Much as I love the Heidelberg Catechism, and much as I respect the help I've received from Henry over the years, it seems that for years the CRC has been using the confessions as a loophole to avoid following explicit biblical directives (which in theory are our primary authority). The Heidelberg Catechism etc. don't deal with abortion, pornography or a host of other issues that have become lightning rods in our society. It's not that these issues didn't exist back then, but they weren't legally and societally approved, and so were not addressed. To avoid biblical teaching by saying it's not in the confession or catechism is casuistry of the highest order. There's also an implied judgment that those of us who take the "traditional" view on same-sex marriage are not compassionate and would not deal pastorally with specific cases. That may be true for some, but it's an unwarranted assumption to make in general. I agree that church splits are painful and have often been unbiblical. That's why I second the suggestion that, rather than form yet another denomination, the respective parties in the RCA and CRC realign...although I recognize that to be a faint hope. I find it ironic that on issues like baptism that have divided the Christian church for years, we want to make it a primary confessional issue, but on issues relating to homosexuality on which the church has been united until recently (and most evangelicals still are) we want to make them secondary or "pastoral" rather than confessional.
Further on church unity, it's clear that both the CRC and the former GKN in the Netherlands were far too quick to enforce discipline on secondary issues of conscience and biblical interpretation, resulting in church splits. The solution is not to go to the other extreme and avoid discipline altogether. This is clearly not biblical. Interesting that it's those who seek to promote the purity and orthodoxy of the church (albeit sometimes harshly and unlovingly) who are now accused of being divisive...not those who push for change and reinterpretations of Scripture that amount to accommodating rather than transforming culture.
Not only did John Stott predict this would happen. At the height of the women in office controversy, David Feddes wrote in "Calvin Forum" that the hermeneutic being used would lead to this. Neal Plantinga responded that this was "unlovely" and Feddes might as well have suggested women in office would lead to an approval of stealing (a total non-sequetor). Feddes replied that, unlike other denominations, like Pentecostals that have had women preachers from the start, the hermeneutic being used in the CRC (i.e. cultural accommodation that undermines the authority of Scripture) was following the trajectory of the then mother church, the GKN who had moved past women in office to a reconsideration of homosexuality. Others who made the same point at Synod were booed, like they were making an unfair and unimaginable comparison.
Clearly, there are differences between the two issues, not least the Scriptures' positive statements on women's ministry. The point is Feddes was right about the underlying hermeneutic being used. It's time to admit that.
Posted in: Status Confessionis
Much as I love the Heidelberg Catechism, and much as I respect the help I've received from Henry over the years, it seems that for years the CRC has been using the confessions as a loophole to avoid following explicit biblical directives (which in theory are our primary authority). The Heidelberg Catechism etc. don't deal with abortion, pornography or a host of other issues that have become lightning rods in our society. It's not that these issues didn't exist back then, but they weren't legally and societally approved, and so were not addressed. To avoid biblical teaching by saying it's not in the confession or catechism is casuistry of the highest order. There's also an implied judgment that those of us who take the "traditional" view on same-sex marriage are not compassionate and would not deal pastorally with specific cases. That may be true for some, but it's an unwarranted assumption to make in general. I agree that church splits are painful and have often been unbiblical. That's why I second the suggestion that, rather than form yet another denomination, the respective parties in the RCA and CRC realign...although I recognize that to be a faint hope. I find it ironic that on issues like baptism that have divided the Christian church for years, we want to make it a primary confessional issue, but on issues relating to homosexuality on which the church has been united until recently (and most evangelicals still are) we want to make them secondary or "pastoral" rather than confessional.
Posted in: Status Confessionis
Further on church unity, it's clear that both the CRC and the former GKN in the Netherlands were far too quick to enforce discipline on secondary issues of conscience and biblical interpretation, resulting in church splits. The solution is not to go to the other extreme and avoid discipline altogether. This is clearly not biblical. Interesting that it's those who seek to promote the purity and orthodoxy of the church (albeit sometimes harshly and unlovingly) who are now accused of being divisive...not those who push for change and reinterpretations of Scripture that amount to accommodating rather than transforming culture.
Posted in: Status Confessionis
Not only did John Stott predict this would happen. At the height of the women in office controversy, David Feddes wrote in "Calvin Forum" that the hermeneutic being used would lead to this. Neal Plantinga responded that this was "unlovely" and Feddes might as well have suggested women in office would lead to an approval of stealing (a total non-sequetor). Feddes replied that, unlike other denominations, like Pentecostals that have had women preachers from the start, the hermeneutic being used in the CRC (i.e. cultural accommodation that undermines the authority of Scripture) was following the trajectory of the then mother church, the GKN who had moved past women in office to a reconsideration of homosexuality. Others who made the same point at Synod were booed, like they were making an unfair and unimaginable comparison.
Clearly, there are differences between the two issues, not least the Scriptures' positive statements on women's ministry. The point is Feddes was right about the underlying hermeneutic being used. It's time to admit that.