January 2024 BCO Amendments Update
Overture 23 (Item 2) on officers conforming to the biblical requirement for chastity has received the necessary 2/3 approval and WILL be considered for final formal ratification at the 51st General Assembly. With the hopeful ratification of this amendment, the PCA shall close the door on the Revoice Movement or so-called Side-B Christianity. Of the 64 presbyteries, 63 have affirmed this amendment and only 1 has rejected it. The raw tally for this item is 2336-181 (93%-7%).
Since the fall (see my November update), around 24 presbyteries have taken up the three proposed Book of Church Order (BCO) amendments sent from the 50th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) to the regional presbyteries. According to my records, 64 presbyteries have taken up the amendments. While these results are corroborated by actual data, they are nonetheless unofficial in nature. For official pronouncements, I defer to byFaith and the Stated Clerk’s Office, which will likely release official communications sometime before the 51st General Assembly.[1] For more information on these results, check out the 2023 BCO Amendment Tracker. As a general reminder, for an amendment to be ratified in our Book of Church Order, there is a three-step process:
- The General Assembly must approve it by a simple majority.
- Then it must pass 2/3 (currently 59 presbyteries) of the PCA’s 88 presbyteries by a simple majority.
Related Posts:
You Might also like
-
Two Great Men: John And Martin
It goes without saying that Reformed Faith churches owe their very existence to John Calvin and Martin Luther. And if such a premise is true, isn’t it worth becoming acquainted with them in a more-than-superficial manner? Do we know anything more about Luther than the fact he nailed 95 theses on a church door? Is there more to John Calvin than the greatly misunderstood doctrines of election and predestination? Yes, so much more!
Years ago, Reformation Sunday never passed my city, St. Louis, Missouri, without a real turnout of Protestant Christians to Kiel Auditorium to celebrate the historical birth of the “Justification by Faith” movement. Today Reformation Sunday comes and goes with hardly a whimper from the evangelical sector. There are perhaps many reasons for this, including a possible ecumenical spirit and desire not to emphasize differences. However, it is also possible that special recognition of the Reformation has fallen into silent disrepute because evangelicalism has lost its fervor for sound doctrine. The emphasis has switched from doctrine to need-meeting (a form of narcissism). Many flock into churches today to have personal needs met rather than to know more intimately a great God or His will for the Church.
It goes without saying that Reformed Faith churches owe their very existence to John Calvin and Martin Luther. And if such a premise is true, isn’t it worth becoming acquainted with them in a more-than-superficial manner? Do we know anything more about Luther than the fact he nailed 95 theses on a church door? Is there more to John Calvin than the greatly misunderstood doctrines of election and predestination? Yes, so much more! I will even venture to confess here the impact Martin Luther had on me when I was eleven years old. I borrowed a book on Martin Luther’s life from the bookmobile that came to our elementary school once a week. It was a child’s book, but it communicated the fact that he experienced a turning point in his life and a personal relationship with God. Thanks to that story, I became a truth seeker at a very young age and searched for a personal knowledge and relationship with God. The fulfillment of that search became a reality when I was 19 years old.
Both John Calvin and Martin Luther, of course, can be faulted in one way or another from our “enlightened” perspective. We are not called to put anyone on a pedestal; and from our present vantage point, they would not desire such from us either. Nonetheless, the personal pilgrimages and teachings of these two men changed the known world of their day upside down, and 506 years later continue to impact us today.
Perhaps the greatest vestige of the Reformation attributable to John Calvin is his Institutes of the Christian Religion, one of the most positive interpretations of the Christian religion. His prefatory letter to Francis I is a model of a “learned, eloquent, elegant, dignified address of a subject to his sovereign,” according to A. M. Fairbairn. “It throbs with a noble indignation against injustice and with a noble enthusiasm for freedom and truth. It is one of the great epistles of the world, a splendid apology for the oppressed and arraignment of the oppressors.” I can’t resist the thought that if families included the Institutes of the Christian Religion in their home libraries and read it frequently, a hardier Christianity would emerge today which would impact our culture greatly. Calvin was a super spiritual strategist. Within a period of eleven years, his center of education in Geneva sent at least one hundred sixty-one pastors into France. “They were learned men, strenuous, fearless, praised by a French bishop as modest, grave, saintly, with the name of Jesus Christ ever on their lips . . . The Reformed minister was essentially a preacher, intellectual, exegetical, argumentative, seriously concerned with the subjects that most appeared to the serious-minded.” Most of all, the teachings of the Christian faith, according to Calvin, transformed the men and women in the pew into a learned, vibrant, respected (and often persecuted) followers of Jesus Christ.
As for Martin Luther, according to Martin F. Marty, “There’s no more consistent strand in Luther than the gospel of forgiveness. That theme still isn’t heeded well.” Today, the gospel of self-esteem and marketing the church based on people’s needs takes precedence over the teaching of sound doctrine. Martin Marty also notes that, “Our culture promotes human ability and human will, as did the indulgences culture in Luther’s day, as a way to bring salvation.” If Luther lived today, he would probably direct his central message to the evangelical church itself. How history twists and turns!
