• “God alone is Lord of the conscience and has left it free from any doctrines or commandments of men (a) which are in any respect contrary to the Word of God, or (b) which, in regard to matters of faith and worship, are not governed by the Word of God.[1]” Wowza! This is crazy! Based on Jesus’ sundry interactions with the religious leaders/“experts” of His day it seems like there could be situations where churches, and churchy peoples, and church leaders reject the emphatic values of God in favor of esteeming and elevating their own traditions (even arguing with the utmost passion that these traditions are “biblical”). It seems like it is quite possible that we might have hidden reefs (or venerated teachers in the church who cast up their foam) at our love feasts who have a fine way of rejecting the emphasis, priorities, and primary values of Jesus of Nazareth in order to establish and extol their own traditions.
  • “Our blessed Savior, for the edification of the visible Church, which is His body, has appointed officers not only to preach the Gospel and administer the Sacraments, but also to exercise discipline for the preservation both of truth and duty. It is incumbent upon these officers and upon the whole Church in whose name they act, to censure or cast out the erroneous and scandalous, observing in all cases the rules contained in the Word of God.” Based on the MUCH MUCH MUCH more authoritative (and active, and living) writings of Scripture, it would appear that the primary people to be censured and cast out are the ordained elders who DON’T live out John 3:10-14, 1 Corinthians 2:2, 2 Corinthians 1:24, Philippians 2:1-11, Hebrews 12:1-2, Hebrews 11:27. Jesus spent the bulk of His censuring time on the religious “experts” and leaders of the church who didn’t embrace His emphasis (see Matthew 16:21-23). There are so so so so so so many PCA elders who plunge into peripheral issues of “hairsplitting ‘orthodoxy’”, and judicial concerns, and decorum desires. And what it amounts to is… leaving the commandment of God and holding to the traditions of men.

[1] No religious constitution should be supported by the civil power further than may be necessary for protection and security equal and common to all others.