Volume 1 Issue 1
Page 1

January 1996

VINTAGE WILSON

"ORIGINS OF CONCERNED PRESBYTERIANS"

In November 1991 four ruling elders asked me to help them keep their Session from being dissolved. Inasmuch as I had been medically disabled with a heart condition and consequently inactive in the Church courts, for seven years, I originally told them I cou1dn't help them. A few weeks later, elders in another church called to ask if you could dissolve a Session with twelve active elders. I soon found these were two of many Sessions being dissolved.

Returning to active involvement in the PCA both shocked and disturbed me. What reasoning would recommend dissolving a Session? What Presbytery would allow such a tactic to be used to destroy the Churches of that Presbytery? I called elders around the denomination to seek advice and counsel. Some responded with similar horror stories. Others could not believe such things were happening in the PCA.

In December 1992, Concerned Presbyterians was founded when several of these elders met to discuss the situation within the PCA. We felt that the majority of the members in the PCA were like the frog in the kettle. Since a frog doesn't have temperature sensors in its skin. You can put it in a kettle of cold water, turn up the heat, and literally cook it alive. How many people in the PCA had been led astray by a group of "Modernists" using the false name of "Evangelicals"? How many knew that the PCA had turned away from the Scriptures as "the only rule of faith and practice"?

The founders of Concerned Presbyterians decided to alert the people of the Church by calling the Presbyterian Church in America "to be what she said she would be." A Memorial was sent to the General Assembly asking the PCA to reaffirm her commitment to the Scriptures in seven areas:

Areas of Concern:

1. The inerrancy and sufficiency of Scripture: We expressed "our alarm that there are Presbyteries that accept men as ministers who hold to the possibility of 'new revelation' from God through prophecy, or other means."
2. The delegation of responsibilities given to the Church Courts to other bodies: We denounced "the amendment to our Book of Church Order, which delegates all judicial cases to a Standing Judicial Commission, without any right reserved to the Assembly, to question or debate the decisions of this Commission."
3. Looseness in practice regarding Subscription: We affirmed "that the PCA was established as a 'strict subscription,' Old School Presbyterian Church, and we are concerned that there is such a loose practice on the part of our Presbyteries and Sessions on this matter."
4. The drift from the original Concept of Committees serving the Assembly to Board-type agencies: We expressed great concern "that increasingly our Assembly Committees acting as Boards, independent of the Assembly."
5. The efforts to deny the ecclesiastical authority of higher courts over lower courts: We said, "We are concerned by the efforts to change the Church polity, by denying the ecclesiastical authority that the higher courts have over the lower courts."
6. The move toward Congregationalism within congregations: We said, "There is abroad in the PCA a movement that would have the Sessions delegate their responsibilities and authority in the various areas of the life of the congregation to committees made up of people from throughout the congregation."
7. The flagrant abandonment of the regulative principle of worship: We said, "...the widespread ignoring and open disregard for the regulative principle of worship, ...quickly degenerates to all sorts of entertainment, including skits, dancing, and other modern expressions of offering 'strange fire' in services that are called 'worship services.'"

In sending the Memorial, the founders were aware some would misunderstand and others would purposely misrepresent, and even malign, Concerned Presbyterians. On the other hand, there are those who would compare the sending of the Memorial to the General Assembly to Martin Luther's nailing his theses to the Church door, or to Machen's fight against Liberalism.

The Founders see Concerned Presbyterians as a spiritual fellowship, not a political movement. Our primary purpose is to declare the whole counsel of God as contained in the Scripture and faithfully represented in the Westminster Standards. Our plan is not to change the PCA by controlling the votes at General Assembly, or by taking over the committees and agencies. Our strategy is to reform the PCA by prayer, education, and by working through the courts of the church.

If you are willing to "contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints"(Jude 3), we encourage you to join Concerned Presbyterians.* As you do we admonish you to take heed to Ephesians 6:10-19 and particularly, to verse 11, "Put on the whole armour of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil."

*Sign the Memorial presented to the 21st General Assembly.
Copies may be obtained upon request from Chairman Wilson, or a copy, with attachment, may be found in the Minutes of the 21st GA, pp.148-157.