Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire

(From Kevin) In the Reformed faith, we believe that God’s moral law as summarized in the Ten Commandments is binding on all men, everywhere. The Commandments teach us how God expects us to live in relation to him and to others. It is no small thing to break one of the Commandments. It is an equally serious thing to accuse someone of breaking one of the Commandments.

The Ninth Commandment is, “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.” Keeping the commandment involves positive and negative aspects.

Positively, the duties of the Commandment require,

the preserving and promoting of truth between man and man, and the good name of our neighbor, as well as our own; appearing and standing for the truth; and from the heart, sincerely, freely, clearly, and fully, speaking the truth, and only the truth, in matters of judgment and justice, and in all other things whatsoever; a charitable esteem of our neighbors; loving, desiring, and rejoicing in their good name; sorrowing for, and covering of their infirmities; freely acknowledging of their gifts and graces, defending their innocence; a ready receiving of a good report, and unwillingness to admit of an evil report, concerning them; discouraging tale-bearers, flatterers, and slanderers; love and care of our own good name, and defending it when need requires; keeping of lawful promises; studying and practicing of whatsoever things are true, honest, lovely, and of good report. (Westminster Larger Catechism, 144)

Negatively, the Commandment forbids,

prejudicing the truth, and the good name of our neighbors, as well as our own, especially in public judicature; giving false evidence, suborning false witnesses, wittingly appearing and pleading for an evil cause, out-facing and overbearing the truth; passing unjust sentence, calling evil good, and good evil; rewarding the wicked according to the work of the righteous, and the righteous according to the work of the wicked; forgery, concealing the truth, undue silence in a just cause, and holding our peace when iniquity calls for either a reproof from ourselves, or complaint to others;( speaking the truth unseasonably, or maliciously to a wrong end, or perverting it to a wrong meaning, or in doubtful and equivocal expressions, to the prejudice of truth or justice; speaking untruth, lying, slandering,backbiting, detracting, tale-bearing, whispering, scoffing, reviling, rash, harsh, and partial censuring; misconstruing intentions, words, and actions; flattering, vain-glorious boasting, thinking or speaking too highly or too meanly of ourselves or others; denying the gifts and graces of God; aggravating smaller faults; hiding, excusing, or extenuating of sins, when called to a free confession; unnecessary discovering of infirmities; raising false rumors, receiving and countenancing evil reports, and stopping our ears against just defense; evil suspicion; envying or grieving at the deserved credit of any, endeavoring or desiring to impair it, rejoicing in their disgrace and infamy; scornful contempt, fond admiration; breach of lawful promises; neglecting such things as are of good report, and practicing, or not avoiding ourselves, or not hindering what we can in others, such things as procure an ill name. (Westminster Larger Catechism, 145)

Essentially, then, breaking the Ninth Commandment involves either wanton disregard for the truth or malice in offering up un-truths. Which brings me to the point of this post.

Recently, there has been a rash of accusations against ministers in the PCA for allegedly breaking the Ninth Commandment. These men are not liars, but faithful upholders of the confessional standards of our church. To my knowledge, no less than 29 ministers have been accused of breaking the Commandment and three of them have been or are currently being formally investigated with an eye towards leveling charges against them. The presbyteries leveling these accusations, while no doubt also filled with many faithful ministers as well, all harbor known proponents of the Federal Vision. As the Ninth Commandment charges are coming so fast and furious right now its use is beginning to look like a stratagem from a Federal Vision playbook. If such a playbook exists, here are the plays:

1. Tell detractors that they misunderstood or took the Federal Vision proponent out of context. If that fails,
2. Say the detractor is too stupid to understand what the Federal Vision proponent is advocating. If that fails,
3. Accuse the detractor of violating the Ninth Commandment for drawing attention to what the Federal Vision proponent is advocating.

In short, the Ninth Commandment is becoming a cudgel to intimidate faithful ministers into silence. As one prominent PCA minister who is facing such an allegation recently said to me, “This approach is the last refuge of those who can't stand the heat of vigorous theological discourse.”

Kind of sounds like a violation of the Ninth Commandment to me.