The End Of The Presbyterian Church?

Every baseball fan knows the phrase "Three strikes and you're out", and the Presbyterian Church USA General Assembly has just struck out. Big. 

This year the Presbyterian Church USA General Assembly met in Detroit MI to hold their biennial meeting. They discuss hundreds of items and many times God is guiding their decisions. I'm not so sure this year. This year the PCUSA voted to allow its clergy to perform same-sex faux marriages. The church leadership has changed the language in the church's Book of Order to replace references to "a man and a woman" with the politically correct "two persons".

Defending this position, Seattle ruling elder Nathan Sobers said "The Gospel is about fairness." (Sobers is married to his male partner of 27 years.) Actually the Gospel is about a lot of things: sin, redemption, love , forgiveness, and very importantly the kingdom of God and reaching for the kingdom of God. Matthew 6:10, Luke 9:1-2, Luke 8:1, Mark 1:14-15, Matthew 4:23, Matthew 9:35, Matthew 24:14, Matthew 19:16, Matthew 19:23-24, Luke 13:28. Matthew 13:19, Mark 10:15, Matthew 6:33, Matthew 13:38, Luke 1:30-33 all teach about the Kingdom of God. Yes, fairness is in the Gospel but probably not the re-defined fairness that the LGBT community demands of God. Instead of defining fairness as letting people sin because they like to sin and a loving god would allow them to sin because it would be "fair", God's promise of fairness reads a bit more like this:

For he who does wrong will receive the consequences of the wrong which he has done, and that without partiality. (Colossians 3:25)

Sobers main defense of gay marriage is "Jesus never said a word about loving same-sex couples" which is true, and as a defense it's useless, because he never spoke about abortion either so to use "Jesus never spoke about XYZ" is useless. Every mention of marriage in scripture specifically describes it as a union between a man and a woman, and when Jesus spoke of marriage he always speaks of a man and a woman. Never in either the Old or New testament is homosexuality spoken in any way other than sin. 

So this is strike one, ignoring God's teaching about man and woman.

Also this week, the Presbyterian Church USA General Assembly voted to sell stock it owns in Caterpillar, Hewlett-Packard, and Motorola because the companies make products used by Israel against Palestinians in the West Bank. This divestiture is disturbing, misguided, anti-Semitic, and kind of stupid as Caterpillar doesn't even sell equipment to Israel, the only government that Caterpillar sells to is the U.S. Government. So in a nutshell the Presbyterian Church USA General Assembly purposely and with malice of forethought turned their backs on Israel, God's chosen people, the core and origin of our religion, the people Jesus Christ was born to and came to save. How do you do that? How do you do that and call yourself a Christian church at the same time? Please tell me, especially keeping in mind that God says;

1 Now the Lord said to Abram, "Go forth from your country, And from your relatives And from your father’s house, To the land which I will show you; 2 And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing; 3 And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.” (Genesis 12:1-3)

So this is strike two, ignoring God's teaching about Israel and His curse against those who revile Israel.

And to round out the week the following proposal was placed before the Presbyterian Church USA General Assembly:

1. Call for the Presbyterian Mission Agency and member congregations to enter a two-year season of reflection upon the plight of children unwanted by human society, both born and not-yet born, and to purposefully seek to enter the pure worship of God by offering aid, comfort, and the Gospel to those responsible for the care of our most desperate orphans (including those who survive abortion procedures): parents, siblings, church and community leaders, and the medical profession.

2. Direct the Moderator of the General Assembly and the Stated Clerk to issue statements that denounce the practice of killing babies born live following an abortion procedure, such as was revealed in the Dr. Kermit Gosnell clinic in Philadelphia.

The  Presbyterian Church USA General Assembly voted against these motions by a 78% margin. So by rejecting a motion to denounce infanticide, the Presbyterian Church USA is turning a blind eye to the slaughter of innocent children and will have no part with trying to prevent more. There are no words that come to my mind other than:

3 Behold, children are a gift of the Lord, The fruit of the womb is a reward. 4 Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, So are the children of one’s youth. 5 How blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them; They will not be ashamed When they speak with their enemies in the gate. (Psalm 127:3-5)

and

2 And He called a child to Himself and set him before them, 3 and said, “Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 5 And whoever receives one such child in My name receives Me; 6 but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck, and to be drowned in the depth of the sea. (Matthew 18:2-5)

Strike three, ignoring God's innocent babies and encouraging by inaction the slaughter to continue.

For a long time I thought that if something happened to my little church filled with loving Bereans that the Presbyterian Church would be the place I would go. No more. I can't think of a reason why I would ever go to a Presbyterian Church now.

Looking at the batting record of the Presbyterian Church (.000) its plain to see where the problem with their swing is: they have turned their backs on the word of God.