The Continuum of Church Purity

In my Church History class last Friday, my professor, Dr. Sean Lucas, gave us a description of how church history has been viewed with in terms of the purity of the church. He drew a simple line graph on the chalk board. The horizontal variable was a simple time line starting with the apostles and the early church. The vertical variable was supposed to be a measurement of the purity of the church. So when he started drawing this graph the level of purity was very high during the apostolic early church period, and the level of purity dropped off during the age of Constantine. It went in the tank during medieval Catholicism and rocketed upward as Luther and Calvin appeared…and so on.

The PCA and many other Presbyterian denominations we formed because of a concern for the purity of the Church. They saw the main line Presbyterian Church being compromised by a view that rejected fundamental Christian doctrines, things like: the deity of Christ and his resurrection, and the inerrancy of Scripture. The line was in the tank again or at least very quickly headed that direction. There are those who are concerned that the PCA’s line is once again headed downward and they are publicly decrying what they perceive as a compromise of the sanctity of scripture and the purity of Christ’s Church as it is manifested in the PCA.

I do not believe that my brothers are wrong for expressing their concerns. I believe that they do so out of a love for the Church and as Pastors of God’s people. They are protecting their flocks as any good pastor should. God bless them.

The specific issue that is fueling the debate recently is egalitarian feminism. There are those who believe that Covenant Seminary (where I am currently a student) and her President Dr. Bryan Chapell (and others in the PCA) have taken a position that is contrary to scripture regarding a woman’s role in the church. To further clarify, the question is not, “should women be ordained as teaching or ruling elders?” But the question is better stated, “Can a non-ordained woman participate in the life of the church in every way that a non-ordained man can?” Can a woman read scripture during a worship service or pray aloud during a worship service? Can a woman sit on or even chair a committee in the church? To my knowledge, no one is arguing for the ordination of women as teaching or ruling elders in the PCA.

What concerns me is that there is little or no charity being given by those who fear the church is under attack from what they view as a “feminist” position. It seems as if there is no room for debate on an issue that is totally debatable! We are making an essential out of a non-essential. What is worse, the debate is becoming shrill and unbecoming of the Bride of Christ.