On June 3–4, the Pacific Northwest Presbytery (PNW) of the PCA is conducting a trial to determine whether or not Dr. Peter Leithart, pastor of Trinity Reformed Church, in Moscow, Idaho (CREC) has views contrary to the Westminster Standards. Please pray that God would be glorified through these proceedings.
Specifically, please pray that:
- If there is indeed heresy, the accused would see it clearly, and repent.
- If the concerns raised are unfounded, and no heresy is found, that this would come clearly to light, and that all may walk away giving thanks to God.
- If it comes to light that false accusations were made, please pray that those men would acknowledge it, repent, and remedy the affects of their false accusations to the best of their abilities.
- That all those involved in this trial would honor the authorities over them, allowing for a fair trial, and respecting the outcome, even if in disagreement.
Sola Deo Gloria.
For background on the Federal Vision, read the Joint Federal Vision Profession.
Another thing to pray for: that this would stop happening to Dr. Peter Leithart.
Amen!
I hope that the Federal Vision is everything that this site claims it is not. That would at least move the Calvinist sectarians back within the boundaries of Apostolic Christianity. I jest . . . just a bit. I do believe Dr. Leithart to be learned and pious man and so I pray that the will of Christ will be done. Kyrie eleison!
As an Anglican who worships frequently at an Orthodox church, my best bet would be to stay out of this. But I’m constrained to say that the failure of “Reformed” types to place “doctrines” (those views peculiar to some Christian groups but not to others) on the same level as “dogma” (those views which have claimed the overwhelming assent of the vast majority of professing Christians throughout the ages and around the globe) brings endless fine-tuning on issues never really decided upon in a definitive way by the church universal and endless “Mr Valiant-for-the-Truth” efforts to clean the theological house. (I could add that, not only do “doctrines” [in my sense above] but “theologies” [the individual efforts of individual theologians to articulate, explicate, refute, defend, or whatever “dogmas” and “doctrines”] get elevated to the level of dogmas. What Florovsky and Pelikan termed “universalityecumenicity in time” [the “all times” of Vincent of Lerins] and “universality/ecumenicity in space” [the “everywhere” and “by all” of Vincent’s canon] get lost in the shuffle; despite the hopes above for “everyone walking away with sanctified smiles,” acrimony is almost always the result. The word “heresy” should be used a lot more sparingly in certain circles.
The word “failure” in the second line of my comment above is itself a failure. Should have been “tendency” or an equivalent. As it is, I’ve completely reversed my meaning. “Haste makes waste”–to coin a phrase.