The 50th PCA General Assembly continues through June 16, 2023 in Memphis, TN.

The Assembly-wide seminar, “Memories and Aspirations of our Founding Fathers and Sons,” took place at 8:00 a.m. You can watch the replay here.
In the report of the Review of Presbytery Records, the Assembly approved the recommendation that Metropolitan New York Presbytery appear before the Standing Judicial Commission to adjudicate several matters pertaining to proceedings on the Lord’s Day. For more details, read here.
The Assembly approved the recommendation that Northwest Georgia Presbytery appear before the Standing Judicial Commission to adjudicate a matter pertaining to the approval of calls and installation of three candidates. For more details, read here.
The Interchurch Relations Committee gave its report.
Reformed University Fellowship Coordinator Will Huss gave the RUF report. Below are some of his highlights:
Reformed University Fellowship International – There are currently 21 RUF-I Campus ministries. We began RUF-I at Cal Berkeley and the University of Florida in January of 2023. We plan to add two more campus ministries in June 2023 (Vanderbilt and UC San Diego).
Reformed University Fellowship Global  – We currently have 4 RUF-G, where we have an American TE (Traditional Model). These RUF-Globals are in Tokyo, Japan; L’viv, Ukraine; Bogota, Colombia; and Dakar, Senegal. We currently have 2 RUF-Globals that national ordained Presbyterian ministers lead in Mexico City, Mexico, and Kampala, Uganda (National Model). In 2022 we initiated a pilot program of training non-ordained MTW and Serge missionaries who are engaged in campus ministry in three different cities, Cluj, Romania (Serge); Sofia, Bulgaria; and Tokyo, Japan. We are considering making this program, called the “RUF Affiliate Model,” an official part of RUF-Global.
Ministry Distinctives – Weekly large group, small groups, and one-on-one staff-student meetings provide the structure for campus ministry. Each type of meeting is essential in ministering to college students.
Campus Interns, Staff & Ministry Fellows – Launched in 1980, the Intern Program has trained over 900 interns. In the last 30 years, the program has grown at a rate of 13% per year. Emily Nixon, Assistant Vice President of Internships, continues to lead the department and this year we have 137 full-time and three part-time young men and women (all recent college graduates) that currently work directly with a campus minister and receive on-the-job training in evangelism, small group leadership, and one-on-one ministry.
The Assembly voted to require the RUF permanent committee to give a response to the 51st General Assembly on the following matter:
The permanent committee of Reformed University Fellowship approved a new “Affiliation Agreement” between Presbyteries and RUF concerning Campus Ministers, changing the agreement to make sure that RUF is the legal employee with the responsibility to hire, fire, and exercise fiduciary control.
Tom Gibbs, president of Covenant Theological Seminary, gave the report for Covenant Seminary. Highlights include the following:
To better ensure that our priorities remain clear and that we are serving our students and the church to the best of our ability, I’ve been leading the Seminary through a period of intensive evaluation and assessment aimed at producing a revised and updated Strategic Plan to guide us for the next five years.
The Strategic Plan is built around six main pillars already identified and agreed upon by the President’s Cabinet.

Prioritize the recruitment of pastor-minded students.
Strengthen the overall theological preparedness of our students.
Sharpen our focus on the spiritual formation of our students.
Strengthen and develop our emphasis on cross-cultural mission: locally and

globally.

Promote organizational sustainability through proven financial management strategies despite a challenging economic environment.
Better steward our relationship with the PCA as we seek to provide its next generation of ministry leaders.

