Post on 03-Jun-2018
8/12/2019 2002 Issue 1 - What's So Controversial About the New Controversy? - Counsel of Chalcedon
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FROM THE EDITORS
... continued i ll
page
2
One of
the things you will have already noticed is
that we are introducing a change
in
our presentation.
Our
desire is to make the magazine easy to navigate
and reader friendly. As the Lord provides, we wish
to progress toward a
more
typical magazine format,
using more color and perhaps even slick inside pages.
These ideas will depend
on
subscription growth and
continued as well as increasing support from
our
many
faithful patrons.
Our pologies
We
realize that for some time now we have
advertised this magazine as monthly and yet have
been producing
it
every other
month
and lately
not
even that often. We offer
our
sincerest apologies
and ask the forgiveness of all our readers. Any who
wish to do so may request appropriate refunds for
the unpublished issues. We will no longer advertise
ourselves
as
monthly. However, we do intend to
publish
on
a more regular schedule, starting with every
other month and then, as
God
allows in His kind
providence, we hope to reinstitute a monthly schedule.
We anticipate completing the year with this issue
July / August) plus two more (September/October
and November/December). Depending on God's
provision through our readers' generosity, we are
renewing our efforts and energy to
push
forward.
he
Current Controversy
In this issue, we are devoting a number of pages
to topics pertinent to
the
current controversy over
the teaching
of
several Reformed pastors. As the
result of studying closely the public teachings of these
pastors, Covenant Presbytery of the RPCUS (the
Reformed Presbyterian Church
in
the United States)
recently issued two resolutions, one condemning the
teachings and the other calling for their repentance
(both of the resolutions are reprinted in this issue).
The
overall response
to
these resolutions saddens
me deeply. Very few people have discussed the issues
at hand but instead have chosen to deflect criticism
with personal attacks or by focusing on perceived
deviations from appropriate procedures.
One of
the
accusations has been that these men have been labeled
heretics without a trial. This is incorrect, instead they
have been said to teach heresy. The heresies they are
4
the
COUNSEL o CH LCEDON
advocating were labeled such
in
trials
and
councils
held centuries ago.
The other accusation has been regarding
procedure. Some have said that the RPCUS failed
to follow appropriate procedure, some even alleging
that Matthew 18 was violated. As one person recently
remarked, it
is as
if a witness to a capital crime
is
being
forbidden to testify because he double parked
on
arrival at the courthouse. Whether there has
been
any
actual double parking
is
doubtful (see Brian Abshire's
article
on
the application of Matthew 18
to
public sin
in this issue). It is far more important to discuss the
doctrinal errors
in
question
than
these
other
detracting
issues.
f
anyone indeed has any personal offense
in
their craw, they are the ones
in
need
of
practicing
Matthew 18 directly rather than discussing the offense
publicly with others (especially over the internet). In
the mean time, we will confine ourselves,
as
before,
to
discussing the actual error involved in doctrine rather
than personally attacking anyone.
The challenge has been made to show whether
these men have been appropriately understood. This
issue will provide detailed support for concerns over
the doctrinal accuracy of the new teachings, and more
will be forthcoming in subsequent issues. Additional
help for those struggling with the current controversy
is available at www.rpcus.com and www.chalcedon.org.
Readers should be sure to read the reprint in this issue
of
Joe Morecraft's editorial introduction from the
recently published
Nel} SoNthern
Presbyte ian
Revielv.
This is not a mere difference of opinion.
At
stake
is the definition of the way of salvation. To borrow an
analogy from my dear friend Kyle Dixon, this is not
about the color of the carpet, the size
of
communion
cups, or pews vs. chairs. It
is
about the question
What must I do to be saved? Paul did not , in answer
to the Phillipian jailer, instruct him in the error of his
question. Rather, he answered
it
simply, Believe in the
LordJesus and you shall be saved, you and your house.
Perhaps, as some have suggested, there is mere
carelessness and imprecision involved. This is
highly doubtful,
but
even
if
these arrows
of
doctrine
have been shot carelessly, they have landed in the
very throne room of the King. And we are duty
bound to
defend the King against
all
attacks.
Q
-Mark D Anthon St:
8/12/2019 2002 Issue 1 - What's So Controversial About the New Controversy? - Counsel of Chalcedon
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What s So
Controversial About
the New Controversy
y
Joe Morecraft III
Note: This article original JI
appeared
as Joe Morecrcift's
introductory
note in the recent
inaugural
issue oj
The New
Southern
Presf?yterian
Review".
y heart hurts
as
I write this,
but
I must
because the
truth of
the g o ~ p l is at stake
(Galatians
1 6 1 0). In the w1nter of 2002
the Auburn Avenue Presbyterian Church Pastors
Conference
took
place
in
Monroe, Louisiana.
The
speakers were Steve Wilkins, Steve Schlissel, Douglas
Wilson, and
John
Barach.
Norman
Shepherd was
supposed to be one of the speakers
but
he was
providentially hindered in the loss of his wife. Since
then we have often prayed that
od
would bring him
comfort.
I have carefully listened to all the lecture tapes
of this conference and have read related material by
some of the lecturers. I have spent hours studying
the roots of the perspective presented at this
conference. I earnestly and sadly believe that what
was presented by these men,
all
of
whom
have made
major contributions to the advance
of
the Reformed
Faith in the late Twentieth Century, represents at
best a blurring
of the gospel of Christ, and at worst,
a betrayal of that gospel. This is
not
to say that
all they presented was in error,
but
it is to say that
misrepresentations, caricatures, reckless statements,
deceptive statements and departures from the truth of
od
were intermixed with the good things they said.
