2011 39th PCA General Assembly: Overtures 3-5

You can find Overtures 1 and 2 discussed here.  Overture 5 is a request to divide the Korean Eastern Presbytery into two presbyteries (Korean Eastern and Korean Northeastern).  Overture 4 from Nashville Presbytery seems pretty understandable.  It asks to delete “c. his views in theology, and d. church government.” from BCO 19-11 as it regards the transfer of interns from one presbytery to another.  The obvious reason for asking for this deletion is the fact that when one becomes an intern in the first place they are not asked their views in theology nor in church government.  Overture 3 then is an alternative funding plan for the Administrative Committee.  You can read about this overture here.

Practical New Age Pastoral Theology

Here is your example of New Age, Postmodern theology worked out in real life for real people.  It gives no answers and leaves people with uncertainty and no hope for the future. This type of theology is wrong not only for those reasons, but because it plainly is not true.  But God is true, Jesus is true, and true answers come from His Word, the living breathed out Word, found in the Bible.  The answer for this man is to come to Jesus and be forgiven.  Atonement is possible.  Jesus forgives!  Jesus saves! Jesus gives rest for the weary! 

Do We Sin When We Dream?

The Whole Works of the Late Reverend Thomas Boston (Vol. 2), Pg. 70.  He speaks about dreaming and if we sin in our dreams.

But some may say, What is to be thought of men's dreaming that they are breaking God's commandments, e.g. profaning the sabbath-day, swearing, lying, &c. while really they are fast asleep, are not doing so, nor opening their mouths, &c.?

Ans.... No doubt it is sin, and will damn thee if it be not pardoned, and washed away by the blood of Christ. For, (1.) The scripture condemns it. Hence the apostle, Jude 8 speaks of filthy dreams that defile the flesh. (2.) The consent of the heart unto sin, the delectation that it finds in it, makes a man guilty; and the soul is always a rational agent, and this consent is given to these temptations in sleep. (3.) A man when awake thinking what he doth is sinful, though upon the matter it be not, yet it is sin to him; .e.g. a man taking his own goods, which yet he thinks are another man's, is guilty of theft before God: for whatsoever is not of faith is sin. So is it in this case, (4.) As these things arise from corrupt nature, so readily they follow on some such motions that people have been taken up with when awake, or from a loose, carnal, and secure frame. They are looked on as sinful by tender consciences. (5.) As men may do something pleasing to God in a dream, so may they do something to displease him, 2 Kings iii. 5. (6.) The law impressed upon the heart is designed to keep it even in sleep, Prov. vi. 22. 23. When thou sleepest, it shall keep thee. For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light. But ye may say, What if a man has been watching against these things, praying against; them, &c. and yet in sleep falls into them? I answer, It is still sinful, in so far as the heart complies with the diabolic suggestion; and the truth is, by grace temptation is sometimes resisted in sleep, as well as when we are awake.

2011 39th PCA General Assembly: Overtures 1 and 2

The gate has now opened and we are driving towards the 2011 PCA GA.  There are already now two overtures submitted for this year.  Overture 1 is for dividing up Central Carolina Presbytery into three different presbyteries, it goes before MNA so I will make no comment here.  Overture 2 is from South Florida Presbytery and deals with term limits of the Stated Clerk of GA and the Coordinators of the four major committees.

Overture 2 states,

Overture to Amend RAO 4-9 — To set term limits for Coordinators of Program Committees and Stated Clerk

Whereas, the PCA has enjoyed God’s favor and grace for nearly forty (40) years, and

Whereas, the PCA has been blessed with very Godly, capable and competent men to serve in various leadership positions in our four (4) Program Committees and office of the Stated Clerk, and

Whereas, there has been a stated desire by two General Assemblies in the 2006 and 2010 Strategic Plans to see “Increased Involvement” and new leadership in the PCA, and

Whereas, the members of the Church of Jesus Christ possess, by God’s grace, certain and specific, yet varied gifts and talents which are to be used for God’s glory and are beneficial and edifying to the greater Body of Christ, and

Whereas, Scripture instructs the Church of Jesus Christ to enjoy and make the best use of the varied gifts and talents within the Church (1 Cor. 3:21–23; 10:31; 12:7, 21; 14:12, 26; Eph. 4:11–16; Col. 2:19), and

Whereas, there comes a time in the life of all organizations that a change in leadership is both needed and beneficial, and

Whereas, a regular change in leadership can be the means to identifying and raising up men who have been blessed of God to serve his Church, and

Whereas, the present reading of RAO 4-9 requires the annual nomination and election of the Program Committee Coordinators and Stated Clerk; and

Whereas, this annual nomination and election has become pro forma in that the General Assembly has always accepted the nomination and election of the Coordinators and the Stated Clerk; and

Whereas, men called to these positions should have a measure of certainty with regard to their status; and

Whereas, it would be advantageous to the Church to have the assurance that qualified men serve the Church for a specified term of service.

Therefore, the South Florida Presbytery overtures the 39th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in America to amend the Rules of Assembly Operation (RAO) 4-9 to set term limits for Coordinators of our Program Committees and the Stated Clerk.

And further, if RAO 4-9 is adopted as amended, that the implementation of this provision would not affect those presently serving as Coordinators and Stated Clerk (the so called “grandfather clause”), but take effect upon the nomination and election of men not presently serving in these positions.

Amend RAO 4-9 with the following deletions (strikethroughs) and additions (underlined)

The four program Committees shall nominate for their respective Committees annually a coordinator for election by the General Assembly for a term not to exceed five (5) years, and may nominate him for election by the General Assembly to a second term not to exceed five (5) years, after which he is not eligible to be nominated or elected as coordinator. The Administrative Committee shall nominate annually a Stated Clerk for election by the General Assembly for a term not to exceed five (5) years, and may nominate him for election by the General Assembly to a second term not to exceed five (5) years, after which he is not eligible to be nominated or elected as Stated Clerk. If the nominee has not been examined by the Theological Examining Committee, such an examination must take place prior to the election when it is a first time employment. A new coordinator shall assume office at the end of the Assembly meeting, or at such time thereafter as designated by the General Assembly.

If amended RAO 4-9 would read:

The four program Committees shall nominate for their respective Committees a coordinator for election by the General Assembly for a term not to exceed five (5) years, and may nominate him for election by the General Assembly to a second term not to exceed five (5) years, after which he is not eligible to be nominated or elected as coordinator. The Administrative Committee shall nominate a Stated Clerk for election by the General Assembly for a term not to exceed five (5) years, and may nominate him for election by the General Assembly to a second term not to exceed five (5) years, after which he is not eligible to be nominated or elected as Stated Clerk. If the nominee has not been examined by the Theological Examining Committee, such an examination must take place prior to the election when it is a first time employment. A new coordinator shall assume office at the end of the Assembly meeting, or at such time thereafter as designated by the General Assembly.

Adopted by South Florida Presbytery at its stated meeting, January 18, 2011Attested by TE Michael C. Woodham, stated clerk

"We Ought To Hate It With A Deadly Hatred" by JC Ryle

"You who love the Lord, hate evil!" Psalm 97:10

How much we ought to hate sin! Instead of . . .

  loving it,

  cleaving to it,

  dallying with it,

  excusing it,

  playing with it--

we ought to hate it with a deadly hatred!

Sin is the great murderer, and thief, and

pestilence, and nuisance of this world!

Let us make no peace with it!

Let us wage a ceaseless warfare against it!

A Lazy Minister! - Spurgeon

"Be shepherds of God's flock that is under your care . . . not greedy for money, but eager to serve; not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock!" 1 Peter 5:2-3

We preachers must be examples to the flock. He who cannot be safely imitated, ought not to be tolerated in a pulpit!

Did I hear of a minister who was always striving for pre-eminence? Or of another who was covetous? Or of a third whose life was not always chaste? Or of a fourth who did not rise, as a rule, until eleven o'clock in the morning?

I would hope that this last rumor was altogether false. An idle minister! What will become of him? Does he expect to go to heaven? I was about to say, "If he does go there at all--may it be soon!" A lazy minister is a creature despised by men--and abhorred by God!

I said to a farmer, "You pay your minister such a small amount! Why, the poor man cannot live on it!" His answer was, "Look here, sir! I will tell you the truth--we give him a good deal more than he earns!"

It is a sad pity when that can be said; it is an injury to all those who follow our sacred calling. We are to be examples to our flock in all things. We are to excel . . .

in all diligence,

in all gentleness,

in all humility, and

in all holiness.

"Mere Christianity" by CS Lewis

Kevin DeYoung gives us some cautions when reading CS Lewis' "Mere Christianity".

Cautions for Mere Christianity

C.S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity is a classic. It is a winsome, thoughtful, well-written defense of the Christian faith. Some of its better known sections–like the famous liar, lunatic, Lord, trilemma–have become part of the way evangelicals think and speak. No doubt God has used Lewis and Mere Christianity to awaken affections for Christ, engage the mind for Christ, and remove obstacles for the Spirit to draw people to Christ. I’m thankful for all this. More than that, I’ve benefited from every Lewis book I’ve read.

But C.S. Lewis was not an evangelical. Mere Christianity shows why.

Let me highlight two significant problems.

Atonement, But How?
The first caution to raise concerns Lewis’ view of the atonement. Lewis believed Jesus died on the cross for sin, but he didn’t think it was important to understand the particulars of what Christ accomplished on the cross.

Now before I became a Christian I was under the impression that the first thing Christians had to believe was one particular theory as to what the point of this dying was. According to that theory God wanted to punish men for having deserted and joined the Great Rebel, but Christ volunteered to be punished instead, and so God let us off. Now I admit that even this theory does not seem quite so immoral and silly as it used to; but that is not the point I want to make. What I came to see later on was that neither this theory nor an other is Christianity. The central belief is that Christ’s death has somehow put us right with God and given us a fresh start. Theories as to how it did this are another matter: A good many different theories have been held as to how it works; what all Christians are agreed on is that it does work. (57-58 [pagination varies by edition)

Later Lewis says that “Christ was killed for us” and “His death has washed out our sins” but “any theories we build up as to how Christ’s death did all this are, in my view, quite secondary” (59). This impatience of careful thinking about the atonement is bad enough, but then Lewis goes on to make clear that he rejects the understanding of the atonement evangelicals (and the Bible I would say) find most central and most glorious.

