A very good friend in the USA sent me the link mounted below. It is a report of the compromise and the departure from God’s Word by the Presbyterian Church in America which is not yet 50 years old! It is a report to which we all should take heed.
Here is a plain warning to the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster with regards the inevitable fruit of compromise and failure to judge breaches in the standards of God’s Word by members because of a sheltering of them by compatriots due to their prominence!
SJC Rules on Complaint Against Missouri Presbytery
The Presbyterian Church of America was considered a theologically conservative U.S. evangelical Presbyterian denomination when founded in 1973. The PCA has its roots in theological controversies over liberalism in Christianity and neo-orthodoxy that had been a point of contention in the Presbyterian Church in the U. S. In December 1973, delegates, representing some 260 congregations with a combined communicant membership of over 41,000 that had left the PCUS, gathered at Briarwood Presbyterian Church in Birmingham, Alabama, and organised the National Presbyterian Church, which later became the Presbyterian Church in America.
However, despite being only 50 years old, it has succumbed to evil within its ranks with its latest decision to endorse the ordination of one who confesses to be ‘homosexual’.
As stated in the above linked article:
“The Standing Judicial Commission (SJC), the highest judicatory of the Presbyterian Church in America, has ruled that Missouri Presbytery did not violate the investigation requirements of the Book of Church Order and did not err when it declined to process allegations against TE Greg Johnson.
The judgement is a consequence of a complaint that arose out of Missouri Presbytery which alleged that TE Johnson 1) “denies that same-sex-attraction is sinful,” 2) “compromises and dishonors his identity in Christ by self-identifying as a same-sex-attracted man,” 3) “denies God’s purpose and power to sanctify SSA [same-sex-attracted] believers,” and 4) “cannot meet the biblical ‘above reproach’ qualification for the eldership.”
From orthodoxy to this position of accepting a man who “self-identifying as a same-sex-attracted man” and that within fifty years! Let us take heed in Ulster.
There has been a shielding of those who have shown themselves at least weak in rejecting sodomy in that they have, in their support for the present position of the Democratic Unionist Party. The DUP has been guilty of aiding in the funding of sodomite organisations and more recently in the endorsing of a sodomite as a candidate standing for the party. Even more recently, there have been evidences of a growing support for all things ‘LGBT’ amongst the ranks of the DUP.
These developments have met with silence and at best prevarication, by Free Presbyterian DUP members.
When the Presbytery has been challenged on this untenable situation, all too many have been prepared to ’sit on the fence’ or silently acquiesce in a decision to basically ‘do nothing’!
I am sure that just such a drift may be found within the ranks of the PCA which led to its present position.
Let the Free Presbyterian Church take heed and cease from its weak and compromising position on the question of those within its ranks who support the wickedness of the DUP. Such vacillation can only lead on to greater compromise. Let the Presbytery act as it once would have when faced by a situation like that of Paul Givan supporting the Ecumenical Movement by his presence at that service of apostasy in Armagh where the courageous stand of our forefathers was ridiculed and berated. He thus acted in total defiance of all that the FPC, of which he is a member, declares to be its witness!
Sin untreated, is like any physical ailment ignored; it leads on to further infection and death. Churches have ‘died’ as a result of untreated sin.
It can happen to our church!
“Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood. For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. Therefore watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears,” Acts 20:28-31.
Sincerely,
Ivan Foster