Heresy charge raises key issue: Is belief in Jesus' bodily resurrection an essential tenet? By John H. Adams The Layman Online Thursday, May 15, 2003 The filing of heresy charges against a Presbyterian minister, who is accused of denying the bodily resurrection of Jesus, has the overtones of a renewed church battle over what is an "essential" doctrine in the Presbyterian Church (USA). The complaint targets the Rev. W. Robert Martin III, who intended to move his membership from the Presbytery of Western North Carolina to the Presbytery of San Jose to accept a call to serve as minister of First Presbyterian Church in Palo Alto, Calif. But the complaint puts his transition in limbo; by church law, the Palo Alto church cannot install Martin until charges are resolved. After The Layman Online published a May 13 story about the disciplinary complaint, leaders of the Palo Alto congregation immediately jumped to Martin's defense. The thrust of their defense is 1) that a church trial on a heresy charge inconveniences Martin and 2) that Martin is not required to believe in or preach the bodily resurrection of Christ. It did not defend his denial of the bodily resurrection of Christ. Both the Rev. Nan Swanson, interim pastor at First Presbyterian Church in Palo Alto, and the congregation's session posted Web site responses to the accusation against Martin. And both suggested that the Presbyterian Church (USA) no longer requires its ministers to affirm the bodily resurrection of Jesus. "We regret that certain minority factions of the PCUSA continue to sow division through their ongoing campaign of litigation against Presbyterians who don't conform to certain 19th-century conceptions of orthodoxy," said Swanson. The session's statement cited the inconvenience: "Rev. Martin has already informed his current church, Warren Wilson Presbyterian in Swannanoa, N.C., of his pending departure, was approved by the Presbytery of San Jose to serve as First Presbyterian Palo Alto's new pastor, has sold his house in North Carolina and had intended to move to California with his wife and children to begin his new pastorate in Palo Alto in late June 2003. All of these plans must now be put on hold until the pending judicial accusations are dismissed or resolved." The session also alluded to a controversy that erupted in the 1920s in the northern denomination that eventually became part of the Presbyterian Church (USA). It said the accusations "concern Rev. Martin's views about the bodily resurrection of Jesus, an issue which the Presbyterian Church settled in favor of diversity of opinion in the 1920s." That statement was a simplified version of what happened in the northern denomination in the wake of an intense battle between liberals and fundamentalists. The battle began after the General Assemblies of 1910 and 1916 declared five "essential and necessary" doctrines – the inerrancy of Scripture, the virgin birth, the substitutionary atonement, the literal bodily resurrection and the factuality of the miracles worked by Jesus Christ. Financed by Rockefeller-family money, the liberals produced a counter-document known as the Auburn Affirmation, which opposed the five "essential and necessary" doctrines. The Auburn Affirmation was submitted to the General Assembly, but the General Assembly never adopted it. In 1926, the General Assembly approved a commission report that called for diversity in doctrinal issues, but the approval of that report did not amount to an authoritative interpretation. In 2000, Barbara Wheeler, one of the leaders of the movement to repeal the constitutional "fidelity/chastity" ordination standard, reintroduced the Auburn Affirmation into the debate over current church law. Wheeler is the president of Auburn Theological Seminary, a member of the Covenant Network board and a member of the PCUSA's Theological Task Force on Peace, Unity and Purity. In a speech that has had a continuing ripple effect, she told the Covenant Network the time was ripe for the minority (liberals) to take actions to thwart the efforts of today's evangelicals in the denomination. "This minority of Presbyterians now faces a difficult, even tragic, dilemma: whether to defy the policies openly, a step that could well lead to disciplinary charges and removal from the ministry; or to acknowledge the force of these policies as church law while working to change them and perhaps quietly subverting them, tactics that weigh heavily on the conscience because they require – at least for the time being – countenancing actions that are wrong and possibly also making statements that are untrue." While she later denied that she intended for liberals to "countenance actions that are wrong and possibly also making statements that are untrue," the Covenant Network has counseled elders and ministers to challenge church law against ordaining homosexuals by disputing key definitions. For instance, in the Covenant lexicon, "chastity" does not mean abstaining