Our desire in all this is that the life and work of Covenant Seminary would be characterized not only by the principles implied in our purpose statement (“To glorify the triune God by training his servants to walk in God’s grace, minister God’s Word, and equip God’s people—all for God’s mission”) but also by our institutional values:
Christ-Centered Ministry—We believe that a seminary education is successful only if—at its end—the student knows Jesus Christ more intimately than at its beginning.
Biblical Authority—We believe that the Bible is the Word of God and therefore it is our only infallible rule of faith and practice.
Grace Foundation—We believe that the foundation for all that we do must be the gospel of grace—our absolute confidence in God’s acceptance provided through his redemptive work as the supreme motivation and enablement for love and holiness.
Relational Emphasis—We believe that relationships between students and professors must take a meaningful place alongside teaching content, so that the entire character of the student—mind and heart—might be transformed for ministry.
Pastoral Training—We believe that our primary task is to train students for pastoral ministry—including church planting, campus ministry, chaplaincy, and missionary service.
Church Leadership—We believe that, as the Seminary of the PCA, it is our responsibility to provide pastoral training that is grounded in the Westminster Standards and the historic distinctives of Presbyterian orthodoxy while equipping the next generation of Christian servants for effective church leadership in a changing world.
Kingdom Perspective—We believe that God’s ultimate purpose is the gathering of his people from every nation and the renewal of all things.
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Although Abraham saw Christ, this did not give Israel permission to make any images of him and the same is true for us. Surely it would have been a blessing to have been one of those thousands of men and women who saw Jesus with their own eyes during the incarnation. But the Holy Spirit has chosen not to preserve any description of Christ for us because we are called to be a people of the word who walk by faith, not by sight. Just because some people saw Christ does not mean that we may now make images of God for didactic or any other purpose. 

When men being examined for ministry take an exception to any portion of the Westminster standards we always require that they explain their rationale. A man ought to be able to explain and defend why he believes what he does. In my experience, the justifications given when men take exceptions to Larger Catechism 109 are usually along the same lines. So I want to respond to two of the most common explanations that I hear at presbytery.
Larger Catechism question 109 states
“What sins are forbidden in the second commandment?
 The sins forbidden in the second commandment are, all devising, counseling, commanding, using, and any wise approving, any religious worship not instituted by God himself; the making any representation of God, of all or of any of the three persons, either inwardly in our mind, or outwardly in any kind of image or likeness of any creature whatsoever; all worshiping of it, or God in it or by it; the making of any representation of feigned deities, and all worship of them, or service belonging to them; all superstitious devices, corrupting the worship of God, adding to it, or taking from it, whether invented and taken up of ourselves, or received by tradition from others, though under the title of antiquity, custom, devotion, good intent, or any other pretense whatsoever; simony; sacrilege; all neglect, contempt, hindering, and opposing the worship and ordinances which God hath appointed.”
Common Rationale #1
The common objection to this portion of the catechism usually concerns images of Christ. Specifically, men taking this exception will acknowledge that images of Christ should not be used for worship, but they see no problem with images being used for didactic purposes, by which they mean that they see no problem using images of Christ to teach children. This is so common an exception it’s often called the “Jesus Storybook Bible exception.” However, the problem is that images of God will be connected to worship and that education should be connected to worship.
As always, we should begin by considering scripture itself. Exodus 20:4-6 says, “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.”
What’s frequently overlooked when considering the second commandment is the fact that it contains two imperatives, not one. In forbidding idols this commandment does not simply say “You shall not worship them.” It says much more than that. It first says in verse four that you shall not make them. Significantly, the language does not say “You shall not make them in order to worship them.” The Hebrew conjunction ‎ לְמַעַן generally translated “in order that” is conspicuously absent. Verse four is a separate sentence in Hebrew as well as English. The second commandment has always been “you shall not make any idols” and “you shall not worship them.” No Israelite could ever make an image of God or any other gods and plead its acceptability on account of its not being used for worship, but only didactic purposes.
Attention must be drawn to this fact because compression of the second commandment often underlies this common exception. God gave this commandment the way he did because he understands our hearts, even better than we do ourselves. John Murray writes, “A picture of Christ, if it serves any useful purpose, must evoke some thought or feeling respecting him and, in view of what he is, this thought or feeling will be worshipful.”[1]
If we say something is a depiction of God we will naturally desire to worship through it, or have that image be a means of stirring up devotion and piety.
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In keeping with the journalistic tradition of looking back at the recent past, we present the top 50 stories of the year that were read on The Aquila Report site based on the number of hits. We will present the 50 stories in groups of 10 to run on five lists on consecutive days.  Here are numbers 21-30.

