Why a church joined the PCA 41 years ago

(From a Facebook post by PCA historian Wayne Sparkman)

Here are some of the reasons a group of believers left a church (or churches) of the old Presbyterian Church in the United States (PCUS) and became a “second wave” PCA church, 10 years after the PCA’s founding. Our thanks to PCA historian Wayne Sparkman who posted the document below on a Facebook group.

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From the church’s website: “At the March 1, 1983, meeting of Covenant Presbytery (PCA) a group of believers from Pontotoc, Mississippi, petitioned Covenant Presbytery to organize them as a local church of the Presbyterian Church in America. This group of believers was organized on March 20, 1983, as the Reformed Presbyterian Church, Pontotoc, Mississippi.”

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A pro-church union button from 1983—a united church (PCUSA) many “second wave” PCA churches (including the one that is the subject of this post) were seeking to avoid

WHY CHURCHES LEFT THE OLD PCUS:

A most useful summary found today among the historical record for what is now Maple Drive Presbyterian Church in Pontotoc, MS, organized in 1983. Church historian Kathryn P. Rackley wrote:

We has all been alarmed by the trend toward liberalism in the PCUS, and realized that the suggested church union could only intensify this trend, but it was really the young adult group that set our feet on the right track. When the Young Adult Sunday School class were invited to the home of Reg and Joyce Odom on the evening of February 19, 1983, they came away with more than a "pizza supper". No one dreamed that the result would be a new church, one affiliated with the Presbyterian Church in America, The fourteen people present were united in their opinion that affiliation with the proposed united Church was out of the question. But a decision on just what steps to take was not made at this gathering. The issues at stake were very plain to all :

1. In November of 1961 a PCUS minister denied the Virgin Birth of Christ, the Bodily Resurrection, and the Second Coming, but was accepted by the Presbytery. In May of 1962 a professor in a PCUS college declared that he wanted to stand publicly with this man under fire for denying the Virgin Birth. In February of 1963 another Presbytery accepted a minister who denied the Virgin Birth, followed by another candidate for ordination in April, 1970 who was accepted, even though he stated in no uncertain terms that he did not believe in the Virgin Birth, nor in the rising of Jesus Christ from the dead. A PCUS Presbytery accepted a Universalist professor in 1966. Then the Kaseman case received national attention in 1979 when the Union Presbytery accepted this man after he denied that Christ is God.

2. The PCUS General Assembly in 1972 rejected the inerrancy of Scripture. A new confession of Faith was sent to churches for study which was weak and vague on major doctrines. The General Assembly in 1976 voted to adopt this new confession, but its adoption was defeated in Presbytery voting. The next year the Assembly adopted the same "Declaration of Faith" as a statement of faith even after the Presbyteries rejected it. Also this year's Assembly voters adopted new ordination vows which stated that officers no longer have to believe in the infallibility of Scripture. In the 1980 minutes, the PCUS General Assembly stated that the Scriptures are "fallible human documents."

3. The PCUS began getting into politics as early as 1961 when the Adult Uniform Lessons advocated one world government, unilateral disarmament, and surrender of United States sovereignty. In 1966 the General Assembly endorsed civil disobedience, in 1968 the Assembly called for gun control, the 1969 Assembly favored Selective Service conscientious objection, the 1977 Assembly called for guaranteed income, welfare reforms to include the requirement that work is not necessary.

4. In 1964 the PCUS General Assembly established a central treasury, requiring equalization of all benevolent gifts. Then in 1971 the Committee on Therapeutic Abortions was established and $50,000 of these gifts was donated to pay for abortions for girls who could not afford it. Later the same year another $27,000 was spent. In 1965 the ll6th General Assembly of the PCUS affirmed that a woman had a moral right to the freedom of choice regarding her reproductive health. In 1972 $10,000 was given to guerilla groups in South Africa, Both the PCUS and UPC¹ gave unqualified support to the guerillas in Rhodesia in 1979.

5. In 1964 premarital sex was approved by a conference speaker at the 8th Youth Quadrennial, in 1972 the General Assembly refused to call homosexual behavior a sin, a re-statement of this was made in 1980 before the Assembly. In 1977 a homosexuality paper was sent to presbyteries, refusing again to call homosexuality a sin, saying only that it "falls short of God's plan". The 1979 Assembly took its stand against the ordination of MORE homosexuals, but stated that no homosexuals currently ordained could be punished. The 1980 minutes included the statement that sex outside of marriage CAN be the work of God.

6. In 1966 the PCUS Assembly made the PCUS a full member in the "Consultation on Church Union", made up of ten various denominations. In 1967 thirty-one PCUS leaders signed a statement in support of the COCU, which argued that Presbyterianism as such MUST be done away with.

7. There are other objections which prompted our withdrawal from the PCUS, but to name just a few: The 1974 Assembly refused to say that men are lost apart from God; The 1975 minutes included a paper which denied a personal devil; The 1980 Assembly gave toddlers the right to take communion.

Mainline presbyterians have loved politics and banners for a long time.

1. The United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (UPCUSA) merged with the PCUS to form the PC(USA) in 1983 (see photo above). The UPCUSA had been formed by the 1958 merger of the UPCNA and the previous sans-parentheses PCUSA (“the Northern Church” of Machen until he was expelled in 1936.)