from sex. "On or about April 5, 2003, the accused did before many witnesses of the church deny that he believed in the bodily resurrection and ascension into Heaven of our Lord Jesus Christ as taught by Scripture and our Confessions," Paul Rolf Jensen said in his complaint against Martin. Jensen, a Presbyterian lawyer who lives in Reston, Va., said he based his complaint on reports from people who heard Martin deny the bodily resurrection of Jesus when he was addressing the Presbytery of San Jose. Jensen's complaint raises a major issue: Is it essential that a Presbyterian officer – minister, elder or deacon – believe that Christ rose bodily from the dead? Jensen cites Scripture – Luke 24:1-7, I Cor. 1-15 and Romans 10:8-11 – the Book of Order and The Book of Confessions in arguing that Martin broke his ordination vow by denying the bodily resurrection. Jensen's complaint also quotes extensively from the Confessions: This fundamental truth is echoed throughout every part of The Book of Confessions. It is found in the Nicene Creed ("On the third day he rose again in accordance with the Scriptures."); the Apostles' Creed ("the third day he rose again from the dead; he ascended into heaven..."); the Scots Confession ("We undoubtedly believe, since it was impossible that the sorrows of death should retain in bondage the Author of life, that our Lord Jesus crucified, dead, and buried, who descended into hell, did rise again for our justification..."); the Heidelberg Catechism (Q22: "What, then, must a Christian believe? A. All that is promised us in the gospel, a summary of which is taught us in the articles of the Apostles' Creed, our universally acknowledged confession of faith." and Q45: "What benefit do we receive from 'the resurrection' of Christ? A. First, by his resurrection he has overcome death that he might make us share in the righteousness which he has obtained for us through his death. Second, we too are now raised by his power to a new life. Third, the resurrection of Christ is a sure pledge to us of our blessed resurrection."); the Second Helvetic Confession (5.073 "Christ is Truly Risen from the Dead"); the Westminster Confession of Faith (6.046 "On the third day [the Lord Jesus] arose from the dead, with the same body in which he suffered, with which also he ascended into heaven..."); The Shorter Catechism (Q 28: "Wherein consisteth Christ's exaltation? A. Christ's exaltation consisteth in his rising again from the dead on the third day, in ascending up into heaven..."); The Larger Catechism (Q 51: "What was the estate of Christ's exaltation? A. The estate of Christ's exaltation comprehendeth his resurrection, ascension, sitting at the right hand of the Father, and his coming again to judge the world. Q. 52. How was Christ exalted in his resurrection? A. Christ was exalted in his resurrection, in that, not having seen corruption in death...and having the very same body in which he suffered, with the essential properties thereof...he rose again from the dead the third day by his own power; whereby he declared himself to be the Son of God..."); The Theological Declaration of Barmen (8.11 "Jesus Christ, as he is attested for us in Holy Scripture, it the one Word of God which we have to hear and which we have to trust and obey in life and in death.", and 8.18 "We reject false doctrine, as though the church were permitted to abandon the form of its message and order to its own pleasure or to changes in prevailing ideological and political convictions."); The Confession of 1967 (9.08 "God raised [the Lord Jesus] from the dead, vindicating him as Messiah and Lord."); and finally, in A Brief Statement of Faith (10.2 God raised this Jesus from the dead, vindicating his sinless life, breaking the power of sin and evil, delivering us from death to life eternal.). The Book of Order (G-14.0207) says ministers are required to affirm "essential" doctrines. One question every candidate for minister, elder or deacon must answer affirmatively is: "Do you sincerely receive and adopt the essential tenets of the Reformed faith as expressed in the confessions of our church as authentic and reliable expositions of what Scripture leads us to believe and do, and will you be instructed and led by those confessions as you lead the people of God?" The complaint against Martin may help clarify what that means. There is virtually no dispute in orthodox Christianity that the resurrection of Jesus was a bodily resurrection. But the last word from a PCUSA General Assembly (1997) was that there are no essentials. Yet that declaration does not rise to a constitutional level. It does not negate the vow all ministers must take to "receive and adopt" the essential tenets. The Martin case may give the Presbyterian courts the opportunity to declare unequivocally that Presbyterian officers must affirm – as Christians have done for 2,000 years – that Jesus rose bodily from the grave

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