Intellectual Defenestration

What the world needs now

apparently is yet another Reformed Presbyterian denomination. Seems a new one has recently formed: the Evangelical Reformed Presbyterian Church. The PCA and OPC have become apostate, it appears, and so should be abandoned.

Key quote: "The Gospel of Christ is under attack to a degree that has not been true since the Reformation." Things such as Socinianism, Amyraultianism, Arminianism, Unitarianism, and German higher criticism were minor quibbles it seems.

Calvin had some surprising words about church-splitting in his Institutes. His admonition towards those impatient with error was to:

Let them ponder that in a great multitude there are many men, truly holy and innocent in the Lord?s sight, who escape their notice. Let them ponder that even among those who seem diseased there are many who in no wise are pleased with, or flatter themselves in, their faults, but aroused again and again by a profound fear of the Lord, aspire to a more upright life. Let them ponder that a man is not to be judged for one deed, inasmuch as the holiest sometimes undergo a most grievous fall. Let them ponder how much more important both the ministry of the Word and participation in the sacred mysteries are for the gathering of the church than the possibility that this whole power may be dissipated through the guilt of certain ungodly men. Finally, let them realize that in estimating the true church divine judgment is of more weight than human. (Institutes IV.1.13)

In other words (I think), be patient. It may not be as bad as it seems.

June 7, 2005 07:26 PM
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