By Jeff Gissing, jeffgissing.com
A couple of reflections on a post which is in response to an online discussion of the doctrine of the atonement. Note: the views of the person quotes reflect only her views just as my views reflect only my understanding of Scripture, the Confessions, and tradition.
1. This person equates being presbyterian with being a member of the PCUSA. This is false sort of misleading although a common way we in the PCUSA speak about ourselves. There are plenty of faithful presbyterian denominations beside the PCUSA. In fact, there has always been more than one presbyterian denomination (using that word is an anachronism, but it communicates) in the United States.
2. This person seems to equate being presbyterian with denying the existence of hell and of heaven. At the very least she denies a connection between profession of faith in this life and destiny in the life to come. This raises the question of what we mean when we profess to that Christ “descended in hell, the third day he rose again. He ascended into heaven…” Clearly, in the authors’ mind, a part of “being presbyterian” is the ability to deny claims held in common with the ecumenical church.
3. This person summarizes Jesus’ message as: be accountable, accept responsibility, turn the other cheek. This reminds me of my son’s elementary school motto: “Be respectful. Be responsible. be a Bulldog!” This is a false gospel–a vanilla message of personal morality, the gospel of niceness. Jesus’ message–in biblical terms is–“repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” That message is explained and unpacked by Paul and the other apostles.
4. This person limits Jesus’ work on the cross to a moral example. Jesus’ death was “the ultimate lesson in love in the face of persecution.” However, it was also more than that. If that’s all that Jesus death was, we remain dead in our trespasses and sins. The gospel includes an account of the atonement: “We deserved eternal death, but the Lord Jesus, because He loved us, died instead of us on the cross.”
Interestingly, this single post contains an almost complete theological vision. This persons’ theological vision is, at least as it is expressed here, a negation.
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Paul was indeed correct when he reminded that the world would revile, despise, hate the Cross for all it represents and all it implies, the dominion of God, as opposed to man, and the subjugation of the Will, Ego, Mind, Soul to God, not the other way around. Further, and more important the exclusivity of the work of Christ, and nature of substitutionary atonement.
If the person so quoted is indeed a product of a PCUSA congregation, or educational system, and by all accounts it seems it. Then it is a succinct reflection of all things PCUSA. The unconverted preaching to the unconvinced or disinterested. And sorry to say, not all dogs go to heaven and not everybody gets ponies and rainbows at the end.
The author (Jeff) could have just said that the poster evidently was a child who actually had no idea what they or their church really believed…..
This article seems rife with contradictions. Being Presbyterian is not the same as being Christian, the article sounds more like someone worshiping in a cult. We do not get to pick and choose what we believe from Scripture, whether as individuals or corporately as a denomination. The fact some disagree with Scriptural dictates only serves to confirm they were never saved or believed and a denomination cannot provide absolution for their rebelliousness.
Question 11 of the Heidelberg Catechism, which is important enough in the PC(USA) to recently warrant a new translation, affirms “eternal punishment of body and soul.” How is this not Presbyterian?