I want to thank the people who posted the comments recently. It was refreshing to see the comments there on the blog! Anyway, I'm not a Presbyterian, or anything, but my oldest brother is. He is rather concerned about the lapse of the PCUSA being a "Five-Point Calvinistic" Denomination. He also said that there are some people in the denomination, and some people in his church that are "Four-Pointers," as he put it. Is there any truth to this?
Erik
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
PCUSA is having its struggles. They are in the same boat as the Episcopal and United Methodist Churches in a lot of ways. They were based on the Westminster Confession of faith, but the PCUSA individuals I have encountered do not hold to the Confession. They do not in general hold to Biblical Christianity. They seem more like secular humanists to me. I am sorry if I paint with a broad brush and I know their are individuals within the denomination who are more orthodox than I am, but I think the church is rotten at its roots and so short lived gains on the local level will be just that, short lived. There is a movement within the PCUSA which is known as the Confessing Church movement that is conservative. I struggled for years whether to stay in the PCUSA, but the thing that made me decide to leave the church was the ultimate future of my children. I was concerned about the mixed messages sent within the church and their effect on my children. I have a Biblical responsibility to raise my children properly and I felt that by attending a PCUSA church I was failing that responsibility. I also feel anyone giving money to the church on a local level is contributing to apostasy. My family and I have been blessed by our move from the PCUSA to the PCA. I would encourage everyone to make the switch from the PCUSA to a conservative denomination. There are many problems and lawsuits ongoing regarding local church property. You can see a glimpse of a PCUSA church by going to a friends blog who has been attending a PCUSA church. (http://leguerredesainte.blogspot.com/). I hope I am not being too harsh, but I feel anyone who is attending a PCUSA church should seriously assess the situation.
There is a good little book entitled Calvinism Pure and Mixed which was written by W.G.T. Shedd. It was written during a decisive moment in the PCUSA's history. Quote about the book from an Amazon rewiew, "This little book by WGT Shedd is a mini-masterpiece. In it, Shedd reprints a number of articles written for various reformed publications during one,of the many,disputes between strict-subscriptionists to the Westminster Confession(like Shedd)and those who would water it down. History has proven Shedd right as the "loose-subscriptionist" party eventually discarded the Confession entirely and carried the manistream Presbyterian church(save for the conservatives who left and founded other denominations)into apostasy." In this book Shedd defends the Cofession along with the 5 points of Calvinism. It is one of the first books I read and it is masterful.
Thanks a lot for your response. My brother has said as much about PCUSA. He's an elder at a PCUSA church. He's very concerned about the lack of Biblical Christianity. His wife doesn't want to change, though. She's not a firm believer like he is, and that is the issue right now...
Erik
I hope you are feeling better. I did not know you could get a slight cas of pneumonia. I thought there were no slights with pneumonia My struggle with the PCUSA has been a lot like your brother's struggle. I was not active in church when I was married so I started attending my wife's PCUSA church. I am thankful that the church was my conduit back into church attendance since I had not been attending church for several years leading up to that point. Once I started taking a more active role in my Chrisianity I began to start having problems with the pastor. I soon realized it was the denomination as a whole I had a problem with. We had a struggle leaving the church. It was my wife's childhood church and she was still attached to it, but she realized that it had problems. We visited a few churches, but did not make any changes immediately. We finally made up our minds about a year ago to make the move and I would have to say my wife is more pleased with the move than me. I still struggle with leaving the church because I would like to see it change, however, I do not think it is God's will at this time to change the PCUSA. My advice to your brother is to pray and have patience. God will fix the situation on his time.
As for four pointers if I remember correctly Shedd's book dealt with the elect and the reprobate. It seemed that some within the church were willing to accept the elect, but did not like the language discussing the reprobate in the confession. It only seems logical that if one accepts that some are elect that they would also accept some were reprobate. I do not know if this is the point you brother is speaking of, but it may be. A good bio of one of my heroes, Machen, who was a dissenter of the PCUSA and was defrocked by them will explain a little more about the downgrade of the PCUSA. http://www.two-age.org/redemptive_historians/Machen%20bio.htm
Post a Comment