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The Rule of Men: The Basic Flaw in CREC Polity

It is a popular pastime among certain Reformed sectors and, on the other hand, “deconstructing” Christians to criticize the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches, and Douglas Wilson in particular. As a long time reader of Wilson, and attender of a flagship CREC church for some time, I have my own criticisms of Wilson and the CREC. But, as an attorney, there is a central flaw not with Wilson or with Crec pastors generally, but with the CREC’s political structure. This problem, furthermore, has gone largely unrecognized, because it arises out of the basic governing documents of the denomination which, if you aren’t a lawyer or enthusiastic about ecclesiastical politics, are not exactly stimulating to read. That central problem—and I believe it is the problem behind a lot of the more obvious issues in the CREC—is that the denomination is fundamentally characterized by the rule of men and not the rule of law. In secular governments and most ecclesiastical governments, the governme...
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Signs You are in a Church You should Leave

In the last few months, I have been thinking a lot about what the Bible requires for "official" accusations, whether in a church or in a secular court. I have posted on this recently. That has led to a related question: how can you tell if you're in an ecclesiastical environment where such Biblical requirements may not be respected?  (This assumes you have no significant ability to reform the situation—for example, you are not an elder, or have no significant positive influence over the elders, or, more cynically, have no significant monetary influence over what goes on in the church). The internet has many articles on this. I want to focus on two signs that are easy to spot for the average person. These are not so much particular actions, but rather long-term trends you should be able to spot if you attend a church long enough. 1. The first is an environment of secrecy. One major sign of secrecy is a reluctance or refusal to answer questions about certain topics, or to j...
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Samuel Miller on the Duties of Judges

Related to the prior post, the following are several quotes from American Puritan Samuel Miller's A Compleat Body of Divinity, specifically from the sermon on the duties of judges. Quote: Whether a judge is bound to execute a law, which he is convinced to be in itself unrighteous? It would take up too much time to discuss it distinctly; all that I say is, they are to judge for God primar­ily; and he loves righteousness, and hates iniquity; and we are told concerning such, Prov. 17:15, He that  justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, even they both are abomination to the Lord. And  they that think such a man has two consciences, a public and a private, will find it a grand cheat one day, Quote: 5.) He is to allow a fair hearing to all parties, whose cause comes before him. There are two sorts of  causes which belong to the cognizance and determination of civil judicature, namely, matters criminal  or capital; and matters of controversy between man and ...
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The Law of Evidence in Seven Verses

Over approximately the past decade and a half, the idea of churches exercising more significant discipline over their members has gained traction among certain groups of Evangelicals. The most mainstream example is Jonathan Leeman, formerly of 9Marks, who has probably done the most to revitalize the topic in print in the last decade and a half. But church discipline has always been exercised in one form or another, particularly by small churches with well-defined and rigid boundaries. The locus classicus for church discipline is, of course, Matthew 18, which lays out a three step process for how church discipline ought be carried out. But Matthew 18, even if it is where we begin, cannot be where we end. For it is perfectly possible to “follow Matthew 18” while railroading an innocent party to a completely unjust result. Where can we go to discover what makes the process of church discipline a just one, worthy of acceptation? Another requirement that is often cited, but that is ...
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The inevitability of Anthropomorphism

It is frequently argued by opponents of the classical conception of God that it reduces most or all of Scripture’s talk about God to “anthropomorphism” or metaphor. The classical conception of God makes God into something remote, unrelated to human beings, that does not interact with the world in the way Scripture consistently portrays him as doing. In other words, the classical conception of God is anti-revelational. This has never seemed a compelling argument to me. Unless you are the most radical of Socinians, anthropomorphism is an inevitability. If you believe in divine omniscience, the passages in Scripture where God is said to repent, to regret a consequence, or to change his mind are anthropomorphic. There is simply no way to read “God repented” as equivalent to man repented” when God knows all possible and actual future contingents. Similarly, we all interpret passages that describe God as “coming down” to investigate (as in Genesis 11) or walking in the garden (as in Gen...
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Review: Grace Worth Fighting For (Hyde)

This was fantastic. It is probably the Davnenant Institute’s breakthrough book. Written with both pastoral wisdom and scholarly rigor, this is a book I can recommend to almost any relatively well-read Reformed layman. It also demolishes the sort of New Calvinist pretensions that hold up John Piper and R.C. Sproul as the best representatives of Reformed theology, in an irenic albeit firm tone. The book opens with a great historical introduction that introduces the context and major players of dort. The introduction is interesting, but can probably be skipped or at least skimmed if one does not find it helpful. The book then walks through each of the canons of Dort in order, covering the affirmations and denials on predestination, regeneration, Christ’s satisfaction, and the perseverance of the saints. In doing so, Hyde shows both how ecumenical the canons were and are—as good a summary of Reformed soteriology as there is—and just how much room they allow for differences in artic...
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Review: Crossed Fingers (North)

This book is very difficult to review for two reasons. One, it is truly massive—over 1,100 pages, much of it extremely detailed and dry about the Presbyterian conflict. It is, on the other hand, fairly easy to read. It is also remarkably prescient because, given the fact that it was written in the 1990s, it maps out almost perfectly the kind of capitulations that are occurring in Evangelicalism at large. The charged writing is both the books greatest strength and its greatest weakness. It is written by Gary North, after all, who has an agenda. Far from a neutral or impartial account of the history, North is clearly on the side of Machen and his allies—though thinks Machen ultimately failed in his primary goals. On the other hand, North tends to belabor his points over and over and over again, to the point where I thought the book could probably have been several hundred pages shorter. North’s appendix on immunizing Presbyterianism, while containing some truly odd suggestions, al...
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