Monday, June 25, 2012

Grown-ups prevail at the PCA General Assembly


Bob Godfrey still being Bob Godfrey, I imagine he's still telling seminarians in his Church history classes that Church officers should make a point of reviewing their confessional standards about once a year just so they can remember what they're supposed to believe. I've long thought that discipline might prevent the eagerness in some circles for presbyterian General Assemblies to issue statements on whatever the putative theological controversy of the hour might be. The Westminster Standards cover a great deal of doctrinal ground, and I (for one) think it unlikely a committee-penned statement on, say, justification will be any more clear than the Confession, Larger Catechism, and Shorter Catechism.

Thus, the cockles of my curmudgeonly heart (if, in fact, a curmudgeon can be said to have a heart) were warmed when the 40th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in American rejected an overture that it make an in thesi declaration against theistic evolution on the ground that Scripture and the Westminster Standards do so with sufficient clarity. This is important for two reasons: first, the Assembly has taken the very grown-up position that presbyterians need not restate what they've already stated, no matter how many people insist it is VERY IMPORTANT that they do so. Let the Baptists issue statements; we've subscribed to a confession.

The second reason has to do with that lovely latinate phrase, "an in thesi declaration," and what I believe to be the corrosive effect of these declarations. Such a declaration would state, in this case, that the Assembly believes a minister teaching theistic evolution would be in error. In practice, however, that declaration would do nothing, even if it were passed and a pastor began preaching that God ordained to evolve mankind from lesser organisms. Such a pastor would have to be dealt with through judicial proceedings, and in this case the prosecuting judicatory would have to prove our supposed pastor's views to be out of accord with the Bible and our confessional standards, notwithstanding the existence of an in thesi declaration. (The Orthodox Presbyterian Church has already had such a judical case concerning a ruling elder who taught theistic evolution, which is why the issue is already settled in our denomination.)

The practical impotence of in thesi declarations is why I think them corrosive to the Church's well-being. Church officers are free to agree or disagree with them with whatever degree of openness they prefer; disagreement brings with it no automatic sanctions. This creates the impression that the Church's highest judicatory has spoken in a final way on a matter, and can be freely ignored by any and all of the Church's members; this simply cannot be healthy for any ecclesiastical body. Far better, I think, to read our confessional standards and be content with the very grown-up statements they provide.

5 comments:

Don K. Clements said...

Matthew:

the Aquila Report would like permission to reprint your blog about the GA Assembly. Please contact me via email to don@metokos.org. thanks.

Don K. Clements
News Editor
http://theaquilareport.com

Tim said...

So, was the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church was being "childish" or "Baptistic" by passing such a statement at its General Synod?

Or perhaps, the statement was directly addressing a topic that the Confession does not address, since the Confession was written about 200 years before Darwin.

The PCA had a representative of BioLogos speak at its GA this year. Judicial cases can take years to try. Meanwhile, God's people are being poisoned with false teaching. And that does not warm my heart at all.

Wayne Sparkman said...

This might be of interest for you. I'll be adding links to content over the summer :

http://continuing.wordpress.com/2012/06/27/a-working-bibliography-on-in-thesi-deliverances/

Tom said...

The PCA made an extensive statement back at their 28th GA on the meaning of "in the space of six days" in the WCF. Have they learned from their mistake and matured, or are they simply unable to close Pandora's box this late in the game?

David Bosch said...

"The Westminster Standards cover a great deal of doctrinal ground, and I (for one) think it unlikely a committee-penned statement on, say, justification will be any more clear than the Confession, Larger Catechism, and Shorter Catechism." You're right! I just spent 4 seconds reviewing all these documents on "mission" or any idea of the Gospel being taken to the ends of the earth. So glad the're so exhaustive and complete.