Special Report Confessing Church Movement Volume 34, Number 3 – April 2001

Why A Confessing Church Movement? By Richard E. Burnett Volume 34, Number 3 Posted April 20, 2001 Burnett There is a Confessing Church emerging within the PCUSA, but it has not come about as the result of the defeat of Amendment O. Nor has it come about as the result of any shift in opinion regarding any political or moral issue. The deeper crisis has to do with what counts as revelation. It has to do with the source and norm of the Church’s proclamation. We are not the first Protestants in modern times to face this crisis. In 1934, “threatened by the teaching methods and actions of the ruling church party of the ‘German Christians’ and of the church administration carried on by them,” a Confessing Church emerged out of a confederation of congregations of the German Evangelical Church to declare a common message that we know today as The Barmen Declaration. The first article states: “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 trust and obey in life and in death.” God’s revelation This is a clear statement of what counts as revelation, of what the true source and norm of the Church’s proclamation is. But lest there be any mistake, the first article continues: “We reject the false doctrine, as though the church could and would have to acknowledge as a source of its proclamation, apart from and besides this one Word of God, still other events and powers, figures and truths, as God’s revelation.” Opponents said this first article was too narrow, too exclusive and that it did not leave enough room for other sources of revelation such as history, culture, nature, etc. In fact, on June 11, 1934, ten days after Barmen, the infamous Ansbach Counsel of “German Christians” met and declared: “The unchangeable will of God meets us in the total reality of our life as it is illumined by God’s revelation. It binds everyone . . . to the natural orders to which we are subject, such as family, nation, race.” Many Germans, in short, thought that, with the miraculous rise of the Third Reich, they were living in a unique historical hour and that developments in history, nature and culture had and were revealing that God had special plans for them as a race and nation. The current crisis Our situation, of course, is different. But there is an analogy. There is deep and widespread confusion in the PCUSA as to what counts as revelation, as to what the true source and norm of the Church’s proclamation is. This is reflected not merely by the fact that ministers such as Dirk Ficca, as keynote speaker at a recent Peacemaking Conference, can get away with making such statements as “What’s the big deal about Jesus?” Our denomination’s highest officials are saying such things as: “I think the people that are opposed to ordination of gays and lesbians are firmly convinced that they’re right and that they’re Biblically grounded. But sometimes God uses the culture as a context for revelation – and the culture is changing” (See former moderator Freda Gardner’s article, “God Is Doing A New Thing,” Presbyterians Today, May, 2000, p.27). Culture is not identified here with revelation, but it so decisively shapes the content of revelation that it might as well be. According to Karl Barth, “A thing is blessed when it is authorized and empowered, with a definite promise of success” (Church Dogmatics III/1:170). If the Lordship of Jesus Christ is not being called into question in our denomination today, if there are not many among us acknowledging “apart from and besides this one Word of God, still other events and powers, figures and truths, as God’s revelation,” then on what grounds, on what basis, by what right, have some of us decided that it might be permissible, in some cases, to pronounce God’s blessing upon same-sex unions? Has Jesus Christ authorized and empowered some same-sex unions with a definite promise of success? The main crisis in the PCUSA today is not about ethics or morality. Ethics and morality are what many people tend to talk about today when they don’t want to talk about God. The main crisis is about revelation. This is why pastors and sessions throughout the PCUSA are rising up to affirm three basic tenets that are reminiscent of the Scottish covenants of the 16th century and similar to the pledges made by members of The Pastors’ Emergency League (the precursor of The Confessing Church in Germany) in October, 1933. The first tenet is essentially an affirmation of the Reformation watchword, Solus Christus; that Jesus Christ alone is the source and norm of the Church’s proclamation. The second basically affirms Sola Scriptura, that Holy Scripture alone is the rule and standard of the theology and polity of the Church. The third affirms Sola Gratia, that we live by grace alone and believe in the justification of sinners by grace, not the justification of sins by nature. The Confessing Church A Confessing Church is emerging in the PCUSA today not because we believe we have “more light,” but because we seek to bear witness to Him who said: “I am the light of the world; he who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:12). We confess not because we want to say more than the Bible says, but because we do not want to say less. We confess not because we think we ought to or should, but because we must. “We too believe, and so we speak” (II Cor. 4:13). We are simply saying with Luther, “Here I stand. My mind is captive to the Word of God. I can do no other. So help me God.” We are merely “speaking the truth, in love” (Eph. 4:15). Therefore, with the signatories of Barmen, we issue this admonition: Beware of those who seek to distort our intentions, who spread falsehoods and half-truths, and who claim that we are trying to split the Church. It is not our intention to found a new denomination. We deplore the fragmentation of American Protestantism generally and the PCUSA specifically. We are not about to abandon our posts at this time, nor will we leave our sheep to the wolves. We are not concerned merely with the preservation of our own spiritual and physical existence or assets. As those who have taken vows to “further the peace, purity and unity” of Christ’s Church, we have a responsibility to withstand and oppose the alien principles and errors of false teachers, not merely for the sake of our weaker brothers and sisters, but for the sake of those who have fallen into error. And make no mistake: We are concerned about the real lives of real people living in the real world. The claims of our opponents are an assault upon the people we have been entrusted and charged to teach, nurture and protect. God will not hold us guiltless if we remain knowingly silent in the face of them. So “let us hold fast our confession” (Heb. 4:14). We believe we have a common message to utter in this time of crisis and temptation. There is a time when those who oppose the false prophets of Baal must stand up and be counted. We believe that time is now. The Rev. Richard E. Burnett is interim pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Waynesville, N.C. He has been a PCUSA minister for 11 years and will receive his Ph.D. in systematic theology from Princeton Theological Seminary in May. His father-in-law, who served in the Luftwaffe during World War II, has been a Lutheran pastor in Germany for more than 40 years.

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