What with Kombucha, Kefir, raw milk, and fresh tomato juice, not to mention water...I've never had so much to drink in my life!
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So, the PCA GA made their decision to approve the FV/NPP report. Reformed News has this summary of the effects:
"The Assembly's adoption of the recommendations has the following effects: 1. The assembly commends the committee's report to the PCA for consideration, 2. The assembly reminds the PCA of the role of the Westminster Standards "as standard expositions of the teachings of Scripture in relation to both faith and practice", 3. The assembly commends the 9 declarations of the report to the denomination as "a faithful exposition of the Westminster Standards" and calls upon ruling and teaching elders to inform "their courts" (i.e., sessions, presbyteries) of any differences between their views and the 9 declarations, 4. The assembly reminds Sessions and Presbyteries of its duty to exercise doctrinal oversight, and 5. The assembly dismisses the study committee with thanks. ...
"Two questions confront Presbyteries as they examine elders who are either accused of holding suspect views or elders who submit their views to Presbyteries for consideration: a. do their views in fact fall under one of nine disallowed views, and b. if so, will their views be considered allowable exceptions or become grounds for further discipline. Currently the PCA does not have uniformity with regards to what exceptions are allowable or disallowable by every presbytery."
Has anyone heard anything else?
About Me
- Miss Puritan Chickie
- I am a young lady who enjoys reading and writing, and discussing what I read and write. I like good books, good food, good wine, and good conversation. I also enjoy cooking and baking bread. I am a baptised member of the one holy catholic and apostolic church.
3 comments:
I've seen some internet discussion on the subject, but frankly, having been out of the PCA for nearly five years now, the whole FV controversy has dropped off my radar.
The same people are saying the same things after all these years. It's very distressing.
The whole report can be read here if you're interested.
On one forum, my friend whom you probably know as Pentamom (she comments on Valerie's blog pretty regularly), whose husband is an elder in the PCA, said: "This was not structured as a disciplinary matter, though many treated it that way and many thought it should have been. But it wasn't. There were names named in the report, but that is not the same as charges against those persons. Therefore, they weren't found 'guilty' of anything."
Apparantly the report is meant to do something like express the official position of the PCA on the FV/NPP/AA theologies, but without taking a formal, juridicial stance on it.
Of course, there have been many people who say that it's sloppily worded, and (though I haven't read it myself) it seems that it doesn't make proper distinctions between the three things mentioned above - i.e. it conflates the NPP with the FV/AA stuff.
My understanding of how the whole thing came about was that at last year's GA, it was determined that FV/NPP/AA was causing confusion in the churches, and then the study committee was commisioned. The job of the study committee was not so much to learn about NPP/FV/AA as to tell where it supposedly differs from the Westminster standards.
And that's why there weren't any AA/FV/NPP proponents on the committee: the committee wasn't appointed to study this stuff and see whether it differed from Westminster; it was appointed to "carry out the will of the Assembly" which had already decided that the stuff was causing confusion in the churches.
All of which finally shows me that Doug Wilson knew what he was talking about when he said that the most common tactic of the FV opponents has been, "Ready, Fire, Aim!"
HTH
That's what I thought. I'm glad the PCA hasn't done anything but set a position, although even that might cause an exodus. I'd hate to see the PCA fall apart: there's so much potential.
I tend to think that there won't be an exodus of PCA pastors or churches - not voluntarily, at least. I'm pretty sure their desire is to stay in and work things out and not leave unless they're kicked out.
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