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Heidelcast
The Heidelcast is the official podcast of the Heidelberg Reformation Association. With more than 1,300 episodes, the Heidelcast has been in production since 2009.
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How can it be that some NAPARC churches allow Baptist participation in Lord’s Supper with such a difference in theology? Additionally, how are there members in NAPARC that practice women in office?
JP,
None of the NAPARC denominations/federations permit female ministers or elders. The CRC was excluded from NAPARC for permitting female elders and ministers. There are two denominations that permit female deacons, the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America and the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church. In their system, deacons are not regarded as having the same ruling or teaching authority as ruling elders or ministers (sometimes called teaching elders).
They are ordained.
Yes, they are ordained to the office of deacon.
Are you aware of the historic debate about deacons and deaconesses (e.g., Phoebe)? I’m not persuaded but the ordination of female deacons isn’t an automatic sign of apostasy. When it happened in the CRC it was part of a larger agenda. It was step toward the ordination of female elders and ministers. That was attempted in the ARP but rejected. I think the RPs would agree that their ordination of females to the diaconate was originally part of a liberalizing movement but, in their case also, it has not led to female ministers and elders.
I don’t have any personal experience with the ARP, since they are mostly confined to the Southeast of the USA (and mostly in the Carolinas) but I do have fairly extensive experience with the RPCNA. Neither group is theologically liberal or drifting. My impression is that the ARP is moving in a confessional direction and the RPCNA is stoutly conservative and confessional.
It is a historically-rooted anomaly.
ERQ as well. Don’t know if you’ve seen this, very good argument
https://beautifulchristianlife.com/blog/does-god-want-deaconesses-church
I appreciated your discussion on how God’s people have always been part of a covenant community under the Covenant of Grace, and how established in Genesis 15 and 17 where God made a formal covenant with Abraham where bloody sacrifices, serving as means of grace, pointed to the One who would fulfill God’s promises, and unbloody means of grace, in word and sacraments, point to the same Covenant of Grace, fulfilled by Christ in His incarnation, as the Saviour that both Old and New Testament people who believe trust in for their salvation. Jesus is the same now, always and forever.