John and Martin were two men who lived intensely in their day, who knew God and served Him diligently and without compromise. They were unashamed lovers of God and of His written revelation. If we are to experience revival or reformation in our day, such men and women are needed once again. Are we willing to pick up the torch which once beamed so brightly and to dare hope for true reformation in the Church in our day? If so, we must willingly give serious study to the Word of God and doctrine as these men once did. Let’s pick up the torch and run with it to the glory of God and for the sake of His Church!
Helen Louise Herndon is a member of Central Presbyterian Church (EPC) in St. Louis, Missouri. She is freelance writer and served as a missionary to the Arab/Muslim world in France and North Africa.
Related Posts: -
Let the Scriptures be Fulfilled | Mark 14:43-52
Jesus alone refused to flee, fight, or summon the very angels that He long ago brought into existence. This is why we confess that salvation is of Christ alone. Peter and the other apostles who together with the prophets of old became the foundation of the Christ’s church are just as much recipients of God’s grace as we are. We are all poor and wretched sinners who would be damned eternally if Christ were not the all-sufficient and ever-triumphant Savior.
And immediately, while he was still speaking, Judas came, one of the twelve, and with him a crowd with swords and clubs, from the chief priests and the scribes and the elders. Now the betrayer had given them a sign, saying, “The one I will kiss is the man. Seize him and lead him away under guard.” And when he came, he went up to him at once and said, “Rabbi!” And he kissed him. And they laid hands on him and seized him. But one of those who stood by drew his sword and struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his ear. And Jesus said to them, “Have you come out as against a robber, with swords and clubs to capture me? Day after day I was with you in the temple teaching, and you did not seize me. But let the Scriptures be fulfilled.” And they all left him and fled.
And a young man followed him, with nothing but a linen cloth about his body. And they seized him, but he left the linen cloth and ran away naked.
Mark 14:43-52 ESVThe story of Joseph resounds with primordial echoes of Jesus’ own life. As Jacob’s most beloved son, Joseph’s brothers came to hate him. One day, when they were pasturing the flocks near Shechem, Jacob sent Joseph to check on them. Yet as they saw Joseph coming from a distance, the brothers plotted to kill him, and when he drew near, they stripped of his robe and threw him in a pit to die, since Reuben had convinced them not to shed his blood directly. Yet seeing a caravan of traders going to Egypt, Judah led the brothers into selling Joseph for twenty shekels of silver into slavery.
Of course, we already read in chapter 3 that Jesus was rejected by His own brothers, but in our present text, we find Jesus being betrayed by one of His closest companions and abandoned by the other eleven. As Matthew 26:15 notes, Judas traded the life of his Master away for thirty pieces of silver. Indeed, if our previous passage was Jesus resolving through prayer to submit to the Father, today’s passage finds the greater Joseph being cast into pit and sold for silver.
Betrayed with a Kiss // Verses 43-45
Just as verse 42 concluded our previous passage with Jesus telling His disciples, “Rise, let us be going; see, my betrayer is at hand,” so do we now presently read:
And immediately, while he was still speaking, Judas came, one of the twelve, and with him a crowd with swords and clubs, from the chief priests and the scribes and the elders.
I find it tragic that because Judas came up to Jesus while He was still speaking, there is the possibility that he could have heard clearly Jesus’ final statement: See, my betrayer is at hand. But, of course, that is exactly what brought Judas to that hallowed garden. Jesus entered Gethsemane as the Seed of the woman, the long-awaited second Adam. Judas, however, entered Gethsemane as the Seed of the serpent, at continual enmity against the Maker and His images. Indeed, the craftiness of the serpent is evident in the manner of Judas’ betrayal:
Now the betrayer had given them a sign, saying, “The one I will kiss is the man. Seize him and lead him away under guard.” And when he came, he went up to him at once and said, “Rabbi!” And he kissed him.
