Me Died Blue
Puritan Board Post-Graduate
Do I really need to spell it out? This is no more than an assertion: The PCA is divided right now on the federal Vision issue. In time, there will be a split over this. A number of the body will head south over this. As well, a section of PCA churches are no longer reformed at all. The confession is no more than a piece of paper. Worship has digressed to the point that even woman are reading scripture from the pulpits. Music being used in the worship services has gone from the psalms & hymns, to contemporary everyday music. It is not difficult to see that in a generation or two the organization itself will no longer function under the auspices of biblical Calvinism.
While I don't want to take the thread on a new track as a whole, I at least felt the need to say something from the "other side" regarding your suggestions, Scott. Respectfully, I would submit that they represent an immense oversimplification of the state the PCA as a whole is actually in right now. Regarding women reading Scripture from the pulpits - if the fact that a very small minority of PCA congregations are practicing it means that the denomination is on the decline as a whole, then by the same logic I think the RPCNA would have gone broad evangelical long ago with their female deacons. But they have not.
Also, regarding the Federal Vision, right now more than ever there are some very good signs regarding the way with which it will be dealt. The study committee is promising, and in many ways even more importantly, the recent documents from the Standing Judicial Commission on Steve Wilkins' case with Louisiana Presbytery point in a similar direction. As Fred explained much better in the thread on that issue, that suggests good things not only about the doctrinal direction of the PCA, but about her ecclesiology as well, in that the GA is still willing to truly exercise its authority even when that means critically and directly confronting significant decisions of lower courts. Even from the times of the formation of the ecumenical creeds, false teachings in the church have never been dealt with in a heartbeat, but have always required the analysis and deliberation of councils, synods and assemblies through due process over a period of time; and that is exactly what is going on surrounding the Federal Vision in the PCA at this time.