Theological issues

Three overtures calling for confession of salvation only in Christ are rejected

Committee on Theological Issues and Educational Institutions reports

[6-14-01]

Overtures from the Presbyteries of Beaver Butler, San Diego, and San Joaquin all sought a "clear affirmation of the Lordship of Christ" (in words frequently repeated in the debate). The committee which dealt with those overtures voted by 45 to 9, with 3 abstentions, to respond to the overtures with an expression of "thanksgiving for the concerns" they raised, and a call for the Office of Theology and Worship to prepare materials for use in congregations that would help them gain understand "the theological richness of the Lordship of Jesus Christ in The Book of Confessions and the Book of Order."

A minority was submitted by seven members of the committee, which would "reaffirm those teachings of our confessions which remind us that:

God has been revealed in and through Jesus Christ to be the unique Trinity -- Father, Son and Holy Spirit;

Jesus Christ, fully divine and fully human, is the singular saving Lord as understood through Scripture, our confession and Book of Order; and

All people are encouraged to embrace and experience the Lordship of Christ by putting Jesus first in their lives."

After lengthy debate, the Assembly refused, by a vote of 320 to 194, to accept the minority report, which seemed to reflect the recent proclamation by the Confessing Church movement, as a substitute for the majority report.

Another effort was made to combine the majority and minority reports (as former Moderator Syngman Rhee had hinted at earlier as a possibility). This effort was rejected by a vote of 328 to 195.

Then an amendment offered by the Rev. Malcolm Brownlee, of the Presbytery of Charlotte, was added to the majority report. He added to the original report the following statement:

We confess the unique authority of Jesus Christ as Lord. Every other authority is finally subject to Christ.
Jesus Christ is also uniquely Savior. It is 'his life, death, resurrection, ascension and final return that restores creation, providing salvation for all those whom God has chosen to redeem.' (The quotation is from The Crucified One Is Lord, a study prepared by the Reformed Church in America, and recently published by the Presbyterian Office of Theology and Worship.) Although we do not know the limits of God's grace and pray for the salvation of those who may come to know Christ, for us the assurance of salvation is found only in confessing Christ and trusting Him alone. We are humbled in our witness to Christ by our realization that our understanding of him and his way is limited and distorted by our sin. Still the transforming power of Christ in our lives compels us to make Christ known to others.

In explaining his amendment, Brownlee cited his eleven years of experience in the largely Muslim nation of Indonesia as one factor; his contacts with people there taught him both to care about them and to respect them and their faith.

The majority report, with Brownlee's amendment added, was then given final approval by the Assembly, by a vote of 369 to 163.

The debate leading up to these actions revolved around the tension between calls for a "clear statement of faith" as has been heard so frequently from the confessing church movement, in contrast to affirmations of a respect for other faiths and a need not to try to write new "confessions of faith" in such a partial and limited way.