Witherspoon Society dismisses Highland Park statement By John H. Adams The Layman Online Friday, October 13, 2000 Biblical, confessional standards of PCUSA Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." John 14:6 There is neither life nor salvation without Christ Jesus. Scots Confession, chap. 16 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven, on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord. Philippians 2:9-11 Salvation is not to be sought or found in anyone else. Heldelberg Catechism, Q. 29 Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved. Acts 4:12 For however many seek salvation in any other than in Christ alone have fallen from the grace of God and have rendered Christ null and void for themselves. 2nd Helvetic Confession, chapt. 11 I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. Romans 1:16 They who, having never heard the gospel, know not Jesus Christ, and believe not in him, cannot be saved. Larger Catechism, Q. 60 And they cried out in a loud voice: "Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb." Revelation 19:6 Jesus Christ, as he is attested for us in Holy Scripture, is the one Word of God which we have to hear and which we have to obey in life and death. Barmen Declaration, chap. 8 You are Christ, the son of the living God. Matthew 16:16 The risen Christ is the savior for all men. ... Confession of 1967, chap. 1 The action by the session of Highland Park Presbyterian Church, which asked the General Assembly Council to reassert the denomination's historic theology that Jesus alone is the author of salvation, has raised the intensity of the debate over the issue. The Witherspoon Society, an independent Presbyterian organization that has worked for years against a sexual morality that reflects Biblical and confessional standards, issued a statement criticizing the Highland Park letter to the General Assembly Council and dismissing it as an expression of right-wing conservatism. "Highland Park will apparently continue to guard the orthodoxy (as they understand it) of the Presbyterian Church, now focusing not on sexuality, nor on right-wing politics, but on a narrow insistence on the monopoly of self-proclaimed Christians on the grace of God," the Witherspoon Society said. Meanwhile, Robert Bullock, editor of The Presbyterian Outlook, said in an editorial, "The urgent question before the Presbyterian Church (USA) today is whether to defend the historic Christian faith in Jesus Christ or apologize to the world that Christians ever believed that he was the real and only Lord and Savior of the world." Bullock followed with a ringing defense of the doctrine that salvation is through Christ alone. He said some Christians "are tempted to think there must be other ways to God – that Jesus was misunderstood, or wrong, in declaring, 'No one comes to the Father except by me' (John 14:6). Obviously, we cannot limit the freedom of God, but the Christian church must obediently recognize and serve the One Lord revealed in Jesus Christ. This is what the Presbyterian church has always believed and proclaimed. "Perhaps the Presbyterian Church (USA) is presently mired down in extraneous and secondary issues, at least in part, to avoid the worldly embarrassment of our published claim that Jesus Christ is the Lord and savior of all people, the One in whom all the promises of God to the human race are fulfilled, the One who rules at the right hand of the Father, the One who will come again to judge the living and the dead, the eternal Word of God who became flesh and dwells among us full of grace and truth." For that, Witherspoon's Eugene TeSelle, writing on PresbyNet, an open forum, accused Bullock of playing "his usual cowardly game of jumping in front of any conservative parade that comes along." The brouhaha over the lordship of Christ began at a PCUSA-sponsored Peacemaking Conference in July. The Rev. Dirk Ficca, who heads an interfaith organization, said Christians should not try to convert people of other faiths and that Jesus was one of many valid paths to God. "What's the big deal about Jesus?" he asked rhetorically. In "Stand up for a friend," an editorial column published in the September-October Layman, Executive Editor Parker T. Williamson said, "One would have welcomed a disclaimer from the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program leaders. But this was not to be. Instead, they issued an evasive statement that essentially restated Ficca's thesis. The statement credits Jesus as the person through whom we received our salvation, but it encourages the notion (contrary to Jesus' own words) that others may be saved by other means." Robert L. Howard, chairman of the Presbyterian Lay Committee, also cited the peacemaking column in his commentary in the September-October Layman. In a column titled "A 3,000-mile theological chasm," Howard contrasted the peacemaking conference, which was held in California, with a prayer conference held in Montreat, N.C. Quoting the Rev. James Logan Jr. – "We've wandered too far, we've compromised too much, we've winked at sin, we've been tolerant to the point of grieving Christ" – Howard said Logan offered "the precise antidote for the poison uncorked in California which weakens the body into cultural accommodation and political correctness."

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