Reformed
Church theological tract
is resource for debate in PCUSA
By
John H. Adams
The
Layman Online
Tuesday,
December 12, 2000
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The Office of Theology and Worship,
which usually steers clear of controversy in the Presbyterian
Church (USA), has imported a theological tract from the
Reformed Church in America to help the PCUSA resolve the
debate about whether Jesus Christ is the only path to God.
The debate has continued since June 2000 when a Presbyterian
minister, the Rev. Dirk Ficca, questioned whether Christ alone
is savior of the world. Speaking during a
denomination-sponsored Peace Conference, Ficca asked
rhetorically, "What's the big deal about Jesus?"
That set off a backlash across the denomination. Because the
planners of the Peacekeeping Conference failed to rein in
Ficca and the General Assembly Council ducked the issue at its
September meeting, several sessions have registered complaints
that could become legal cases in church courts.
Meanwhile, the Office of Theology and Worship remained
publicly silent on the debate until recently when Joseph
Small, coordinator of the office, posted on the denomination's
web site a declaration by the Reformed Church titled
"The
Crucified One is Lord." Small called the document "a
superb theological paper."
The RCA declaration, commissioned by that denomination's
governing body in 1996, is a classical expression of the
Lordship of Christ that is designed to address theological and
cultural pluralism. The RCA's Commission on Theology produced
the statement, using language that is fully accessible to lay
readers.
In his preface to the statement, Small said, "Recent
events within the Presbyterian Church (USA) have highlighted
one of the most important theological questions facing North
American Christians: How shall we confess Jesus Christ in a
religiously plural society?"
Some of the highlights of the statement include:
- "… God's unique, unrepeatable, and decisive
activity in Jesus Christ is the only sure hope for this
world."
- " … to say that Jesus is Lord is to attribute
to Jesus the same sovereign power and authority that we
attribute to God."
- " … there is an increasing tendency to view
religious issues merely as matters of personal preference.
Such an attitude renders the church's confession more
difficult for many to understand and to embrace."
- "… to say that Jesus is Lord is not merely to
affirm his deity; it is also to make the claim that every
human authority is finally subject to Jesus. Even though
the world may not acknowledge it yet, every governing
official, every religious leader, indeed every human claim
to authority must finally acknowledge the authority of
Christ."
- " … the churches of the Reformation have
consistently emphasized that Christ is both necessary and
entirely sufficient for salvation. The Reformed emphasis
on solus Christus ('Christ alone') reminds us that
there is no other mediator between God and humankind."
- "To confess that Jesus is Lord is not to give
sanction to human authority, but to subject it to a
penetrating critique that challenges any claim to
authority apart from or different from the authority of
the Christ who gave himself for the life of the world."
- "Throughout human history, authority and power
have usually been won by shedding the blood of others. But
Jesus is acclaimed as Lord precisely because he has shed
his own blood on behalf of the world. To say that Jesus is
Lord without recognizing this distinctive understanding of
gracious divine lordship is gravely to misunderstand the
Christian confession."
- "In one sense, the resistance of the dominant
culture to the confession 'Jesus is Lord' is as old as
Christian faith itself. The early Christian martyrs were
not put to death simply for believing in Jesus; they were
put to death because they would not take part in the
imperial cult of Rome. That is, they were not willing to
regard their own religious beliefs and practices as part
of an eclectic smorgasbord in the way most religions did."
- "We may be in a situation today that is closer to
that of the New Testament church than ever before. As we
are freed from the false security of being an established
religion and forced to compete in a wide-open marketplace
of ideas and perspectives, the Holy Spirit may be opening
an opportunity for renewal and transformation in the
church, leading us into a fresh and deeper witness to the
world …"
- "In our time it is becoming increasingly popular
to adopt a general approval of all religions, a view that
assumes that all religions are expressions of the same
basic human quest for God. Yet such a perspective, as
gracious and magnanimous as it may appear, is both highly
questionable on its own grounds and incompatible with the
central affirmations of Christian faith."
- "When Jesus declared that the Reign of God was at
hand, he was not claiming to open a new path to God; he
was claiming that God was blazing a new path to us in
Jesus. Christian faith is, in the final analysis, not
about our going to God, but about God's coming to us in
Christ. Christian faith is not about discovering God; it
is the experience of having been found, despite our
resistance and rebellion, by a God in search of us … "
- "Sometimes other religions challenge us to embrace
more deeply the implications of our own faith. The
regularity of the prayer life of our Muslim neighbors may
confront us with the infrequency of prayer in our own
lives. The interest in the spiritual world among Native
Americans may confront us with our own materialism and
indifference to the Spirit of God. The celebrative
affirmation of the law in Judaism may challenge our own
cheap grace that fails to see God's law as a gracious
gift."
- "The Bible does not say that God comes to us in
many ways to save; it affirms that God's salvation has
come to us 'in the fullness of time' in Christ …
Christian faith is absolutely clear: Jesus is God's
definitive word -- the only savior."
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