Quote:
Originally Posted by Scott  There are two main differences. First, erasure is an ecclesiastical judgment (albeit without process) that someone has sinned. As the BCO says, "This erasure is an act of pastoral discipline (BCO 27-1a) without process." Second, from the PCA's perspective, the exiting member is deemed by the PCA to be outside the visible church. The WCF says that there is ordinarily no salvation outside of the visible church. So, it is a big deal from the Confession's perspective.
In contrast, when someone leaves for another branch of the visible church, he is understood to still be part of the visible church and he is not under any form of church discipline. |
I agree that those distinctions are important. It just seems to me that in either scenario the session is forced to cease considering such a person a member of their congregation and remove his names from the rolls. In one case they do so expressing that he is in sin in another case they do so without expressing him to be in sin (although one wonders if there is not sin involved in someone just up-and-leaves without his session's consent to a church they canot endorse??).
However, I sense that this may be drifting away from what you were really trying to get at in the original OP, so I will leave it there.