We all are already in the process of making our deathbeds and soon we will lie in them.  Thankfully, God will always carry Christians through the valley of the shadow of death.  For Proverbs 18:10 promises, The name of the LORD is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe.  And Psalm 18:2 emboldens us, The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God [El], my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower.

It was 8 a.m. on a Saturday in Southern California while I was settling to watch my four-and-a-half-year-old son play basketball when I received a call from a sister in the Lord, Anne, dying in Minnesota.[1]
We never met, but similar difficult providences had connected us for counsel and we became fast friends.  She quickly embraced me and my family with a motherly care that felt like she had been waving with a smile from across our cul-de-sac for decades.
And now, Anne was reaching out for brotherly comfort while lying on her deathbed in hospice.  Her speech was slurred, slowing, and sleepy due to medications causing side effects of delusions and anxiety.  Not long before, she was only able to reply to my concerned cell phone texts by typing a few empty bubbles.
I was in the midst of studying one of God’s names for a sermon series: El, translated “God,” meaning “The Strong One.”  I took Anne to the Lord by this name through prayer and the Word, including Psalm 73:26: My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.  And she testified of being strengthened by her El.
We all are already in the process of making our deathbeds and soon we will lie in them.  Thankfully, God will always carry Christians through the valley of the shadow of death.  For Proverbs 18:10 promises, The name of the LORD is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe.  And Psalm 18:2 emboldens us, The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God [El], my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower. 
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Because David delighted in God’s Word, he knew that a just God punishes sin. David also knew that forgiveness was possible, because he knew God’s character through his Word. He knew God would be merciful to him because of his steadfast love. David knew God would blot out his transgressions according to his abundant mercy. 

True delight in the Law of the Lord will produce hearts of repentance. We see this clearly in David’s response to God’s Law in Psalm 19. God’s revelation reveals to us our incompatibility as sinners with the holiness of God and the way he designed his creation to operate for his glory. Scripture explicitly teaches us that the payment for sin is death; it reproves and corrects us. As David says in Psalm 19:11, God’s Law warns us. It explicitly teaches us that “if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 Jn 1:9). And so that is exactly what David does: he confesses his sin:
12 Who can understand his errors?
Cleanse me from secret faults.
13 Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins;
let them not have dominion over me.
Then I shall be blameless,
and I shall be innocent of great transgression. (Ps 19:12–13)
Have Mercy on Me
Church tradition has identified seven psalms as “penitential psalms” (6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130, 143), but several others also include themes of sorrow over sin, including 25, 39, 40, and 41.
There is perhaps a no more well-known confession of sin in all the psalms than Psalm 51. Book II of the Psalms is all about the extension of David’s rule over the nations. We remember stories of David’s exploits against the Philistines and all of the pagan nations surrounding Israel. “Saul has slain his thousands, but David his ten thousands!”
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As a denomination, we need to worry exclusively about the second fear outlined in the preamble to the Report and commit ourselves to being a bold witness in the Apostolic model.  That means no nuance, no hand wringing, and no compromise. Our BCO needs to include a standard for our officers that is a clear testimony against today’s prevalent licentiousness and makes no provision for toleration of Side A or Side B homosexuality among our officers. 

Soon, Commissioners will be heading to Memphis for the Presbyterian Church in America’s (PCA) 50th General Assembly, its Golden Jubilee.  With the departure of Greg Johnson from the denomination, some may feel we need a break from disputes over the culture wars.  But we have unfinished business in the PCA, and our denomination remains in crisis.
In the last 5 years, the PCA has grappled with cultural forces that are in opposition to the Gospel.  Along with these cultural forces have come soft persecution and pressure to conform, causing many to shrink from a bold proclamation of the truth.  Pastors, churches, and entire presbyteries have adopted social justice, gender equality, racial equality, and climate activism as appendages to and sometimes substitutions for the Gospel.  Some have also flirted with or embraced the culture’s views on sexual identity and so-called orientation.  Greg Johnson is the most egregious example.
Greg Johnson and the Side B Homosexual Movement have served as a lightning rod for debate. While Johnson’s departure suggests the PCA has escaped his heterodoxy, it should be noted that Johnson left the denomination on his own and without censure.  Further evidence suggests that a large minority of the denominational leadership remains sympathetic to his cause.
Consider the facts.  In 2019, less than 60% of the General Assembly in Dallas voted to affirm the Nashville Statement on Human Sexuality.  In 2021, the General Assembly in St. Louis voted to adopt overtures that would effectively disqualify men that claimed a gay Christian or homosexual Christian identity from holding office in the denomination.  Those same overtures were defeated in the Presbytery confirmation process.  In 2022, at the General Assembly in Birmingham, concerned commissioners fought tooth and nail to push forward the simple but clear Overture 15.  However, it only made it to the floor via minority report, was affirmed by a narrow majority, and went on to be defeated in the Presbytery confirmation process.
In the midst of this, the administrative leadership of the PCA have not been advocates for a clear and bold repudiation of the Side B movement.  In fact, denominational leadership has argued that adopting the Report on Human Sexuality makes unnecessary any additions to the Book of Church Order (BCO) concerning officers and claims made about sexual identity, even though the Report is weak in tone and does not address officer qualifications.  In addition, at last year’s General Assembly, the leadership of the denomination argued against Overture 15 for not being procedurally sound while making no effort to put the measure in a procedurally better position to meet their own standard.
More disappointment came in the Standing Judicial Commission’s mishandling of the case regarding Greg Johnson and Memorial Presbyterian.  At a minimum, even if the members of the SJC made it clear they were only exonerating Johnson and Memorial on questions of procedure, they could have individually or collectively made statements condemning Johnson’s unbiblical views, especially after he published his heretical book Still Time to Care.
Ironically, the ongoing divide in the denomination seems reflective of two opposing fears described in the preamble of the Report on Human Sexuality: the first being that our denomination would be perceived as harsh and unfeeling in confronting sexual perversion, and the second that our denomination would compromise the truth.
My sense is that a great portion of our denomination has already surrendered to the first fear and is obsessed with appearing intellectual, winsome, intentional, pastoral, and relevant in today’s culture.  For them, a weak, complex, and professorial statement like the Report on Human Sexuality is preferable to a clear, concise repudiation of the homosexual and transgender movements; and the Report’s nuance gives ample room for proponents of Side B homosexuality to remain entrenched and ordained in the PCA.
We can only be so winsome when warning people to flee from the wrath to come, and wringing our hands or worrying about public perception is not the mark of a true Christian.  The truth does hurt, but it also saves, and if we are unabashedly loyal to the Word, it will divide us from the culture, as we are promised by our Lord Himself.
As a denomination, we need to worry exclusively about the second fear outlined in the preamble to the Report and commit ourselves to being a bold witness in the Apostolic model.  That means no nuance, no hand wringing, and no compromise. Our BCO needs to include a standard for our officers that is a clear testimony against today’s prevalent licentiousness and makes no provision for toleration of Side A or Side B homosexuality among our officers.  Anything less brings shame to the truth of Christ and destroys the fellowship of the PCA.
Brett Doster is a Ruling Elder in Westminster Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Tallahassee, FL
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