Alex Metherell Paying indulgences to Rome The Layman Online Monday, December 8, 2003 Commentary by Alex Metherell Elder St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church Newport Beach, Calif. Paying the General Assembly per-capita taxes to Louisville is no different than the paying of indulgences to Rome. They are both intended to buy you out of purgatory. And you know what happened when people stopped paying for indulgences – all hell broke loose with the wrath of the central church government coming down on those advocating "redirecting" those funds, as Luther did. A few weeks ago, I saw the excellent movie Luther with two Presbyterian friends. As we sat there watching it, I was struck by the parallels between the Roman Catholic Church of the 1500s and the PCUSA today. There is little difference between the lifestyles and perversions going on in Rome in the 1500s and that which is going on in Louisville today. Louisville, however, is worse. Rome's perversion was mostly moral, whereas ours are moral, theological and Christological perversions. When it comes to morality, theology or the authority of Scripture and the person of Jesus Christ, just about anything is OK with Louisville. Just don't mess with their money – or should I say, our money. Well, it looks like they are about to burn Parker Williamson at the stake. This is for having the audacity to report on the recommendation made by his Board of Directors that we all prayerfully consider what our money is being used for. And while this is going on, all the PFR people in the mushy middle – who are "neither hot nor cold" and who wring their hands and compromise on everything – will cower behind pathetic explanations as to why they continue to grovel at the feet of His Holiness the Stated Clerk. I am not angry with Clifton Kirkpatrick, the Covenant Network, More Light people or any of the liberal left. They are all faithful to what they believe, deluded as that may be. I am angry with that vast majority of leaders who purport to be evangelical and who know the real Jesus Christ, but who continue to tolerate evil. The reason that the PCUSA is in the position it is in today is entirely due to them. They should heed the warning God gave to Ezekiel, in Ezekiel 3:16-21, where He told Ezekiel that he was appointed to be God's watchman over the house of Israel (read ordained officer in the PC(USA). Warning to Israel 16 At the end of seven days the word of the LORD came to me: 17 "Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; so hear the word I speak and give them warning from me. 18 When I say to a wicked man, 'You will surely die,' and you do not warn him or speak out to dissuade him from his evil ways in order to save his life, that wicked man will die for [1] his sin, and I will hold you accountable for his blood. 19 But if you do warn the wicked man and he does not turn from his wickedness or from his evil ways, he will die for his sin; but you will have saved yourself. 20 "Again, when a righteous man turns from his righteousness and does evil, and I put a stumbling block before him, he will die. Since you did not warn him, he will die for his sin. The righteous things he did will not be remembered, and I will hold you accountable for his blood. 21 But if you do warn the righteous man not to sin and he does not sin, he will surely live because he took warning, and you will have saved yourself." - Ezekiel 3:16-21 (NIV) The consequence of not heeding God's warning is to suffer the same penalty that the evil man will suffer who "will die for his sin, and I will hold you accountable for his blood" (v18 and repeated in v20.) God save us from those unfaithful ordained officers who know the truth and remain silent.

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