, is that Presbyterian leadership seems
eager to pander to deviations from Reformed theology that veer
to the left of our Reformed theological center, while being
highly critical of any perceived theological agenda that they
identify as drifting toward the right.
As long as this pattern continues, other equally unhealthy
patterns of division and decline will continue to plague the
PCUSA. In the words of the psalmist, “The sorrows of
those will increase who run after other gods” (Psalm
16:4). In the language of today, if our ministers, staff and
elected leaders continue to chase “emerging perspectives”
while insisting that Reformed theology is merely “historical,”
they will be left behind.