Bradley Longfield, The Presbyterian Controversy: Fundamentalists, Modernists, and Moderates (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991). This review was published originally in a slightly different form in The Reformed Herald in 1993. It was written for the Reformed Church in the U.S. which publishes the . . . Continue reading →
PCUSA
PCUSA Presbytery Proposes Revisions to Adopted Translation
Thanks to Stephen Ley for alerting me to this interesting discussion. I don’t pretend to understand the intricacies of PCUSA (the mainline, largest and most liberal Presbyterian body in North America). What is interesting about this sort of argument in this context is that . . . Continue reading →
More On the Proposed Revision to the PCUSA Translation of the Heidelberg Catechism
Thanks to Justin Taylor for pointing me to Robert Gagnon’s brief essay here. On one level the argument isn’t really about fidelity to the original German and Latin texts but about the meaning of the proof texts cited in HC Q. 87, . . . Continue reading →
PCUSA Theological Committee Approves HC Translation Changes
The Layman has the story. Thanks to Dominic Aquila for the heads up. Bruce McCormack and David Willis comment here. (HT: Stephen Ley).
PCUSA Congregations "Struggle to Stay" In?
Really? That’s what one presbyter claimed at Synod as she argued in favor of allocating $2M to litigate against congregations seeking to leave the PCUSA for the EPC.
What Did They Fear?
Our weekly Machen fix from Geneva Redux reminds us that when the evangelicals and liberals in the PCUSA conspired (is there a better verb?) to prosecute Machen for daring to be confessional in the mainline they revealed a good deal about themselves, . . . Continue reading →
Machen: Reluctant Warrior
At GR.
Will Christianity Survive?
Machen from 1936.
The PCUSA Wouldn't Treat Machen Thus Today…
Or would they? According to this (somewhat provocatively worded) story in the Layman Online (a conservative publication in the PCUSA), perhaps things haven’t changed much in the PCUSA since 1936? UPDATE The PCUSA is also investigating (going after?) those congregations that are . . . Continue reading →
Machen: All Tolerance is Not Equal
It’s interesting that, in 1936, Machen saw the possibility that the mainline would come to “tolerate” confessionalists. Certainly the rhetoric of the liberals in ’36 suggested that possibility. He rejected, however, the mere toleration of confessionalism as one option among many.
J. Gresham Machen on Jaywalking and Civil Freedom: Watch This Video
J. Gresham Machen (1881–1936) was a scholar of the New Testament who taught at Princeton Theological Seminary. He, along with several others, left Princeton in 1929 to found Westminster Seminary. He was driven out of what is today known as the Presbyterian . . . Continue reading →
Machen: The Good Fight Of Faith
The Apostle Paul was a great fighter. His fighting was partly against external enemies—against hardships of all kinds. Five times he was scourged by the Jews, three times by the Romans; he suffered shipwreck four times; and was in perils of waters, . . . Continue reading →
Machen On The Present Situation
THE present situation in the Presbyterian Church in the U. S. A. is only one phase of a situation that prevails in the Protestant churches throughout the world. Everywhere—in the countries of Europe and in mission lands—Christianity finds itself in a mighty . . . Continue reading →
The Irrelevance Of Indolent Impressionism
Second, I was struck by the fact that the last chapter – on post-confessional, mainline Presbyterianism – indicated just how irrelevant Presbyterianism has become in its liberal forms. With dull preaching, and always appearing to be a day late and a dollar . . . Continue reading →
Laura Smit On The Foolishness Of Romantic Dreams About The Mainline
Some of my friends in the CRC seem to think that this would be a good thing. They speak to me with wistful longing about the “freedom” of the PCUSA. This is a romantic vision that is unrelated to the truth. The . . . Continue reading →
Pervasive Unbelief In The PCUSA
All this is true. But it really does not apply to the situation in the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. The point is that that Church is very largely dominated by unbelief. It does not merely harbor unbelief here and there. No, . . . Continue reading →
Machen: Debate Is Preferable To Breach Of Faith And Suppression
Perhaps it may be objected that if we continue to be tolerated, we shall harm the church by an insistence upon the maintenance of a strict view of its doctrinal standards. I think that just from the “Liberal” point of view there . . . Continue reading →
Silencing Dissent In The “Liberal” Mainline
This does answer the question, does the PCUSA still have heresy trials? Of course they do. Heresy or apostasy in the PCUSA is now defined as lack or failure of institutional or corporate loyalty, and or actions, speech against the institution. Where . . . Continue reading →
Presbyterians And Homosexuals Together: The Crisis Of Christ And Culture
The New York Times reported yesterday that a sufficient number of presbyteries of the liberal, mainline Presbyterian Church USA (PCUSA) have voted to approve gay marriage that church order Book of Order will, beginning in June of this year, define marriage no . . . Continue reading →
The PCUSA: Proudly Dying Since 1936
Now that the number of persons departing the denomination has increased from 89,296 to 92,433, and the statistical rate of decline has bumped from 4.83 percent to 5.54 percent, Parsons can no longer soothe fellow church bureaucrats in Louisville that decline is . . . Continue reading →