PCUSA On Its Way Out?
Recent actions by the Presbyterian Church USA's 217th General Assembly have prompted some Bible-believing members to abandon hope of reforming their denomination.
The assembly did two things last month that may mean the end of the denomination, said John Adams, of the Presbyterian Lay Committee.
1. The assembly voted to allow congregations "to employ in teaching and in liturgy a variety of metaphors alongside the God-given names, 'Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.'" Metaphors like "Mother, Daughter, and Womb." It boils down, says the Lay Committee, to disobeying Christ's injunction, "Hallowed be Thy name," and breaking the Third Commandment by taking the Lord's name in vain.
2. The assembly also voted to allow PCUSA congregations to ordain as a minister virtually anyone--including persons openly having sex outside of marriage, practicing sodomites, and those who deny the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ. "Every ordination standard may now be deemed optional," the Lay Committee said.
The committee's public statement accuses the assembly of breaking the covenant, and calls on faithful Christians to "rise to denounce this General Assembly's abandonment of the Church Universal" and "to challenge its seismic breaches of covenant."
"Reluctantly, and with deep sorrow, we conclude that current renewal efforts within the Presbyterian Church USA are not capable of reversing the denomination's plunge into apostasy... its sin is so systemic as to render it impervious to change from within," the statement says.
The Lay Committee will be holding meetings and discussions throughout the summer to decide where to go from here, Adams said. Factors such as pastors' salaries and benefits, and ownership of church property, will complicate the picture.
"I'm sure many good evangelicals will stay, and try again and again to reform the denomination," Adams said. "But I don't think the Lay Committee will try to do that anymore."
Adams predicted that the PCUSA's apostasy will drive it into extinction.
"We've already calculated a loss of 85,000 members over the next year," he said. "It's withering away piece by piece."
As the PCUSA and other mainline churches continue to melt away, "it is in just such times that Reformation and transformation break forth," the committee's statement says. "Even now--especially now--Jesus Christ is gathering his followers around his word. Presbyterians, Episcopalians, United Methodists and others whose denominational institutions have diluted or abandoned Biblical belief are turning away from decaying structures that have encumbered their witness, and they are turning toward the Lord Jesus, who alone is the Way, the Truth and the Life. In unison, we confess, 'Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.'"
We await further developments.
The assembly did two things last month that may mean the end of the denomination, said John Adams, of the Presbyterian Lay Committee.
1. The assembly voted to allow congregations "to employ in teaching and in liturgy a variety of metaphors alongside the God-given names, 'Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.'" Metaphors like "Mother, Daughter, and Womb." It boils down, says the Lay Committee, to disobeying Christ's injunction, "Hallowed be Thy name," and breaking the Third Commandment by taking the Lord's name in vain.
2. The assembly also voted to allow PCUSA congregations to ordain as a minister virtually anyone--including persons openly having sex outside of marriage, practicing sodomites, and those who deny the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ. "Every ordination standard may now be deemed optional," the Lay Committee said.
The committee's public statement accuses the assembly of breaking the covenant, and calls on faithful Christians to "rise to denounce this General Assembly's abandonment of the Church Universal" and "to challenge its seismic breaches of covenant."
"Reluctantly, and with deep sorrow, we conclude that current renewal efforts within the Presbyterian Church USA are not capable of reversing the denomination's plunge into apostasy... its sin is so systemic as to render it impervious to change from within," the statement says.
The Lay Committee will be holding meetings and discussions throughout the summer to decide where to go from here, Adams said. Factors such as pastors' salaries and benefits, and ownership of church property, will complicate the picture.
"I'm sure many good evangelicals will stay, and try again and again to reform the denomination," Adams said. "But I don't think the Lay Committee will try to do that anymore."
Adams predicted that the PCUSA's apostasy will drive it into extinction.
"We've already calculated a loss of 85,000 members over the next year," he said. "It's withering away piece by piece."
As the PCUSA and other mainline churches continue to melt away, "it is in just such times that Reformation and transformation break forth," the committee's statement says. "Even now--especially now--Jesus Christ is gathering his followers around his word. Presbyterians, Episcopalians, United Methodists and others whose denominational institutions have diluted or abandoned Biblical belief are turning away from decaying structures that have encumbered their witness, and they are turning toward the Lord Jesus, who alone is the Way, the Truth and the Life. In unison, we confess, 'Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.'"
We await further developments.
