We will see what happens

Interesting and (to me) chilling:

By the way, my prediction for 2010 is that once all of the FV advocates are together in the same church body, they’ll turn on each other–that will be interesting to watch.

(Of course, we already are all in the same church body, the body of Christ. But he is–erroneously, in my view–expecting some convergence into one denomination.)

I think this is interesting because I have held exactly the mirror-identical opinion. Between the Southern Presbyterian zealots, the Klineans, and the Clarkians, and the more barely-Reformed crowd there will be nothing but unending war. This is because, 1) FV is out of the way (maybe) and 2) precedents have been set by which anyone’s opinion can become the revisionist standard of orthodoxy to accuse anyone else of heresy. You don’t even need a court case. Just stack your own committee. NAPARC is left with nothing to hold onto as far as right and wrong are concerned. Nothing is left but power and the will to expel.

I say it is chilling because if anything like this happens on either “side,” it will be tragic. It will truly obscure the Gospel.

And, since I think this will be far more ruinous, it is time to consider blog silence on the FV issue (yes Again!). I mean, I’ve just turned forty, I’m entering the second year of my bivocational business, and New Years is a traditional time for all sorts of resolutions.

So this is mine. I’m done. Others will report the important stuff in the PCA and elsewhere. Just follow Doug Wilson’s blog and google “federal vision” on the blogsearch on a regular basis if you want to keep up with the sporadic news and constant poison.

Tomorrow is a new year. Let’s see what we can do.

6 thoughts on “We will see what happens

  1. Garrett

    Mark,

    Fugetuhaboutit. This is coming from the camp that has been attacking everyone enldlessly for the last 15 years (including their own) so what’s new? Projection onto others?

    Here’s my own prediction for 2010: The evil CREC will be much larger than that URCNA. And we’ll be doing it with a smile on our face, a joyful Eucharist w/ bread and wine each week, and partying down as we work with others outside our tradition to see the Kingdom expand.

    It aint just prophecy, its reality.

    Reply
  2. Alan

    That “prediction” may sound witty to the right crowd, but all it does is show how good analysis has been dropped in favor of throwaway cheapshot lines (or does it not qualify as a cheap shot until it shows some basis in reality?). There are sincere theological differences out there, and I have not yet lost my capacity to be amazed that bright and godly men choose these tactics over serious conversation with their brothers.

    For one thing, it’s a bizarre claim to make. There are no marauding gangs of FV men spilling the blood of Klineans and Ligon Duncan-clones in the ecclesiastical courts.

    Which leads to the second point. He obviously hasn’t consulted the talking points memo, which makes it clear that the peaceableness of a guy like Leithart is proof that he is deceptive smuggler of false doctrines (because it would be just like a wolf to finagle a way to look, smell, and taste like a sheep).

    And having been in the PCA for a decade, I’m convinced that the PCA isn’t growing so much because of what it’s doing right, but because of what other denominations (primarily the SBC, but also ELCA/UMC/PCUSA) are doing wrong. Given where the growth of the PCA is coming from, how the SBC in particular is responding, and what the CREC is doing with a lot less resources, I don’t think guys in the anti-FV crowd should be playing the Gamaliel card yet.

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  3. Jonathan Bonomo

    I agree completely. It is always interesting to hear Machen’s warrior children speak about the devisive ways of those whose heads they are hunting. The irony is nearly too thick to see past.

    Reply

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