Do we really want good Presbyterians dating and marrying Methodists and Baptists?
What's that?
Never mind ...
Posted on 08/07/2018 10:27:11 AM PDT by Gamecock
At the 2016 October meeting of the North Florida Presbytery, the moderator appointed an ad hoc study committee to examine issues pertaining to same sex attraction in light of a recent ruling of the Nashville Presbytery Committee on Judicial Business. In January of 2018, the North Florida Presbytery voted unanimously to receive the committee’s report.
The report answered eight key questions. Below are those questions and summary statements of the committee’s report which can be read in full here.
1. What are the origins of same-sex attraction? Same sex attraction is a result of Adam’s original sin, the fall of mankind, and the total corruption of human nature.
2. Is same-sex attraction a disability that afflicts certain Christians? No. While disabilities are results of the fall they are amoral and do not constitute transgressions of the law of God. However, same-sex attraction is an inclination towards sin that emerges from the fallen nature. While Christians are not morally culpable for disabilities they are responsible for their attractions.
3. What is the relationship between sexual temptation towards a member of the same sex and sexual lust? Is the temptation itself sexual immorality? The committee affirmed that external temptations are not inherently sinful (Hebrews 4:15) but temptations arising from the corrupt nature are sinful desires and lusts that must be mortified.
4. Is it sinful to be sexually attracted to a member of the same sex? Yes. It is sinful to be attracted sexually to a member of the same sex. Homosexual desire is unnatural lust, a motion of the fallen nature, and is thus truly and properly sin (Romans 1.24-27; WLC 139).
5. Is sexual attraction towards a member of the same sex morally equivalent to sexual attraction towards a member of the opposite sex? No. Heterosexuality is natural while homosexuality is contrary to nature. While it is possible to glorify the Lord through heterosexual expression within the confines of monogamous marriage, it is impossible to glorify God through homosexual expression in any context.
6. Should we encourage a faithful believer—who experiences persistent same-sex attraction, but chooses to honor God through a celibate lifestyle—to identify as a ‘Gay Christian’? No. Believers are not identified by their sins but by their Savior. Jesus is the Christian’s new identity.
7. What are the proper ways to create space in order to minister to people dealing with same-sex attraction? The church must be a compassionate hospital for all sinners. But the church must not be ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and must preach the whole counsel of God’s Word. The committee offered eight specific recommendations.
8What are resources for engaging this issue? The committee offered a bibliographical sampling of modern literature on the topic of SSA that included works by Sam Allberry, Rosaria Butterfield, Wesley Hill, John Stott, and Matthew Vines. The committee also utilized materials from the Westminster Standards, John Calvin, Francis Turretin, R.L. Dabney, and Louis Berkhof.
Over the years, we have been members of PCA or OPC churches. I have seen first hand how the PCA sometimes takes positions that are skating dangerously close to those held by the mainline denominations. It’s all about the numbers and being appealing to the modern world. It’s sad to see.
The PCA was originally established when about 10% of the mainline Presbyterians in the southern branch broke away.
I’m afraid some of the old mainline establishment, moderate, get-along-to-go-along types still remain. Sad.
True. Some PCA churches were formed because they had political rather than theological differences with the mainline denominations. Then there is the constant effort by Satan to infiltrate and destroy the true church. That is universal.
Dear Methodists and ex-Methodists: how it should be thought about and how it should be done.
In order for something like this to happen, the United Methodist church would have to un-unite on theological grounds, as the Presbyterians did, as the Lutherans did, as the American Episcopal/Anglicans did.
To expropriate the Presbyterian terms, there would have to be a Methodist Church (USA), a Methodist Church in America, and an Orthodox Methodist Church, with the MC(USA) openly embracing homosexual heterodoxy, the MCA forming a committee with the above result, and the OMC never broaching the issue in the first place--just as, say, among Lutherans the ELCA openly embraces homosexual heterodoxy, the LCMS wrote its own response, and the WELS would not broach the issue (tbh they might have, I didn't check).
I left the UMC four years ago to join the PCA. The PCA isn’t perfect, but it does use the Bible as a shield against apostasy!
Wow! I’m shocked that a current Methodist body would take such a stand. It gives me great comfort that there are still some of us out there. Thanks for the post!
Not Methodist, Presbyterian Church in America.
I knew it was too good to be true! Time for a Disunited Methodist Church - actually, long past time.
Therefore (mixing my metaphors), until the fragment sheds the parasitic infection, it is senseless to claim separation (1 Cor. 6:14-7:1) until the spore, the leaven, is expunged from the constitution of the loaf. That includes the gender-bridging taint of female ordination to the diaconary or eldership, to start with.
There aren't.
Do we really want good Presbyterians dating and marrying Methodists and Baptists?
What's that?
Never mind ...
Amen to that. Women hastened the decline of the UMC precipitously.
My particular UMC is full of us.
Here's the bottom line:
Wherever mannish females start having impact in the local assembly, womanish males will stay, and real men will take their real women and leave for genuine Biblical gatherings that meet in the name of Christ and for Him.
It's like the neutron bomb: the real people are gone, the buildings stay.
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