How To Tell The Difference Between The PCA And PCUSA

The Gospel Coalition ^ | 06/24/2014 | Joe Carter

[goodnesswins]

Thanks for posting this.

[Oberon]

In other words, John Knox would probably recognize the PCA. For the PCUSA, all bets are off...

[chajin]

An outsider’s suggestion: The PCA should simply change its name to the APC, the Actual Presbyterian Church.

[Dr. Thorne]

This is a very helpful piece. Nice to know there is a Presbyterian denomination that isn’t apostate.

[moovova]

Bookmark

[Vinylly]

Although I attend a PCUSA most of my life, I have never joined. I like the church that I was baptized in which is a Brethren Church (once it was called German Baptists and Duncards). I become disappointed with a church that fights over dogma. What they believe is simple and directly from the Bible.
http://brethrenchurch.org/upload/documents/Brethren_Documents_and_Resources/Brethren_Positions_on_Social_Issues_.pdf

[ConservingFreedom]

HOW TO TELL THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE PCA AND PCUSA

PCUSA: of the world
PCA: of God

[a fool in paradise]

PCUSA board politics sound like those espoused by CPUSA, coincidence?

[Objective Scrutator]

PCA: Christians, Patriots
PCUSA: Bolshevists, Secularists, Traitors, Hedonists

[Lee N. Field]

The PCUSA is the largest Presbyterian denomination in the U.S. PCUSA has approximately 10,038 congregations, 1,760,200 members, and 20,562 ministers. The denomination has been steadily losing members and churches since 1983, and has lost 37 percent of its membership since 1992.

They've been loosing members pretty much continually since the 1960s.

[Inyo-Mono]

Bttt.

[Nervous Tick]

“The PCUSA has no consensus in the interpretation of Scripture on issues of same-sex practice.”

To continue with the PCUSA/PCA comparison:

Literacy

PCUSA: Membership and clergy alike are unable to read and understand plain writings translated into their own language (e.g. Scripture)

PCA: Literate; able to read scripture for meaning

[Jim Noble]

Throughout the twentieth century, various Presbyterian denominations arose, merged, and split into various break-away groups. The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) (often abbreviated as PCUSA) was established by the 1983 merger of the Presbyterian Church in the United States, whose churches were located mainly in the South and in border states, with the United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, whose congregations could be found in every state. In 1973, the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) separated from the Presbyterian Church in the United States in "opposition to the long-developing theological liberalism which denied the deity of Jesus Christ and the inerrancy and authority of Scripture." In 1982, the Reformed Presbyterian Church, Evangelical Synod, joined the Presbyterian Church in America.

Do any of you who are still protestants understand how absurd this sounds?

[fishtank]

Yep.

PCUSA = CPUSA

For all intents and purposes.

[SeekAndFind]

RE: Do any of you who are still protestants understand how absurd this sounds?

I wouldn’t use the word “absurd”. I would use the word “sad”.

it simply shows how sinful human beings are and how throughout history, people forget and neglect God’s word by putting primacy on their “feelings” and personal wisdom.

I don’t think this problem exists only in “protestant” churches.

[fishtank]

As someone who grew up in the RCC, trying to find a decent RCC church was oftentimes a chore, and sometimes impossible.

I was in the SSPX, then I got saved (Ephesians ch. 2),

... then I left both the Novus Ordo AND the SSPX in my rearview mirror.

(I do like Lubbock, TX, though.)

/sarc

haha

[verga]

Thank you for posting this. I have asked several times over the years and have never gotten this clear an explanation.

[Gamecock]

Bookmark

[Always A Marine]

Just as Paul warned in 2 Timothy 4:3-4: j"For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths."

We are witnessing a "falling away" of monumental proportions, with many churches reduced to hollow shells "having the appearance of godliness but denying its power" and "always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth" (both quotes from 2 Timothy 3, ESV). This is a dangerous time for our rudderless society, signaling that even more perilous times lie ahead for the shrinking remnant of believers whose biblical views will becoming increasingly repugnant in an unbelieving world.