Written by Ray M. Sanchez |
Sunday, June 19, 2022
My use of “paper tiger” when describing the PCA is slightly different than the standard definition. There are many good things going on in the PCA that profitable for gospel ministry that are certainly not façades. When I say the PCA may be a paper tiger, I mean that the PCA is strong on paper but not in practice, especially when it comes to the “Twelve Statements,” in the Report of the Ad Interim Committee on Human Sexuality.

Paper vs. Practice
The phrase paper tiger conveys the idea that outwardly something or someone is strong or powerful, but in reality, inwardly, is weak or ineffectual. A paper tiger may be an organization, a nation, or a person, that looks powerful or demonstrates an outward show of strength but is, in fact, only a façade. It occurred to me today while reflecting on the latest round of overtures, and the cause(s) that precipitated many of them, that the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) may very well be something of a paper tiger.
Of course, my use of “paper tiger” when describing the PCA is slightly different than the standard definition. There are many good things going on in the PCA that profitable for gospel ministry that are certainly not façades. When I say the PCA may be a paper tiger, I mean that the PCA is strong on paper but not in practice, especially when it comes to the “Twelve Statements,” in the Report of the Ad Interim Committee on Human Sexuality, pp. 6-13 (hereafter, study report). The PCA has not yet applied and integrated these statements into practice in the Book of Church Order (BCO). These statements are “biblically useful” but the PCA has not used them. To be clear, our stated formal values, which are also our proper animating values, are found in Scripture, the Westminster Standards, and the BCO. However, at this moment we should be using the study report, which is widely supported across the PCA. The study report draws its principles from the Scriptures and the Westminster Standards to explain, clarify and apply these principles to the qualifications of men to be ordained as church officers.
Since the Ad Interim Committee published its study report in May 2020, I have heard or read dozens of articles, podcasts, and interviews–from all sides–about how the PCA unanimously supports the report. Indeed, this is something for which our denomination should be encouraged–that there is general unity on the understanding of biblical sexuality. Unfortunately, while there appears to be much agreement by looking back to the study report, there doesn’t appear to be much discussion on looking ahead to discern the times. To my mind, there seems to be more effort put on nuancing terms and words instead of applying Scripture to give us discernment to distinguish good from evil (Hebrews 5:14).
Biblically Useful
The committee states the following in the Introduction to the study report:
Herein the Committee has sought to address the issues and questions assigned to it for study by the 47th General Assembly. Although we are not making any formal recommendations, we hope and pray that this Report will be unifying, edifying, and Biblically useful for our denomination. [Emphasis mine]
Presently, the study report has been broadly unifying and genuinely edifying for our denomination. However, it hasn’t yet been widely applied. Let us pray that one of proposed overtures submitted to the 49th PCA General Assembly (see Overtures 12, 15, 20, 23, 29, and 31) will be approved and sent to the Presbyteries for approval. Then we will be able to see the biblical view of human sexuality, clearly delineated in the study report, studied and practiced in the PCA.
Unity and Purity
The PCA has been blessed with the production of a solidly biblical study report. The 49th PCA GA has the opportunity to approve wording consistent with the study report that overcomes some of the objections alleged to have been in Overtures 23 and 37. Many have expressed the sense of unity based on with the principles laid out in the study report. What we need now is to focus on our need for common sense of purity by including the biblical and theological precision found in the report into the BCO.
Ray M. Sanchez is a Ruling Elder in the Grace Presbyterian Church in Fresno, Calif.
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Tony tells me, “I’ve given up. I can’t keep fighting.” He’s discouraged and worn out from his decade-long porn addiction.
A few days later, Lisa walks into my office. “I’m addicted to pornography, and I’ve lost all hope. God doesn’t seem to care.” She doesn’t know what to do anymore.
Tony and Lisa are weary soldiers who have spent years in a hard-fought battle against porn addiction. They’re infected with a defeatist attitude that results in a passive approach to their sin. “What’s the use?” they think. “I’ll just give in again. I won’t ever defeat this problem.” They assume that they’ll always struggle. Change is no longer possible. Their lack of success proves (in their minds) that they’re in a losing battle.
What do believers do if they’ve given up? How do they overcome the defeatist attitude that’s so characteristic of this problem?
Be Aggressive About Cutting Off Access Points
Hope often begins when the addict finds success in slowing down the addiction.
The first step is to be brutal about cutting off access points. Jesus tells us not to be passive about sexual sin. Our Lord uses graphic language to communicate the seriousness of getting rid of sexual sin: “If your right eyes causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away…If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away” (Matt. 5:29-30).
Strugglers do a poor job getting rid of access points. They cut out most access points, but they leave one or two lingering. Why is that? They’ve grown far too cozy with their sin and let it stick around. What happens in a weak moment when Tony is ruled by his lustful desires? Because he’s given up, he’ll give in to his desires, and he’ll act out yet again.
Jesus says to Tony, “Be radical. By my power and my strength, get rid of every access point. Don’t leave any behind.”
A defeatist attitude grows comfortable with sin. A gospel mindset is aggressive about cutting sin out.
Deal With the Shame
Shame causes a struggler to hide. Shame whispers in an addict’s ear: Run. Don’t let people see you. You’re worthless. Who would want someone like you? Sexual sin prospers in the darkness, not in the light. Mold grows in darkness, but it dies under the bright, hot sunlight. So also, sexual sin prospers and grows as a believer isolates himself and turns away (Prov. 18:1) from the provision of God’s people (Eph. 4:15-16) and God’s Word (Isa. 55:10-11).
If you struggle with porn, do you feel dirty and unclean? Have you been exposed? Do you act like an outcast? Do you feel rejected? Do you wallow in a sense of failure?
Hope comes when you turn away from the whispers of shame and run headlong to Christ. Jesus covers the naked and exposed (Zech. 3:3-5). He makes the unworthy and unclean clean (Matt. 8:1-3). He welcomes the outcast with open arms (John 4). He gives you a righteousness that’s not your own (2 Cor. 5:21), so you don’t have to live under your own unreasonable standards.
A defeatist attitude wallows in shame. A gospel mindset begs Christ for mercy.

