First Post After a Long Break (and ARP Synod Round Up)

First of all, I haven't posted in several weeks due to the premature arrival of my third daughter: Jane Grey Stark. For all of you who were praying for her, thank you! She has been home now for about a week, and is doing very well.

Second, here are some links to various posts summarizing the 207th ARP Synod which meet last week. I was not there, but these gentlemen seem to summarize things pretty well:

From Rev. Tim Phillips:

General Synod, Day One
General Synod, Day 2
General Synod, Day Three (part 1)
General Synod, Day Three (part 2)
General Synod, Day Three (part 3)
Erksine Motion

From Dr. William Evans:

A Most Surprising ARP Synod Meeting

From Rev. Brian Howard:

207th ARP General Synod

Even if you just glance at the above summaries, you will note several encouraging items. I, for one, very much look forward to getting my hands on a copy of our new ARP Psalter. Kent brought back a CD with 20 selections from the Psalter on it, and it made for excellent listening on the way home from church yesterday.

Miracle: The Second Definition

Mostly because of this article written a couple of months ago by Dr. William Evans, I have been paying a bit closer attention to the Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC) than I previously had. I'll save most of my comments about the EPC for a future post (posts?), but I couldn't pass up this article, posted to The Layman Online yesterday:

A Miracle in the Making: Women as Teaching Elders in the EPC

For those of you unfamiliar with The Layman Online, here is point 1 of their Objectives:

1. To provide reliable information and resources concerning significant issues confronting the PCUSA and the Church Universal, thereby equipping and empowering faithful congregations and leaders in the PCUSA and other denominations to fulfill the Great Commission in the 21st century.

So, The Layman is a news outlet for "conservative" PCUSA congregations. Since the PCUSA has been losing "conservative" congregations faster than a oil out of a BP rig, and since a large number of these congregations are finding their way into the EPC, it is no surprise to find this story on The Layman.

What did surprise me was the use of the word "miracle" to describe the EPC's proposed [further] acceptance of women teaching elders. So, I turned to the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia to find a definition of "miracle":

The miracle proper is a work of God (Exodus 7:3 ff; Deuteronomy 4:34-35, etc.; John 3:2; 9:32-33; 10:38; Acts 10:38, etc.); but as supernatural acts miracles are recognized as possible to evil agencies (Matthew 24:24; 2 Thessalonians 2:9; Revelation 13:14; 16:14, etc.).

So, I guess it is a miracle after all. Now, for a definition of equivocation, see the EPC's position paper on women's ordination.

William Evans Responds to Richard Burnett

William Evans, professor of Bible and Religion at Erskine College and former moderator of the ARP has written a reply to Richard Burnett's piece about inerrancy.

Some highlights from Dr. Evans' article include:

Burnett’s article exhibits two persistent misunderstandings about inerrancy. First, he contends that the doctrine of “inerrancy” in the “original manuscripts” is a novelty of recent vintage. Such arguments were all the rage in the 1970s, but careful historians now recognize that inerrancy language can be traced back to the early and medieval church periods.

and

But why does inerrancy matter? The ARP Church rightly recognizes that a denial of the full authority of the Bible inevitably leads to the sort of “cafeteria Christianity” that now characterizes the mainline churches in this country, as people pick and choose those aspects of the Christian tradition that they find congenial and ignore that which conflicts with the broader culture. That sort of subjectivism destroys the mission and witness of the church, and the ARP Church objects to it with good reason.

You can read Dr. Evans' entire article here.