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A recent
“Presbyterian Outlook” article written by Shannon Neufeld (Outlook, Dec.
17, 2007, http://pres-outlook.com/
tabid/ 2013/Article/ 6480/Default.aspx) left me flabbergasted and, for
a little while at least, made me begin to wonder if our Presbyterian Church
(USA) has completely been reduced to irrelevance.
According to Neufeld,
Mission Presbytery in Texas has recently wrestled with the question of
whether or not a person should have to confess to the belief in Jesus Christ
as Lord and Savior in order to become a member of a church.
Neufeld wrote that
the issue arose when Robert Jensen, a journalism professor at the
University of Texas at Austin, joined St. Andrew’s Church in Austin, Texas,
in 2005, and later declared in a published article that he does not believe
in Jesus, or God, at all. When Mission Presbytery’s Committee on Ministry
researched whether or not there are questions in the Book of Order on
joining the membership of a church, they found such questions — at least as
required in an explicit formula — are not there.
At the request of
Mission Presbytery, Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, where I earned
both Master of Divinity and Doctor of Ministry degrees, made this the topic
of its Fall 2007 President’s Colloquium, “Joining and Being Church: What’s
Not Negotiable?” Featured speakers were Michael Jinkins, Austin Seminary’s
academic dean, and Paul Hooker, executive presbyter and stated clerk of the
Presbytery of St. Augustine. They discussed whether or not there are
universally agreed upon minimum standards of belief for becoming a member of
a church in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and examined related matters of
theology and ecclesiology.
As sad as it makes me
that my theological alma mater even hosted a colloquium that raises the
issue of whether trust in Jesus Christ as the Son of God is mandatory and a
prerequisite for church membership, I am amazed that discussion on the
subject appealed only to the witness of the Book of Order, Chapter 5,
a chapter of Part 2 of the PCUSA's constitution, and not to the rich
testimony of the Book of Confessions, Part 1 of the PCUSA's
constitution. Yet another example of our church being driven by its polity
instead of its theology.
Throughout the
Book of Confessions, the theological foundation for our
Presbyterian/Reformed theological understanding, the theme of "Christ alone"
is lifted up again and again. If the Book of Confessions had been
consulted, the participants in the colloquium might have been reminded of
what The Second Helvetic Confession says in Chapter 17, first referring to
the belief that those in the church pray to God "alone through Jesus Christ,
the only Mediator and Intercessor; and they do not seek righteousness and
life outside Christ and faith in him" (5.135).
In that same chapter
they would have been reminded of the Reformed understanding of general and
special election, that "not all who are in the church are of
the church." Section 5.139 goes on to say that there are those who
participate in the life of faith but "are inwardly destitute of true
illumination of the Spirit."
The Heidelberg
Catechism speaks of how "the Son of God, by his Spirit and his Word,
gathers, protects, and preserves for himself, in the unity of the true
faith, a congregation chosen for eternal life" (4.054).
The Confession of
1967 says, "The reconciling work of Jesus was the Supreme crisis in the life
of mankind. His cross and resurrection become personal crisis and present
hope for men when the gospel is proclaimed and believed...the Spirit brings
God's forgiveness to men, moves them to respond in faith, repentance, and
obedience, and initiates the new life in Christ" (9.21). In 9.25 the
Confession says that the strength of church members "is in their confidence
that God's purpose rather than man's schemes will finally prevail."
The Confession also
says," The gift of God in Christ is for all men. The church, therefore, is
commissioned to carry the gospel to all men whatever their religion may be
and even when they profess none" (9.42).
At least Jinkins
alludes to the Confessions when he talks about his confidence in Christ's
faith, moreso than his own. Again, the Second Helvetic Confession says, "We
are made truly righteous, as we have said, by fatih in Christ purely by the
grace of God, who does not impute to us our sins, but the righteousness of
Christ, or rather, he imputes faith in Christ to us for righteousness
(5.110)...For again the apostle said, 'It is no longer I who live, but
Christ who lives in me, and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith
in the Son of God'" (5.111).
I would consider my
own father, who rejected the Roman Catholic faith and the institutional
church as a young man, and now considers himself to be an agnostic, to be a
secular Christian in the sense that Jensen defines himself, in that in his
life he attempts to embody the teachings of Jesus. In fact, I would say that
my father lives the most Christian life I have ever witnessed. My hope and
prayer is that the baptism he received and confession of faith he made as a
young man prior to falling away from faith will be remembered by our Lord.
But my father at least has the integrity to not claim membership in an
institution based on a faith in Jesus Christ that he does not believe.
Membership in the
Body of Christ demands a public confession of faith in Jesus Christ as Lord
and Savior; to make an oath based on the belief that in Christ one is dead
to sin and alive by means of Christ's grace. To lessen this mandate is to
make the church even more irrelevant than it already is to a world in
desperate need of the grace of Jesus Christ.
For all that we, as a
denomination, want to be welcoming to all people, for all that we want to
engage people of different faith persuasions in dialogue in the hope of
their hearts being opened to the truth of Jesus Christ, there comes a point
where we must, as Martin Luther did at the Diet of Worms, state
unequivocally, “ Here I stand.” If the day should ever come when belief in
Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior becomes optional, or even debatable, for a
person to be received into active membership in the Body of Christ, then the
Presbyterian Church (USA) will have fallen before the gates of hell.
I am willing to be in
dialogue with Christians about almost any facet of our faith. I am willing
to be in dialogue with non-Christians in the hope that the Holy Spirit will
open their hearts to Christ’s grace. I am not, nor will I ever be, willing
to debate whether or not belief in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior is
optional for church members. Some things are not negotiable.
I will pray for Dr. Jensen. I will pray for my seminary. I will
continue to pray for our Presbyterian Church (USA).
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