The Highway Forums General Discussion Theology Discussion Forum RCA Synod 2013ssary

I think it is necessary for all reformed folk to take note of what happened at the RCA 2013 synod.

Read HERE and HERE .

Johan

Although I don't belong to the RCA, I sure couldn't for conscience sake remain one if I was.
It is evident that the liberal agenda is working as it is in much of society.
I nearly when I read that one person said that Paul was wrong on slavery, therefore...

There is an old saying (I hope I don't butcher it) "True Christians flourish when persecution is present."

Tom

A couple thoughts came to mind after reading the material from the links you provided.

1. The RCA has been apostate for some 40+ years. I was once a member of a conservative RCA congregation that caused no little grief to the denomination. For example, it had a "quota" (money) that each congregation was required to send in to support the denominations liberal ventures. The church I was a member of sent in no such quota but rather sent the money to Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia which at the time was still reasonably sound. Eventually, they voted unanimously to leave the denomination and shook the dust of their feet. This was over 30 years ago.

2. The author of the one article, Kevin DeYoung is notorious for his "contemporary Calvinism", aka: New Calvinism and his association with "The Gospel Coalition", which was founded by Tim Keller, another odious albeit popular personality among the New Calvinists. His criticisms, which were mainly justified, had me chuckling. The hypocrisy is blatant. Here's a perfect example of the stove calling the kettle black. And IF he is so outraged over what the RCA is doing, why has he remained in the denomination all this time??

Pilgrim

I too have my concerns about 'The Gospel Coalition' and 'New Calvinism' in general. Although there are individuals within that organization that have blessed me by their writing; their writing in my opinion contradicts their belonging to an organization such as these.
It kind of reminds me of how I have been so blessed by the writing of JI Packer, yet his involvement with ECT seems to contradict his own writing.

Tom

A theologian friend of mine gave me some more background on the history of the RCA. According to him the RCA came to America from the Dutch "Hervormde Kerk" (HK). Apparently there have been divisions in the HK for quite a long time and it also spilled over to the RCA in the US. For some reason the HK in the Netherlands lives with this internal division between the conservatives and the liberals. It is one denomination but it seems as if it is well known who the conservative and who the liberal ministers are. It is like two denominations in one. One can sense this also in the two articles. The reason why de Young does not move out of the RCA might be because of the history of this denomination. That's just my guess.