I would encourage our readers to go and watch the presentation of the PCA Strategic Plan by Bryan Chapell and then listen to this lecture entitled “The Fight Against False Optimism” by D.G. Hart on Machen.
The lecture is excellent. But what is most striking are the parallels between Charles Eerdman and Bryan Chapell as well as the 1926 commission report and the PCA Strategic Plan.
Thanks for the recommendation. I finally had an opportunity to sit down and watch Chappel’s video’s today, so I followed your advice and listened to Hart’s lecture immediately afterward. The connection between Eerdman’s committee report and the strategic plan is striking.
Hi Jay,
All the more reason why I sincerely pray that in God’s providence this plan will be soundly rejected by the PCA. My hope and prayer is for the advancement of the PCA in faithfulness to sound doctrine. There is nothing more important. Safe places, cultural transformation, a breaking with NAPARC will mean nothing if the church loses its militancy for sound doctrine. History – if we will listen to it – teaches us this lesson again and again.
Blessings,
“Clearcut definition of terms in religious matters, bold facing of the logical implications of religious views, is by many persons regarded as an impious proceeding. May it not discourage contribution to mission boards? May it not hinder the progress of consolidation, and produce a poor showing in columns of Church statistics? But with such persons we cannot possibly bring ourselves to agree. Light may seem at times to be an impertinent intruder, but it is always beneficial in the end. The type of religion which rejoices in the pious sound of traditional phrases, regardless of their meanings, or shrinks from ‘controversial’ matters, will never stand amid the shocks of life.”
-J. Gresham Machen. Christianity and Liberalism. pg 1
So glad others are picking up on this. The real problem in the PCUSA, politically, was not Pearl Buck or Harry Fosdick.
It was the moderate evangelicals who did not understand the issues, namely Erdman and Speer.
kYXtLq I’m not easily impressed. . . but that’s impressing me!
Ken,
You are exactly correct. The liberals were not the ones who sank the PCUSA, it was the moderates/evangelicals who wanted to tolerate the liberals and provide safe places for them.