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Rev. Robert Traer

Scripture Readings: Matthew 7:21-29, Romans 1:16-17, 3:22-31

The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is embroiled in a struggle among its members and churches concerning the latitude of belief that is to be allowed. Only 15 months old, the Confessing Church Movement is the newest combatant on the field, yet it already has endorsements from Presbyterian congregations with more than 16% of the Church’s 2.5 million members. The Confessing Church Movement calls on all Presbyterians to subscribe to three beliefs:

1. That Jesus Christ alone is Lord of all and the way of salvation.
2. That holy Scripture is the triune God’s revealed Word, the Church’s only infallible rule of faith and life.
3. That God’s people are called to holiness in all aspects of life. This includes honoring the sanctity of marriage between a man and a woman, the only relationship within which sexual activity is appropriate.

The Confessing Church Movement urges sessions and presbyteries "to declare that they will not ordain, install or employ in any ministry position any person who will not affirm" these beliefs.

Clearly, the Confessing Church Movement is not simply opposing the ordination of gay and lesbian clergy, elders and deacons, although it is about that. The Confessing Church Movement is a new assault in the ongoing battle over the authority of the Bible.

From the founding of Princeton Theological Seminary in 1812 until 1929, when the Seminary was decisively reorganized, Presbyterian theologians at Princeton argued with great influence in North America that the Bible is the inerrant Word of God. In 1927, however, the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church U.S.A. declared that no General Assembly could define categorically the "essential beliefs" of the Westminster Confession necessary for ordination. Two years later, when the General Assembly reorganized the Seminary at Princeton, those who were preaching biblical inerrancy left to form Westminster Seminary in Philadelphia. In 1936, when the General Assembly ousted these scholars from the denomination, they formed the Presbyterian Church in America (renamed in 1939 the Orthodox Presbyterian Church).

In the following three decades the northern Presbyterian Church allowed considerable diversity of belief about scripture and faith among its presbyteries and pastors. A merger in 1958 of the Presbyterian Church U.S.A. and the United Presbyterian Church of North America created the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. This new denomination clearly affirmed in the Confession of 1967 that Christ and not the Bible is the "one sufficient revelation of God."

The Confession of 1967 identifies Jesus Christ as "the Word of God," and the Bible as "the witness without parallel" that the church has received as "the word of God written." (Note that "word" is not capitalized when referring to the Bible.) The Bible, the Confession of 1967 affirms, is subordinate to Christ. Scripture is not the Word of God, as such, but the witness of the church to God in Jesus Christ.

To a lesser extent the Presbyterian Church in the U.S., known as the southern Presbyterian Church, also allowed greater theological diversity in the middle of the twentieth century, and in 1962 its General Assembly adopted a A Brief Statement of Belief that identifies the Bible as the "written Word of God" without claiming that scripture is divinely inspired. Moreover, A Brief Statement of Belief affirms that the Bible is "a means of grace" in the life of the church – through the work of the Holy Spirit and also through the preaching of the Word.

In 1976 the General Assembly of the southern Church approved a Book of Confessions similar to the one adopted by the northern Church in 1967, with A Declaration of Faith in place of the northern church’s Confession of 1967. A study guide explained: "The Declaration places the ‘written’ Word after the ‘living’ Word for a reason. We must say of Christ that he is God himself with us, but we cannot say that of Scripture. We can worship Christ but we cannot worship the Bible. Jesus Christ is the Word of God in a more direct way than the Bible. Nevertheless, once we are clear about this, we must say that the Bible too is the Word of God."

As the northern and Southern Presbyterian Churches prepared to merge in 1983 to form the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), each denomination sought to clarify its approach to the Bible. In a 1982 Report the northern Church "recommended guidelines for a positive and not a restrictive use of scripture in theological controversies." The 1982 General Assembly approved the following considerations for reading and interpreting the Bible:

1. Recognize that Jesus Christ, the Redeemer, is the center of Scripture.
2. Let the focus be on the plain text of Scripture, to the grammatical and historical context, rather than to allegory or subjective fantasy.
3. Depend upon the guidance of the Holy Spirit in interpreting and applying God’s message.
4. Be guided by the doctrinal consensus of the church, which is the "rule of faith."
5. Let all interpretations be in accord with the "rule of love," the twofold commandment to love God and to love our neighbor.
6. Remember that interpretation of the Bible requires earnest study in order to establish the best text and to interpret the influence of the historical and cultural context in which the divine message has come.
7. Seek to interpret a particular passage of the Bible in light of all the Bible.

The 1983 General Assembly of the southern Presbyterian Church adopted a statement entitled Presbyterian Understanding and Use of Holy Scripture that did not dissent in any way from the position taken by the northern Church, so these seven guidelines represent the consensus of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in the mid 1980s.

But the assault on this consensus is intensifying. In 1978 disaffected Presbyterians formed the International Council on Biblical Inerrancy to defend what they claimed to be the historic position of the Presbyterian Church. More effectively, the Presbyterian Lay Committee, which opposed the Confession of 1967, is now promoting the Confessing Church Movement as its new offensive move in this old war.

The Confessing Church Movement is urging all Presbyterians to require all elders, deacons and clergy to affirm the belief "that holy Scripture is the triune God’s revealed Word, the Church’s only infallible rule of faith and life." This is contrary to the Confession of 1967 and the 1983 General Assembly guidelines for reading scripture. The language of infallibility restates the claim of inerrancy defended so tenaciously for more than a century by Princeton Presbyterians.

However, this is not the theology of the 16^th century Reformers, such as John Calvin, nor is the belief in biblical infallibility good exegesis. The passage we read from the gospel of Matthew emphasizes doing the will of God, but it does not say that we know the word of God through scripture apart from Jesus Christ – who teaches, fulfills, and is the Word of God. Moreover, Paul’s argument in Romans concerning faith is about the righteousness of God, which is clearly known through Hebrew scripture but is redeeming only through God’s grace in Christ Jesus.

The Confessing Church Movement is wrong. We are not saved by the Holy Scripture, but by God’s grace in Jesus Christ. The triune God (the Trinity) is not the Father, Son and Holy Scripture. We worship God, in Christ, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. The Bible is holy only insofar as it directs us to the God who is Creator, Christ and Holy Spirit. Amen.

2 June 2002

  
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