In 2022 The Aquila Report (TAR) posted over 3,000 stories. At the end of each year we feature the top 50 stories that were read.
TAR posts 8 new stories each day, on a variety of subjects – all of which we trust are of interest to our readers. As a web magazine TAR is an aggregator of news and information that we believe will provide articles that will inform the church of current trends and movements within the church and culture.
In keeping with the journalistic tradition of looking back at the recent past, we present the top 50 stories of the year that were read on The Aquila Report site based on the number of hits. We will present the 50 stories in groups of 10 to run on five lists on consecutive days. Here are numbers 21-30:

The State of the PCA

It is very easy to conclude that a spiritual cancer has been in the body too long and that there does not appear to be anything that those who are committed to God’s Word can do.  We have tried and we have failed.  Certainly, God can do something to heal the cancer, if He chooses.  But the future of the denomination outside a miraculous intervention is bleak.

Christian Writers, Preachers, and Organizations That Promoted Francis Collins Should Break Their Silence

Many of these men and organizations regularly call the church to repentance. This would be a proper time to perhaps lead by example.

Dining Out on the Lord’s Day

Now for a blind spot to something no less obvious: Most elders in the Reformed tradition take exception to the Reformed view of Christian Sabbath recreation as taught in the Westminster standards. As unfortunate as that is, many among that number go even further by supporting going to restaurants and ordering out food on Sundays, which pertains not merely to the question of rest vs. recreation but to unlawful work on the Lord’s Day. Ironically, most elders would say they affirm the Confession’s Christian Sabbath position with respect to work; yet their views on transacting business with restaurants on the Lord’s Day end up contradicting their own theology and professed scruples.

The Standing Judicial Commission Just Violated the PCA Constitution and Standards—Again

The Bible I read gives a strong impression that the King and Head of the Church  looks none too kindly on this kind of brazen rebellion—especially when perpetrated by those who claim to be His shepherds.  “It belongs to His Majesty,” reads the BCO Preface, “from His throne of glory to rule and teach the Church…” 

“Presbyleaks” From a Business Analysis Perspective

From a BA perspective, if the NP asked about how to go forward, I would advise it to publish a purpose and mission statement compatible with PCA officer vows, accept all such within the PCA who desire to participate in order to grow in their understanding of PCA polity and practices, and do away with confidentiality as its functional methodology.  All of this would be workable, however, only after a public apology and due repentance for the way the group has conducted itself essentially as a denomination within the denomination over the past several years.

Exploring Overture 15 from the PCA General Assembly

This issue has caused disunity, confusion, and chaos in the PCA for far too long. If we desire that this particular sword should depart our house, then we will acknowledge that Overture 29 needs Overture 15 to be effective and pass both through our presbyteries. The two overtures go hand-in-hand. The one works through the other.

Overture from Hills and Plains Presbytery Asks the 49th PCA GA to Amend BCO 16 By Adding a New Paragraph

Hills and Plains Presbytery approved an overture at a March 5, 2022 Called Meeting, asking the 49th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in America to “amend BCO 16 by adding a new paragraph using wording from the Report of the Ad Interim Committee on Human Sexuality.”

Tim Keller & Myxomatosis Christians

I don’t know a lot about Tim Keller, except by reputation. He seems to be a very fine man, and devout Christian. I couldn’t imagine saying a bad thing about him, but some of you Evangelicals who follow him more closely than I do might disagree. All I can say is that Winsome World Christians are failing to prepare themselves, their families, and (if pastors) their flocks for the world that exists today, and the world that is fast coming into being. Again, I am thinking of the pastor I argued with who believed that he didn’t need to speak about gender ideology to his parish (“I don’t want politics in my congregation”) because, as he explained, if he just keeps winsomely teaching Biblical principles, all will be well.

Response to Letter from Memorial PCA Member

In the church the right of the denomination to legislate or enforce qualifications for office has been met with the notion that individuals who feel called to ministry have a de facto right to it and that the church may not deny them that without unjustly depriving them; office is regarded as the property of the person who wants or holds it, not the property of the church that invests it with authority.

Lady Preachers in PCA Pulpits?

Being authentically presbyterian when an egalitarian culture is so decidedly against the truths of God’s word and his design for his church is hard. And though it is hard and unpleasant work, faithful churchmen must call to account those who would deviate from God’s blueprint for His church and her worship. 
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