Pruitt: PCA GA Overtures 23 And 37 Address Serious Errors

by R. Scott Clark on July 6, 2021

The incursion of Revoice theology into the PCA has caused great division and confusion in our churches. We have been told to accept as an “orientation” what God’s Word calls “contrary to nature” and “dishonorable passions” (Romans 1:26-27). Some of our own Teaching Elders and Ruling Elders have made and continue to make the claim that homosexual desires are akin to blindness; a disability not a moral problem. Please understand that such a claim represents a bold contradiction to the witness of God’s Word. In equating dishonorable passions to a physical disability, they deny that homosexual attractions are sinful in and of themselves.

We are told that those who experience but do not physically act upon their unnatural affections are “brave” and “self-denying” for abstaining from sin. But are “brave” and “courageous” the right words to describe abstinence from abominable sin? Would we describe the man who does not commit adultery as courageous for not doing so? Mortifying sin is not courageous; it is the duty we owe our King.

We are told by some pastors in the PCA that those with unnatural affections will almost certainly not experience a change in those affections. Indeed, the belief that those enslaved by unnatural desires for the same sex can actually see those desires changed by the sanctifying power of God’s grace was described as “Wesleyan” and “Keswick” spirituality. We were told that any expectation that God’s sanctifying grace can re-order a sinful affection was “not Reformed.” Such a claim reflects, at best, a lack of understanding concerning what the Bible and our confessions actually teach about sanctification.

The weak and ineffectual doctrine of sanctification taught within the “Side B homosexual” and Revoice camps leaves no real hope for the one struggling with unnatural desires. We’ve been told by one of our pastors that “Jesus didn’t make me straight.” We’ve been told that the homosexual “orientation” will not or is highly likely not to change. And rather than lament such a sorry state, we’ve even been told that there will be “queer treasures” in the new creation. Is this what now passes in the PCA for a biblical and Reformed doctrine of sanctification? Does the gospel offer no hope for these men, other than life-long celibacy and childlessness?

There are implications for ordained office as well. For the first time the PCA has ordained men who identify themselves as gay, with the understanding that this “orientation” is in and of itself not a sin to be mortified but only the lusts or actions that may spring from that “orientation.” This sort of linguistic and doctrinal gymnastics is what happens when contemporary therapeutic categories shape our interpretation of Scripture. Read more»

Todd Pruitt | “A Clear Message from the 48th General Assembly of the PCA” | Reformation 21 | July 5, 2021

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