Thanks for your article - it's encouraging. BTW, you identify as a Grover and Old School Presbyterian, I know what an Old School Presbyterian is but what is a "Grover and Old School Presbyterian?"
So, encouraged to see this newer generation of churchmen taking the lead in this fight. This last generation has reaped the reward of their predecessors who placed everything on the line to achieve peace through purity. Now men like yourself are being passed the torch newly fueled and blazing brightly. Congregants like I must cheer you own your way.
You're right; there is no reason to leave just yet, certainly not without at least as much a fight as Presbyterian stalwarts gave a century ago. I look forward to the subsequent article: as an RE (Rocky Mountain) I am occasionally asked by congregants on what grounds we might leave the PCA. The question comes up in session meetings as well. It will be helpful to see your take on that. I am gratified to see someone acknowledge that liberals and progressives are "cut from the same cloth." I think too many of us make too much of the fact that we don't have liberals because we don't have those who deny cardinal doctrines. Given your grasp of Presbyterian history, I hardly need to tell you that the liberals in the PCUS didn't start with such denials. They are never brazen in the beginning.
Thanks for this more encouraging note. I'm not as optimistic. Having watched the PCA faun over TE Tim Keller for more than three decades and then follow after him in taking questionable stances on "deaconesses" and more socialistic stances on the diaconate as social workers, this has been a long time in the making. Yes, RTS Jackson was and hopefully still is a stalwart in the faith. However, the chancellor of the RTS has come out in favor of critical social justice, a viewpoint founded on Marxism rather than the Bible. Add in the press for acceptance of LGBTQ+ list as "normal" and Biblical wrapped up in the TE Greg Johnson/Revoice controversy and the festering is underway.
It may be possible to expell the modern day "Modernists" from the PCA or experience their genuine repentance. Somehow, I think it is unlikely given the slide of society as a whole which the PCA is reflecting. Harry Reeder and his generation are passing the mantle to a younger leadership who seems to have given heed to other voices The Lord is more than capable of preserving and purifying His church. My sense is that it will happen through a major split.
This is simply a matter of opinion, and I pray for the purity and peace of the PCA. But today, I do so from outside the PCA/OPC camp. My family and I gave enough battles, and the last place I want to face another one is in the church we attend over these topics.
Note 4 includes the line, "The PCUSA at that time not only ordained women (as deacons), but also tolerated ministers who rejected the virgin birth, bodily resurrection, and even the atonement." Just wanted to comment that allowing women to be deacons, while contrary to PCA polity, is hardly by itself proof of liberalism. The RPCNA, easily one of the most conservative of Presbyterian/Reformed denominations, has had women deacons for well over a hundred years (since 1888), seeing it as having biblical grounds.
Thanks for your article - it's encouraging. BTW, you identify as a Grover and Old School Presbyterian, I know what an Old School Presbyterian is but what is a "Grover and Old School Presbyterian?"
So, encouraged to see this newer generation of churchmen taking the lead in this fight. This last generation has reaped the reward of their predecessors who placed everything on the line to achieve peace through purity. Now men like yourself are being passed the torch newly fueled and blazing brightly. Congregants like I must cheer you own your way.
You're right; there is no reason to leave just yet, certainly not without at least as much a fight as Presbyterian stalwarts gave a century ago. I look forward to the subsequent article: as an RE (Rocky Mountain) I am occasionally asked by congregants on what grounds we might leave the PCA. The question comes up in session meetings as well. It will be helpful to see your take on that. I am gratified to see someone acknowledge that liberals and progressives are "cut from the same cloth." I think too many of us make too much of the fact that we don't have liberals because we don't have those who deny cardinal doctrines. Given your grasp of Presbyterian history, I hardly need to tell you that the liberals in the PCUS didn't start with such denials. They are never brazen in the beginning.
Thanks for this more encouraging note. I'm not as optimistic. Having watched the PCA faun over TE Tim Keller for more than three decades and then follow after him in taking questionable stances on "deaconesses" and more socialistic stances on the diaconate as social workers, this has been a long time in the making. Yes, RTS Jackson was and hopefully still is a stalwart in the faith. However, the chancellor of the RTS has come out in favor of critical social justice, a viewpoint founded on Marxism rather than the Bible. Add in the press for acceptance of LGBTQ+ list as "normal" and Biblical wrapped up in the TE Greg Johnson/Revoice controversy and the festering is underway.
It may be possible to expell the modern day "Modernists" from the PCA or experience their genuine repentance. Somehow, I think it is unlikely given the slide of society as a whole which the PCA is reflecting. Harry Reeder and his generation are passing the mantle to a younger leadership who seems to have given heed to other voices The Lord is more than capable of preserving and purifying His church. My sense is that it will happen through a major split.
This is simply a matter of opinion, and I pray for the purity and peace of the PCA. But today, I do so from outside the PCA/OPC camp. My family and I gave enough battles, and the last place I want to face another one is in the church we attend over these topics.
Thanks for this encouraging article Ryan! I'm sharing it with our congregation.
Note 4 includes the line, "The PCUSA at that time not only ordained women (as deacons), but also tolerated ministers who rejected the virgin birth, bodily resurrection, and even the atonement." Just wanted to comment that allowing women to be deacons, while contrary to PCA polity, is hardly by itself proof of liberalism. The RPCNA, easily one of the most conservative of Presbyterian/Reformed denominations, has had women deacons for well over a hundred years (since 1888), seeing it as having biblical grounds.