Though the Creation Study Report is from 2000, Framework proponents are more numerous in the PCA than ever today. Which helps explain many of the PCA’s current problems. Men who are willing to bend scripture to accommodate secularists on creation–God’s foundational act that revealed Him to us as Creator–are more likely to bend scripture to appease the proponents of the latest secular fad.
Given the number of related meme’s populating the web, quite a few people still remember the 1980’s era TV commercial encouraging senior citizens to buy a device that would call for help in the case they fall and are not able to get up to reach a phone. Though a lot of people have made light of the commercial, underlying it was a serious issue that needed to be addressed.
The same could be said today of the plight of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA). Though many elders, deacons, and members in local churches seem to be taking lightly the ongoing errors of the PCA, they are serious and must be dealt with in one way or another. If by God’s grace this means a revival in the PCA, it is likely that lay members are going to play a significant role in this.
In this series, I’d like to run through a brief history of the errors of the PCA in exegesis and application that have led us to where we are today. Founded in 1973 to escape the growing liberalism in the Presbyterian Church in the United States (PCUS), it took about a quarter of a century for the liberalism to work its way back into the PCA. In Part 1, we will start with the days of creation. Specifically, the report of the Creation Study Committee to the PCA’s General Assembly in 2000.
Genesis 1 tells us that “God created the heavens and the earth” in six days, with each day being separated by evening and morning. The reality of the 24 hour days of creation cannot get much clearer than that. Jesus supports this in Mark 10:6 when He says, “from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female,’” indicating that Day Six was very close in time to Day One. And again when He says the “blood of Abel” was “shed from the foundation of the world.” The biblical text leaves no room for days that last for billions of years so that, for instance, the earth could have slowly formed out of the remnants of the big bang.
However, the PCA has decided to shoehorn room for billions of years into the text in order not to offend those who have been seduced by Darwin and many other secular scientists attempting to undermine Scripture.