The one most people have heard is the one I mentioned before–the one about our being let off because Christ had volunteered to bear a punishment instead of us. Now on the face of it that is a very silly theory. If God was prepared to let us off, why on earth did He not do so? And what possible point could there be in punishing an innocent person? None at all that I can see, if you are thinking of punishment in the police-court sense. On the the other hand, if you think of a debt, there is plenty of point in a person who has some assets paying it on behalf of someone who has not. (59)

Pay careful attention to what Lewis says in that paragraph. He does believe in a substitutionary theory of the atonement, but he rejects penal substitution. He admits that penal substitution is not quite as silly as it once sounded, but he still does not accept it. Instead, he argues that Christ pays a debt (which is true), but not as a punishment for our sakes.

Lewis’ theology of the atonement is confusing (see for example this helpful Touchstone article), but I would argue his view is more like Christus victor or ransom to Satan than penal substitution. Aslan’s death, you may recall, was a sacrifice to the Witch and was explained rather ambiguously as “deeper magic.” This is not the place to defend the critical importance of penal substitution. My point is simply that Lewis does not teach it in Mere Christianity, and in fact undermines it.

An Early Inclusivist
The second problem with Mere Christianity is Lewis’ inclusivism. Evangelicals believe that Jesus Christ is the only way to God. Further, they believe that conscious faith in Jesus Christ is necessary for salvation (assuming we are talking about sentient beings; all Christians allow that infants and the mentally disabled may be in a different category). Lewis, by contrast, believed in what we might roughly call “anonymous Christians.” That is, people may be saved through Christ without putting explicit faith in Christ.

There are people who do not accept the full Christian doctrine about Christ but who are so strongly attracted by Him that they are His in a much deeper sense than they themselves understand. There are people in other religions who are being led by God’s secret influence to concentrate on those parts of their religion which are in agreement with Christianity, and who thus belong to Christ without knowing it. For example, a Buddhist of good will may be led to concentrate more and more on the Buddhist teaching about mercy and to leave in the background (though he might still say he believed) the Buddhist teaching on certain other points. (178)

No matter how much we may like Lewis, this is simply a profound misunderstanding of the Spirit’s mission (and a rejection of John 14:6). The work of the Holy Spirit is to bring glory to Christ by taking what is his–his teaching, the truth about his death and resurrection–and making it known. The Spirit does not work indiscriminately without the revelation of Christ in view. Arguably, the Holy Spirit’s most important work is to glorify Christ, and he does not do this apart from shining the spotlight on Christ for the elect to see and savor. Again, we see the inclusivist Lewis at the end on Narnia where Emeth, a worshiper of Tash, is accepted by Aslan for following him all along without knowing it.

All that to say, yes, I have some cautions when it comes to Mere Christianity. Good book. But some serious deficiencies.

Meditation for the Lord's Day Evening

"I will ponder all your work, and meditate on your mighty deeds." ~ Psalm 77:12 

"I will meditate also of all thy work. Sweet work to enter into Jehovah’s work of grace, and there to lie down and ruminate, every thought being absorbed in the one precious subject." (C.H. Spurgeon, Treasury of David)

Meyers Missouri Presbytery Report (Federal Vision)

Here is Missouri Presbytery's Report on their findings into TE Jeff Meyers on whether or not he is teaching federal vision theology. 

Missouri Presbytery’s final report from the committee investigating TE Jeffrey Meyers is available here. I believe that this document will prove to be one of the more important Federal Vision documents to be released in a while. It is a rather complete statement of the issues on baptism, covenant, and justification by a prominent Federal Visionist to a friendly PCA Court.

I plan to post each section in separate posts here on Johannes Weslianus for comment and discussion. The links to the sections available in separate blog posts are as follows:

1. Introduction
2. Views on Covenant Theology
3. Views on Theology of the Imputation of Christ’s Merit
4. View on Theology of Baptism
5. Views on Theology of Perseverance
6. Views on Theology of Justification
7. Report of the Subcommittee Investigating Process and Injurious Reports
8. TE Meyers’ Letter of Apology
9. Conclusion
10. Meyers’ Q & A — I. Covenant
11. Meyers’ Q & A — II. The Imputation of Christ’s Merit
12. Meyers’ Q & A — III. Baptism
13. Meyers’ Q & A — IV. Perseverance
14. Meyers’ Q & A — V. Justification

Here is a timeline of the relevant events in this controversy. Please check back for further updates.

Missouri Presbytery Exonerates TE Jeffrey Meyers - Federal Vision

Here are two links to Wes White's blog where he describes Missouri Presbytery's TE Jeffrey Meyers having been exonerated on charges of holding to false teaching called the Federal Vision.

http://www.weswhite.net/2011/01/mo-presbytery-exonerates-federal-visionist-jeffrey-meyers-of-all-theological-errors/

http://www.weswhite.net/2011/01/mo-presbyterys-specific-exonerations-of-te-meyers/