Studies & Actions
of the General Assembly of
The Presbyterian Church in America
23rd General Assembly, 1995, 23-49,
III, 5, Overture 19, pages 228 - 231. |
RESPONSE TO "EVANGELICALS AND CATHOLICS TOGETHER"
5. That Overture 19 be answered in the affirmative as amended and communicated
to the signers of the document Evangelicals and Catholics Together. Adopted as amended
OVERTURE 19 From the Presbytery of the Pacific Northwest
(as amended)
Response to "Evangelicals and Catholics Together"
Whereas, the Presbyterian Church in America is bound by the Word
of God as its sole source of faith and life ("Sola Scriptura" -
2 Timothy 3:16; Westminster Confession of Faith 1.1-10; and,
Whereas, this church as part of the Body of Christ has been given
the sacred responsibility to proclaim the gospel (Matthew 28:18-20) and
has the solemn charge to guard the gospel (2 Timothy 1:8-14), not seeking
the pleasure of men but of God (Galatians 1:6-10); and,
Whereas, at the very heart of the gospel lies the crucial doctrine
of Justification by Faith alone by the imputed righteousness of Jesus
Christ ("Sola Fide", "Solo Christo" - Romans 1:16-17; 3:21-26;
5:1-21; WCF 11.1-6); and,
Whereas, this church should desire to have no fellowship with those
who pervert the gospel but rather expose them (Galatians 1:9; 5:7-12;
2 Corinthians 11:1-16); and,
Whereas, the official Roman Catholic doctrine is a perversion of
the biblical gospel of justification sola fide; and, Whereas, the Presbyterian Church in America recognizes that there have always been
in the Roman Catholic Church those who have a living faith in Jesus Christ
as Lord and Savior and we have hopes that their number is growing; and,
Whereas, the Roman Catholic Church is not today monolithic in its
adherence to Tridentine theology, many Catholic authorities having embraced
diminished views of the Bible as the Word of God and Christianity as a
supernatural Faith, while some have embraced a more biblical theology;
and,
Whereas, the theological ignorance, confusion, and indifference
in Evangelical Protestantism is, in many respects, a reproach to the Lord
Jesus Christ; and,
Whereas, the doctrine of Justification by Faith is widely misunderstood
and misapplied in Evangelical Protestantism as well as in Roman Catholicism;
and,
Whereas, certain influential leaders in the Evangelical world have
recently signed the document Evangelicals end Catholics Together: The
Christian Mission in the Third Millennium which clearly suggests that
Roman Catholics by virtue of being Roman Catholics are to be considered
brothers and sisters in Christ, and suggests, therefore, that the dispute
between the churches of the Reformation and Roman Catholicism concerning
the doctrine of Justification by Faith is immaterial;
Therefore, the Twenty-Third General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church
in America adopts and directs to be sent to the signatories the following
statement in response to Evangelicals and Catholics Together:
The Presbyterian Church in America remains fully committed to the Reformed
doctrine of Justification by Faith as expressed in the Westminster
Confession of Faith (Chapter
11) and Catechisms (LC 70, 71, 77; SC 33). We reaffirm our
intention to proclaim this doctrine to the world and restate our disagreement
with any and all doctrinal formulations that fail to uphold the truths
of the Protestant Reformation in this most important matter. We further
declare that our understanding of justification is not compatible with
the teaching of the official Roman Catholic Church. Therefore, we maintain
that Biblical unity must be grounded in fidelity to the teaching of Holy
Scripture regarding the Person and Work of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The Presbyterian Church in America continues to believe that Holy Scripture
specifically and emphatically condemns any form of the idea that human
works contribute to a sinner's justification before God, a conviction
to which J. Gresham Machen gave timeless expression in his summation of
the teaching of the Apostle Paul in the Epistle to the Galatians:
"What was it that gave rise to the stupendous polemic
of the Epistle to the Galatians? To the modem Church the difference
would have seemed to be a mere theological subtlety. About many
things the Judaizers were in perfect agreement with Paul. The Judaizers
believed that Jesus was the Messiah; there is not a shadow of evidence
that they objected to Paul's lofty view of the person of Christ.
Without the slightest doubt, they believed that Jesus had really
risen from the dead. They believed, moreover, that faith in Christ
was necessary to salvation. But the trouble was, they believed that
something else was also necessary; they believed that what Christ
had done needed to be pieced out by the believer's own effort to
keep the Law. From the modern point of view the difference would
have seemed to be very slight. Paul as well as the Judaizers believed
that the keeping of the law of God, in its deepest import, is inseparably
connected with faith. The difference concerned only the logical
-- not even, perhaps, the temporal -- order of three steps. Paul
said that a man (1) first believes on Christ, (2) then is justified
before God, (3) then immediately proceeds to keep God's law. The
Judaizers said that a man (1) believes on Christ and (2) keeps the
law of God the best he can, and then (3) is justified. The difference
would seem to modern "practical" Christians to be a subtle and intangible
matter, hardly worthy of consideration at all in view of the large
measure of agreement in the practical realm. What a splendid cleaning
up of the Gentile cities it would have been if the Judaizers had
succeeded in extending to those cities the observance of the Mosaic
law, even including the unfortunate ceremonial observances! Surely
Paul ought to have made common cause with teachers who were so nearly
in agreement with him; surely he ought to have applied to them the
great principle of Christian unity. "
As a matter of fact, however, Paul did nothing of the kind; and
only because he (and others) did nothing of the kind does the Christian
Church exist today. Paul saw very clearly that the difference between
the Judaizers and himself was the difference between two entirely
distinct types of religion; it was the difference between a religion
of merit and a religion of grace. If Christ provides only a part
of our salvation, leaving us to provide the rest, then we are still
hopeless under the load of sin. For no matter how small the gap
which must be bridged before salvation can be attained, the awakened
conscience sees clearly that our wretched attempt at goodness is
insufficient even to bridge that gap. The guilty soul enters again
into the hopeless reckoning with God, to determine whether we have
really done our part. And thus we groan again under the old bondage
of the law. Such an attempt to piece out the work of Christ by our
own merit, Paul saw clearly, is the very essence of unbelief, Christ
will do everything or nothing, and the only hope is to throw ourselves
unreservedly on His mercy and trust Him for all.
"Paul certainly was right. The difference which divided him from
the Judaizers was no mere theological subtlety, but concerned the
very heart and core of the religion of Christ".
(Machen, J. Gresham, Christianity and Liberalism, New York: Macmillan, 1923, p. 23-25.) |
The Presbyterian Church in America acknowledges with sadness that the
failure rightly to understand and emphatically to proclaim the doctrine
of Justification by Faith alone is a sin to be found among Protestants
as well as Roman Catholics. We confess, with shame, the complicity of
Protestantism in the theological deterioration of Christianity.
The Presbyterian Church in America humbly acknowledges that Justification
is not by faith in a doctrinal formulation but by faith alone in Christ
the Redeemer and so it has often happened that people who have a living
faith in Christ as their Savior have a most imperfect understanding of
that faith and of the way in which salvation comes to them through it.
With gratitude to God we gladly welcome certain developments in Roman
Catholicism, especially those that have made Holy Scripture a more important
part of the faith and piety of many Roman Catholics. We acknowledge that
God, in his all-wise providence, has been pleased to put his loved ones
in many communions whose doctrine we find unbiblical, even heretical,
in important ways.
The Presbyterian Church in America commends the Roman Catholic Church
for its principled opposition to some of our national sins and believes
that it is altogether proper for the members of this church to be co-belligerents
with Roman Catholics in these social and political endeavors. |