 A
Gross  The Presbyterian Layman – Volume 34, Number 5 – Posted July 6, 2001
Gross: because of its applause for rejection and ridicule of hundreds of thousands of Presbyterians who are not ashamed to “stand up for Jesus” by publicly confessing their faith; because of its heavy-handed repudiation of 23 years of definitive guidance, the clear teachings of Scripture and our confessions; and because of its requirement that Presbyterians vote for the third time in five years on fidelity and chastity as the standard of conduct for church officers. An aberration: because it failed to clearly and unambiguously answer Christ’s challenge to his disciples (Who do you say that I am?) or culture’s current challenge to the church; because its 60/40 split on multiple issues is just the opposite of the division among Presbyterians in the pews on those same issues; and because it embraced the rejection of the Confessing Church Movement as threatening the peace, purity and unity of the church, while ignoring the real threat of irreparable damage from false teaching. The Confessing Church Movement’s proclamation – that Christ alone is the way, the truth, and the life – cannot be a threat to the true church. It is threatening only to an ecclesiastical bureaucracy that will not represent and affirm the faithful majority of Presbyterians, whose tithes and offerings have been supporting that bureaucracy. There is a palpable sense of righteous outrage brewing across the PCUSA. The Presbyterian Lay Committee, like other renewal groups, is being deluged with e-mails and letters expressing common themes confessing the Christ of Scripture, and declaring refusal to support a political structure that does not reflect that faithfulness. The foolishness of this aberrant assembly has done irreparable damage to the political hull of the PCUSA and it will sink into irrelevancy. Faithful Presbyterians will no longer waste their time or money rearranging its deck chairs. God has a plan for his true church that lives within the PCUSA. He wants us to find an expeditious way to save the precious cargo of our Reformed faith and to proclaim the Gospel delivered to the saints once for all to the decaying culture that so desperately needs it. Be assured we are consulting and cooperating with all like-minded renewal groups to seek that way. Now is not the time to leave. Now is the acceptable hour to stand up and confess your faith. Urge your session to become part of the Confessing Church Movement. Plan to attend the Coalition’s October Gathering in Orlando on “The Future Of The Church and Our Future In It.” We are being given the incredible privilege of participating in an emerging church that is faithfully expressing his word, written and incarnate. Stay. Stand. Contend for the faith. And be of good cheer, for God will not abandon his true church. |
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