The unfolding of the history of redemption reveals how the Passover was a sign of God’s gracious covenant, in which He would provide the greater exodus from sin, Satan, and death by the sacrificial death of Christ. Believers confidently confess that “Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed” (1 Corinthians 5:7).

Of all the Old Testament images that foreshadow Jesus, the Passover lamb was perhaps the clearest in foreshadowing Jesus’ saving work at Calvary. According to God’s own appointment, God promised to remove His judgment from His people when He saw the substitutionary blood of a spotless lamb painted on the doorposts of the Israelites’ homes in Egypt. The Passover was a sign of God’s covenant with His people in the Old Testament, indicating the way in which He would one day satisfy His wrath through the sacrifice of Christ.
After sin entered the world, Scripture immediately tells us that Abel gave an animal sacrifice to offer acceptable worship to the Lord (Gen. 4:4). The infinitely holy God only accepts as righteous those who come to Him by faith in the promised Redeemer, who would Himself be the atoning sacrifice for sin (Heb. 11:4). The blood of the substitutionary sacrifice is an essential element of Christian doctrine and practice. As the writer of Hebrews explains, “Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins” (Heb. 9:22). The blood of the God-appointed sacrifice typified the substitution of one party for another in the execution of God’s judgment. If “the wages of sin is death,” then only a substitutionary death can deliver a sinner from the righteous judgment of God (Rom. 6:23). This principle was signified clearly in the details surrounding the institution of the Passover lamb. Like its bloody counterpart, circumcision, the Passover lamb was an old covenant sacrament—a sign and seal of God’s gracious dealing with His people through atonement.
The Passover served as a sign of God’s covenant promise of redemption in Christ. The Lord gave instructions about the Passover at the time of the exodus that pointed to various aspects of the redemption that He would provide in Christ (Ex. 12; 1 Cor. 5:7). The Passover was instituted at the time of the tenth plague, the death of the firstborn. The Lord had graciously distinguished between Israel and Egypt with the first nine plagues. However, there was no distinction in this tenth and most terrible plague. If the Israelites did not follow the Lord’s instructions regarding the Passover, they would be subject to the same judgment as the Egyptians. This indicated that Israel, no less than Egypt, deserved God’s wrath and judgment because of their sin.
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