This makes their statements all the more dangerous,
since careful discernment is necessary
to
distinguish
truth
from plausibly expressed falsehoods.
Those aspects of the gospel that were blurred or
redefined in an unbiblical manner by the speakers
of
the AAPC Pastors Conference included: the nature
of justification, the role of faith in justification, the
relation of faith and works, the meaning of baptism,
the eternal security and perseverance of the saints,
the nature
of
revelation, the unity
of
the covenant
of grace, the difference between the Old Testament
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of
CH LCEDON
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What s So Controversial About the New Controversy?
and Judaism, the relation
of
Law and Gospel, and
the nature and goal of evangelism. Closely related to
these issues was the caricaturing of the solas of the
Reformation and the Westminster Standards as Greek
and Hellenistic misinterpretations
of.
the teaching
of
the \ Vord
of
God, which Standards must, at best, be re
cast according to these men's innovative perspective or,
at worst, cast aside completely in order for the gospel to
be presented effectively with its full antithetical nature
to the
21
5t
Century.
Lest you think all this is an exaggeration or
misrepresentation
on
my part, consider the following
comments made at various times by the speakers from
the 110nroe pastors' conference. I will be accused of
taking these quotes out of context,
but
I assure you that
their context does
not
make them any less erroneous.
But how do you know that
God
chose you? The
answer is that you've had the special experience.
You've been baptized. All God's salvation-from
election to
glorification-is
found in
All this [John
15]
means that a
man
can be genuinely
attached to Christ and yet bear
no
fruit.
He is
as
attached as the fruit-bearing branch is. They
both
partake of the root and fatness
of
the tree. Sap
flows
to
both
branches.
The
fruitless branch tastes
the heavenly gift. He has been enlightened (Heb.
6:4).
And
when the process
of
apostasy comes to
completion, he tramples underfoot the blood of
the covenant
l Y }vhich he }vas sanctified
(Heb. 10:29).
Douglas
Wilson, S
llmbling
into
Aposta.ry,
CRE
DENDAAGENDA,
Vol. 13,
Number
2, p. 16
...
reading the Bible this way, and
in
this sense, we
can speak
of
baptismal regeneration... By our
baptism we have been reborn
in
this sense-having
died with Christ, we've been raised with Him.
...
because by baptism-by baptism-the Spirit
joins us to Christ. Since
He
is the elect one, and
the church
is
the elect people, we are joined to
His body, we therefore are elect. Since
He
is the
justified one, we are justified in Him.
Steve Willdns,
The Legary
o
the Ha f-Wqy
Christ. And when you were baptized,
God
promised to unite you to Jesus
Christ. That's what it means to be
baptized into Christ. You're united
to Jesus and
all
His salvation is for
you. At baptism,
God
promises
that you're really one of His
elect
.. Doubting your election when
God
has promised it to you is sin;
... good works .. are nev
ertheless necessary for
salvation from eternal
Covenant, lecture delivered at the Auburn
Avenue Pastors' Conference.
Does
the
LORD
delight
in
the solas
as much as
in
obeying the voice
of
the LORD? To obey
is
better than
sacrifice, and to heed is better than
the systems
of men.... Do not trust
condemnation and there-
fore for justification ..
Norman Shepherd
-
John Barach,
answering a letter
to the editor
on
www.messiahnyc.org,
http:/
/
www.messiahnyc.org/ article. php?sid
=
62
Our goal is
not to
get people to believe in something
called Christianity. Here I am drawing
on
a couple
of essays, one by Mark Horne ... and another by
Peter Leithart, called, 'Against Christianity
For
the Church.'
The
Bible does
not
say anything
about Christianity; it talks about the Church.
- John
Barach,
Covenallt and EvangelislJl, lecture
delivered at the
Auburn
Avenue Pastors'
Conference
A theological liberal in
.a mainstream
denomination should be considered covenantally
a Christian, even though
he
denies the virgin
birth, the substitutionary death of Christ,
the resurrection, and the final judgment.
Douglas
WilsonJlldas JJ as aBishop, in
CREDENDA
AGENDA, Vol. 13,
Number
2,
p.
12
6
the COUNSEL
of
CH LCEDON
in
deceptive words and
say,
The
solas
of the Reformation,
The
solas of the
Reformation, The solas of the Reformation.
Steve Schlissel, We lJIust
be
Christians, ot Hellenists,
p. 9, unpublished paper.
Because faith which is
not
obedient faith is dead
faith, and because repentance is necessary for the
pardon
of
sin included in justification, and because
abiding
in
Christ by keeping his commandments
...
are all necessary for continuing in the state
of
justification, good works, works done from
true faith, according
to
the law
of
God
..
are
nevertheless necessary for salvation from eternal
condemnation and therefore for justification
..
Norman
Shepherd, Thi11Yjour Theses
on Justification
in
Relation
to Faith, Repentance and Good Works,
http://www.hornes.org/ theologia/
content/
00000076.htm
The
viewpoint of these men, and others within the
Evangelical and Reformed camp, stems from their own
8/12/2019 2002 Issue 1 - What's So Controversial About the New Controversy? - Counsel of Chalcedon
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What's So Controversial
About
the
New
Controversy?
readjustments of a movement that is oyer thirty years
old called by its representatives
The New
Perspective
on
Paul. Its representatives include I