Is Judas not imaging the nature of his father here? Did the serpent openly call for Eve to rebel against God? No, he began with a seemingly innocent question: “Did God really say…?” We find the same approach whenever Satan tempted Jesus in the wilderness, where each temptation wore the masquerade of compassion. Could not the Son of God make stones into bread to satisfy His hunger? Would not everyone believe in Him if He threw Himself from the temple and was saved by angels? Would it not be better to worship the devil and receive the kingdoms of the world without having to endure the cross? Being entirely void of love himself, there is apparently nothing that Satan enjoys more than making a mockery of this glorious attribute of God Himself. Indeed, R. C. Sproul notes the twisted hideousness of Judas’ kiss:
It was a gesture of profound honor and affection, customarily given by disciples to their rabbi, that Judas used for his evil mission. The language here describes Judas’s kiss not as a brief peck on the cheek, but a kiss lavishly bestowed, signifying an especially deep sense of affection and honor. This kiss was an act of hypocrisy with a vengeance.[1]
In the Pilgrim’s Progress, Christiana looked upon the cross and begins to wish that others could look upon it as well. “Surely, surely,” she said, “their hearts would be affected.”[2] In moments when we freshly behold goodness and majesty of God, we easily think the same thing. “If only others could see this.” Sadly, reality teaches us another lesson. When faced with God’s holiness, some are drawn into worship, yet others are repelled away. So it was that the whole generation that heard God audibly speak from Sinai went on to perish in the wilderness. So it is that here at the most sacred moment in all of history we find Judas at his most satanic. Indeed, the light of the world can do no less. In His presence, shadows and shades pass away and all is exposed as being either of the light or of the darkness.
O brothers and sisters, let us be certain of this: all of creation is increasingly coming to a point. The day is ever nearer when all creatures will bow their knee to Christ as Lord, willingly or unwillingly. The great question that we must all answer is into which camp will we belong. Make no mistake, there are no neutral days. Each day we either step further into the light of His presence or step away into darkness.
Not of this World // Verses 46-47
After Judas’ kiss, we read:
And they laid hands on him and seized him. But one of those who stood by drew his sword and struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his ear.
So begins what Jesus had already told His disciples must happen: “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him. And when he is killed, after three days, he will rise” (9:31). Yet the disciples still did not understand what was happening, and one disciples displayed this even more than the others by cutting off a servant of the high priest’s ear. John’s Gospel tells that this disciple was Peter and even that the servant’s name was Malchus. Luke’s Gospel also tells us that Jesus did one final earthly miracle by healing Malchus’ ear.
I have heard it said by some that Peter meant to cut Malchus’ ear off because since he was a servant of the high priest, he could no longer enter the temple to do his duty. Yet I think that runs against the plain reading of the text. It seems clear that Peter intended to split Malchus’ head in two, but whether from having little skill with a sword or from nerves (probably both!), Peter ended up taking off his ear.
It is as we said last week. Peter was not quite the outright coward that we might too readily paint him as being. Here he at least worked up in himself enough courage to begin fighting for Christ. He even seemed ready to die for Christ. But, of course, it is one thing to die swinging a sword; it is another thing entirely to go like a lamb to be slaughtered. Peter was still not prepared for the upside-down nature of God’s kingdom. John Calvin notes:
It is as I said, his mind is seething, and he is carried away by the mad desire to protect our Lord Jesus Christ as he chooses and in his own way. May his example teach us to walk according as God calls us, and may we not find it hard to do as God commands. Let us not, however, attempt to do anything, not even to lift a little finger, unless God approves and we have evidence that it is he who is guiding us.[3]
Read More
Related Posts: -
The Real Meaning of Christmas
We must look to a baby born not with fanfare, pomp, and circumstance, but to poor parents in desperate times. Joseph and Mary, and the Baby Jesus for that matter, were real historical figures. But in a way, Joseph and Mary extend beyond themselves, beyond their particular place and time. They represent all of us. We are all poor and living in desperate times. Some of us are better than others at camouflaging it. Nevertheless, we are all poor and desperate, so we all need the promise bound up in that baby.
One of the most remarkable stories of Christmas comes from one of the darkest moments of modern history. World War I ravaged a continent, leaving destruction and debris in its wake. The human cost, well in the millions, staggers us. But from the midst of this dark conflict comes the story of the Christmas Truce of 1914. The Western Front, only a few months into the war, was a deplorable scene of devastation. Perhaps as if to give the combatants one day to breathe again, a truce was called from Christmas Eve through Christmas Day.
As darkness settled over the front like a blanket, the sound of exploding shells and the rat-tat-tat of gunfire faded. Faint carols, in French or English voices on one side and in German voices on the other, rose to fill the silence of the night.
By morning, soldiers, at first hesitantly, began filing out of the maze of trenches into the dreaded and parched soil of No Man’s Land. There was more singing. Gifts of rations and cigarettes were exchanged. Family photos were passed around. Soccer balls appeared. Up and down the Western Front, soldiers, who only hours before had been locked in deathly combat, now faced off in soccer games.
For one brief but entirely remarkable day, there was peace on earth. Some have called the Christmas Truce of 1914 “the Miracle on the Western Front.”
Anxious to print some good news, The Times of London reported on the events of the Christmas Truce. Soldiers recorded the day in letters home and in diaries. Some of those lines made it to newspapers, while others remained unknown until later brought to light. Here’s one such line from the diary of a German infantryman: “The English brought a soccer ball from the trenches, and pretty soon a lively game ensued. How marvelously wonderful, yet how strange it was. The English officers felt the same way about it. Thus Christmas, the celebration of Love, managed to bring mortal enemies together as friends for a time.”
Read More
Related Posts: