Let me confess. I’m a prudent shopper. When I go in the supermarket for
the family shopping, I often buy the generic brand because it’s often
just as good as the named brand. But that’s not my policy with regard
to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
When it comes to the Gospel, I’m
with the entire Christian tradition, for which the word “God” means
“Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.” Why would we, recipients of God’s
lavish grace in Christ, settle for God-generic, selling our birth right
when we can gratefully claim the name into which we were baptized:
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit?
When we emerge from the waters of
baptism, we renounce the prerogative, in moments of weakness, to avoid
the offense that all too often comes from the fallen human discomfort
that arises at the mere mention of the Father of an oppressed and
crucified peasant Jew whom we confess and worship as Christ and Lord of
all.
There’s a question I find myself asking at every
denominationally sponsored General Assembly event. Once again, will the
generic God everywhere replace every pronoun or particular reference to
the first person of the Trinity? Will any piece of grammar that might
offer a particular reference to the Author of our salvation be forever
banished from these exhibit halls, and worse yet from the halls of our
hallowed churches?
On Thursday night, we had a worship service
where we commissioned our newly elected moderator Joan Gray, who
incidentally had shown that she was comfortable using traditional
Trinitarian language, including the biblical and Christian reference to
God as “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.” For this service, the
liturgical planners for the evening chose an appropriate biblical text:
Ephesians 4 – yet it was not the Ephesians 4 that most of know.
This
well-known biblical text says: “There is one body and one Spirit—just
as you were called to one hope when you were called— one Lord, one
faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all and
through all and in all.”
Yet the liturgical planners for the
evening chose to alter the scriptural text, duplicating the appearance
of the word Lord (“God and Lord of all,” rather than the biblical “God
and Father of all”). Perhaps this reflects an aesthetic sensibility
that escapes a pedestrian individual like myself. But a more discerning
mind might suspect that some in our denominational establishment will
go to any length, including altering the words of Holy Scripture, to
avoid the use of Father, which has become a four letter word when it
refers to the one who alone is worthy of our worship and praise.
15 Comments Received
June 18th, 2006 @6:36 am
It is situations just as you described that have led us away from the Presbyterian Church. Those whom we once loved and repected have ever so cleverly change truth for convenience and yet have no problem critisisng others, it’s the biblical “speck” vs. “plank.” We grew weary of speck finders and are seeking another church (possibly non-denominational) where we as saved by grace sinners may worship in spirit and in TRUTH!
June 18th, 2006 @9:43 am
Knowing Joan, I don’t think she will have any trouble with calling God “Father.”
Maybe I’ll see you around GA?
June 18th, 2006 @8:26 pm
Well tonight at the GA service there were a lot of references to the Father, and a far amount of masucline pronouns to boot. I attribute this to one thing. Our Cumberland brethren had something to do with the liturgy.
June 18th, 2006 @8:51 pm
I thought I was used to the genericizing after 18 years of ministry in this boat, but that one really caught in my throat Thursday night. I blurted “…and Father of all…” just like I memorized it from childhood. Sure hope I didn’t offend anyone sitting near me (lol). This i.l. business has gone way past ridiculous. It really has.
June 19th, 2006 @7:28 am
As I watch from the sidelines I continualy ask myself ” Who is in charge here?” We have a Stated Clerk who has overseen a significant loss in church membership, and yet not held accountable, we have an Office of Theology that spends unknown amounts of time and money over a two year period and produces a paper that at its roots is heretical, and yet we hear that the paper should be sent back to that same team for further work.
I know that it will not happen but my prayer is that the Commissioners will rise up and demand that our church stand with Jesus and His Holy Scripture once and for all.
RESPONSE FROM MICHAEL WALKER: Doug, thanks very much for this comment. One quick clarification: the effort to refer the paper back for more work is not an effort to refer it back to the committee that wrote the paper, but rather to refer it to the Office of Theology and Worship, whose staff person was a resource to the committee that wrote — i.e. the paper before the G.A. was not actually written by the Office of Theology and Worship. My understanding is that that office supports the passage of the paper as is, though I do think that, if referred back to them to work on it some more, the new paper would be significantly improved.
June 19th, 2006 @1:28 pm
Change for the sake of a few can but be the harm to many. The Church has changed many times, but the basic belief in The Trinity cannot be changed. Jesus was a man. His Father is our Heavenly Father. The devil is very clever. He constantly strives to turn us from our belief. He uses many guises. We must be aware of his lies and trickery. Pray that we will not be deceived. God the Father, Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit are the basis of our salvation. This cannot be changed.
June 19th, 2006 @1:54 pm
I would just like to ask those who refuse to use the word “Father” for God one question..If Father was good enough for Jesus why isn’t it good enough for Presbyterians?
June 19th, 2006 @3:40 pm
‘Tis a sad day when we do these things. Still, I gather that there are a few Presbyterian Churches where the people and clergy are faithful to what has been given to us from ages past, including the prophets and Apostles. To me, such textual alterations are a made because some people do not want to honor God — Father, Son and Holy Spirit — but only want to find loopholes in what He teaches us in the Bible so they can gain power. To me — and many others — this is the only way we can get away with supporting issues that dishonor not only our one true Trinitarian God, but also human life at its very core, and thus promoting thins like homosexuality, abortion, and pornography. I fear if the church continues in this direction it will soon be politically incorrect to say the name, “Jesus!” but be limited to an equally generic “Christ.”
June 20th, 2006 @3:30 pm
Those who would alter the language of the Holy Scriptures to further their own agendas have a reckoning to face someday. They are either unwittingly or wittingly doing the devil’s work. We should pray that God the Father will reach into their hearts and minds and reveal the error of their ways to them.
There is no room in any rational interpretation of the Scriptures for changing the Holy Trinity. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit is and always will be the only proper way to refer to the Trinity.
People looking for a rainbow should go outside after a summer rainshower and look upward. At least in looking upward they will have their eyes pointing in the correct direction.
June 21st, 2006 @8:44 am
Briefly, I left the (United) Methodist Church after 58 years, and filled the pulpit for “one” Sunday at our local Presbyterian (PCUSA) Church, and that has been almost 5 years ago. I became a member, and active elder, and have been taking the course of study for becoming a CLP. With “nonsense” such as this (and other), time wasting, wheel-spinning, task force this and task force that, I’m ready to go “non-denominational”, for such “trendy” and socialistic thinking is pervading not only Presbyterians, but most or all large denominations. Is it a “sign of the times”, to resurrect an old cliche ? I wonder if there has been a report on the floor of the 217th GA, as to how many souls have been won to Christ during the past year or so ? God will not honor ANY organization that doesn’t honor HIM for who He is ! My ernest prayers are for the PC(USA).
June 21st, 2006 @10:46 am
I am 76 years old and came into God’s
world into a Presbyterian family with
many Godly Christian witnesses who were
very diligent in teaching me about our
Lord and Savior. His advisary was also
pictured as a real person in life. By
their examples,teachings and acts of
faith,I have been able to go through
many trying times because My faith in
Our One True God sustained me. As a
result of the PC(USA) moving way to
the left I have regretfully left the
denomination.God is Father,not Mother.
June 21st, 2006 @11:19 am
Cradle Presbyterians, my wife and I are out of here. May God have mercy on the apostate.
June 21st, 2006 @3:47 pm
As a believer and a member of a Presbyterian church that was once keenly aware of the significance of God’s Word and His presence in our lives as God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, I am saddened and apalled that such changes in beliefs and God forbid, changes in scripture, are occuring. I plan to very reluctantly leave my Presbyterian church family because of the the decisions this General Assembly has made.
I stand with others in our church who love Jesus Christ and will not support a denomination that doesn’t honor God’s Word as holy and infallible.
June 22nd, 2006 @2:13 pm
Call GA2006 Servetus’ revenge. He denied the Trinity and infant baptism.
Now the PCUSA … supposedly Calvin’s heir… has “received” a report on the Trinity that essentially guts the historic doctrine. One might assume that’s because the PCUSA does not have the nerve to denounce it but most likely they’ll consider the Trinity non-essential next time if it God can’t be further castrated by the lesbians of Louisville.
To add insult to Trinitarian libel,with homosexuals running rampant in the denomination, there’ll be even fewer infants to baptize.
Servetus has finally had his day and conquered Calvin’s heirs.
June 24th, 2006 @1:13 pm
The same sort of thing just happened at Week I of the Worship & Music Conf. at Montreat, from whence I have just returned. Anna Carter Florence et. al. tried to make sure the Father was left out of our Worship as she ranted and raged theatrically about inclusiveness. Am I the only one who see/hears something terribly wrong and horrifically SAD in this??? Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit that at least most of the choir and bell music, if not the hymns, was inclusive enough to invite the Father to be included in our worship of Him! I pray, I weep, I tremble… but after this week of General Assembly and the completely erroneous sermons I have endured in the name of PC(USA) I believe I am being called out of this denomination. It is no longer the place of faith and witness in which my MacLeod, Hudson and White ancestors have served for generations.
Grace and Blessings of strength to you all who continue the struggle. I pray for you always -
Elder Emily Hudson Davis,
former CLP PC(USA)
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