The first is that a preemptive disparaging of opponent’s concerns is not likely to achieve the letters’ stated goal of unity in the PCA. When Christian leaders ask, “Are we being biblically faithful?” an answer that derides the nature and motive of . . . Continue reading →
Confessionalism
Payne: The PCA Already Has A Creed
Creating space for these unbiblical cultural creeds in the PCA will facilitate serious and irreparable damage and division. Therefore, they must be rejected. There is no room for compromise. The Assembly’s voting margins from last week foster hope that the PCA’s future plans do not include tent expansion. We mustn’t make room for Side B and CRT. Continue reading →
On The Value Of Confessions
Good Guys, Bad Guys, And A Missing Category
The largest NAPARC denomination, the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) is in the throes of an identity crisis. Founded by Southern Presbyterians and emerging out of the old PCUS (the Southern version of the Presbyterian mainline) it has always been more more broadly . . . Continue reading →
Should They Stay Or Should They Go?
It’s a question that more than a few PCA elders and members are asking right now. The recent Standing Judicial Commission’s (SJC) decision to reject the complaint against Missouri Presbytery has left many disheartened. Moreover, the current presbytery voting tallies on Overtures . . . Continue reading →
Shall The Radical Contextualizers Win?
Some elders in the PCA believe Johnsonism is essential to the future of the church. Others are willing to give it the benefit of the doubt for now, watching to see where it goes. These men were those who applauded Johnson’s revival-style testimony at the 2019 General Assembly in Dallas. Votes from those in this group likely defeated the proposed PCA constitutional amendments that might have clamped down on same-sex attracted officers. Continue reading →
Whither The PCA?
Jake Meador has published an essay arguing the “conversations”—a euphemism for debates that should be retired immediately—in the PCA surrounding same-sex attracted, celibate ministers (the so-called “Side B” approach to homosexuality) “should begin to move on to newer, better frames…”. He calls . . . Continue reading →
Postmodern Confessionalism?
The relationship between biblical authority and ecclesiology has always been interesting. The Reformed commitment to sola Scriptura was never biblicism, as if it were solo Scriptura.1 The Reformed tradition from its outset was at the same time devoted to the Bible’s ultimate . . . Continue reading →
Does Agreeing With The Westminster Standards Make One A “Fundamentalist”?
In his recent essay published on the Semper Ref Collaborative, TE Derek Radney articulates the great danger to the future of the PCA is in the form of those whom he denounces as “Reformed Fundamentalists.” I. The Neo(?) Reformed(?) Fundamentalists Radney is . . . Continue reading →
We Are Not Professionals But Ought To Be True Confessionals
I recently wrote a book review about a volume by an author whose works usually prompt me to significant disagreement, but, in this case, whether because of a change of his mind or coincidence of the material, I found that I generally . . . Continue reading →
A Word To The PCA: Fathers, Do Not Exasperate Your Brothers (1)
There is a kind of therapeutic psychology rampant among the elite in Western culture’s ivory towers and it has made its way into our seminaries and churches, beguiling some and maddening others. Continue reading →
A Word To The PCA: Fathers, Do Not Exasperate Your Brothers (2)
We may not bludgeon sincere men with cries of “Peace! Peace!” where there is no peace. We may not neglect the reasonable concerns of our brethren by naïvely asserting that everyone is trustworthy and in one accord merely by virtue of their ordination. Continue reading →
On Evangelical Instability And The Remedy
Sometimes people who come from the non-confessional evangelical world look at confessional churches as though they are hide-bound traditionalists. Doubtless, that is sometimes true. The words “we have never done it that way” have been heard from time to time in Reformed . . . Continue reading →
The Rejection of Errors: The Antithesis and The Eschaton
Most Reformed Christians know something about the Canons of the Synod of Dort. Fewer of us have actually read the Canons. One aspect of the Canons that is sometimes neglected is the rejection of errors. There are five heads of doctrine (with three . . . Continue reading →
Measuring The Health Of A Church
For many the eighteenth century is regarded as the “century of mission,” or perhaps the century of the so-called First Great Awakening.1 But if fidelity to the Reformed Confession is a mark of the health of the church, there are many ways in . . . Continue reading →