Amend BCO 21-4 to Specify Good Faith Subscription
Whereas the purity and unity of our church require
her to establish that her officers sincerely receive and adopt the Westminster
Standards as containing the system of doctrine taught in the Holy Scriptures,
and for those officers to declare if at any time they find themselves
out of accord with any of the fundamentals of this system (BCO
21-5; WCF XXXI.2);
And, whereas the purity and unity of the church also require that
her leaders understand both the restrictions and allowances of her Standards
that are derived from Scripture but, unlike it, are not the only infallible
rule of faith and practice (WCF I.8, 10; XX.2; XXXI.3; WLC
# 3; BCO Preface II. 7);
And, whereas there is a longstanding tradition within American
Presbyterianism, including the PCA, that officers may in good faith take
exception to certain particulars of the Westminster Standards, if such
particular exceptions are not inimical (i.e. hostile or injurious) to
the more comprehensive system of doctrine;
And, whereas the PCA's original Good-faith subscription position
has served the church well, but recently been challenged by some who desire
either a more Broad- or Strict-subscription position;
And, whereas the church must guard against a broad, "substance-of-doctrine"
subscription approach, which has no definitive meaning and leaves to the
candidate himself rather than to the wisdom of the presbytery to determine
what areas of his disagreement with particular statements of the Constitution
are inimical to the system of doctrine and what are allowable differences
with the Westminster Standards;
And, whereas the assertion that the PCA was consciously founded
as a Strict-subscriptionist Church in 1973 cannot be sustained (Minutes
of the Twenty-First General Assembly, cf. pp. 89 and 149 with pp.
146 and 166-168); And, whereas the General Assembly of the PCA did not
declare itself to be a Strict-subscriptionist Church in the joining and
receiving process with the Reformed Presbyterian Church Evangelical Synod
in 1982;
And, whereas attempts to change the PCA into a Broad- or Strict-subscriptionist
Church are a departure from the original position of the PCA, and such
attempts may bring discord and possibly division within the Church;
And, whereas the inclusion of a Good-faith subscription statement
in our Book of Church Order is needed to state explicitly what
has been the understanding and practice of the majority of the PCA from
its beginning;
Therefore, to clarify and support the original ordination standards
of the PCA, ___________Presbytery overtures the General Assembly to amend
the Book of Church Order by inserting the paragraphs in bold below
as new paragraphs of BCO 21-4 between the following sentences,
as indicated:
"Whenever a Presbytery shall omit any of these parts, it shall always
make a record of the reasons for such omissions and of the trial parts
omitted.
[Insert new paragraphs (in bold below) here]
"The Presbytery being fully satisfied of his qualifications for the sacred
office...."
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