Micah in our days
Parallels between
Israel and Judah and the PCUSA
By John H.
Adams
News Analysis
The Layman
Volume 41, Number 3
Posted May 2008
Are there
parallels between the decline of Jerusalem and Samaria, the religious
centers for Judah and Israel during the ministry of Micah, and today’s
deterioration in the Presbyterian Church (USA)? If so, will they be
considered by the 218th General Assembly when it confronts the issues
facing the national governing body in San Jose, Calif.?
Or will the General Assembly simply fast-forward from the eighth
century before Christ to the 21st century in the anno domini and
proclaim justice, mercy and humility as marks of the denomination even
though it is headed toward extinction?
Unquestionably, there are comparable conditions. Today’s pluralism
has similarities with the “high places” of Jerusalem and
Samaria. Both are rooted in an idolatry that questions Biblical truth,
the singular saving work of Christ, the commandments of the Lord, and
the way Christians should live that glorify the Father, Son and Holy
Spirit. Consider the categories of sin that Micah focused on:
- 1. Coveting. With an ever-growing number of congregations
finding their continued relationship with the PCUSA troubling, the
denomination has concocted legal schemes to seize local church
property and – in many cases – to take governing control
of the congregations. Why does the PCUSA want the property, knowing
that the follow-up congregation will probably fade away? Money! God
has not prospered the PCUSA in years. Fundraising has failed.
Employment at the PCUSA headquarters in Louisville has been halved.
The denomination recently announced that the first floor of its
building – 30,000 square feet – will be leased. The
denomination’s spin on the situation was to boost money for “missions.”
A more realistic response would be that the lease money will merely
plug some holes. In the meantime, congregations elsewhere seem to
see nothing sacred about the use of one of its captured buildings.
One was sold for use as an Islamic mosque; another for a homosexual
church. In Micah’s time, King Ahaz of Judah stripped the Temple
to sell what was dedicated to the Lord to bribe unbelievers.
- 2. Rejecting the Word of God. In the endless debate over
whether to ordain people who insist on their “right” to
have sexual partners – same gender, premarital or adulterous –
presbyteries have adopted “debate” rules that prohibit
speakers from quoting the Bible. There was a similar response to
Micah’s ministry, whose opponents chanted much like the refrain
common today: chill out, live and let live, there are no “essentials”
– including God’s Word. Diversity is exalted. Unity is
demanded. Thus, the Theological Task Force on Peace, Unity and
Purity could warn – as it did in its report to the 2005 General
Assembly – that anyone leaving the PCUSA would be jeopardizing
his or her saving relationship with Christ. Can’t we all get
along?
- 3. Sins of the leaders. Micah doesn’t blame the
leaders entirely, although he denounces them fiercely. He is
anguished to the point of stripping off his outer garments and
howling like a raging mourner because the sins of the leaders have
permeated the outreaches of Israel and Judah – even infecting
Moresheth, the rural home of his family and friends. But all will
suffer, he declares. God’s judgment will be so sweeping that he
pleads, “Tell it not in Gath,” lest the Philistines find
the destruction of Judah and Israel a sign that the people who
claimed to follow their God were abandoned. Many of the voices of
Presbyterians who cling to a Biblical understanding of Christ have
been mocked, ridiculed as homophobes, misogynists and
fundamentalists, and even defrocked because they challenged hired
and elected leaders. The denomination became so distressed by The
Layman’s criticism that it attempted unsuccessfully to censure
the publication and later to shut it down by publishing its own “peaceful”
magazine.
- 4. Witchcraft, idolatry and the occult. Micah links all
three. Perhaps they’re not obvious in the PCUSA. But are there
signs? The fascination with labyrinths – often set up for
General Assembly commissioners to take meditative walks – makes
many who take God’s Word seriously uneasy. What about drugs?
The Greek word for sorcery in the New Testament is pharmaceia, from
which we get pharmaceuticals. Are illegal drugs a stretch into the
occult? If so, should our stated clerk have filed a friend of the
court brief on behalf of a cult whose members smoked an illegal drug
as their main religious activity? His rationale was to support
separation of church and state. And what of idolatry? Calvin said
the heart is an idol factory. Chapter 2 of the Book of Order
lists the major doctrines of all Christians, Protestants in general
and Reformed Christians in specific. The tendency toward idolatry is
on that list.
- 5. Families in crisis. Sexual confusion and unbelief
created crises in Micah’s time – and it’s probably as
bad or worse today. But the denomination’s leadership –
particularly the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy –
has exacerbated the problem rather than working to strengthen the
Christian family. Fortunately, most of its proposals were rejected
by the General Assembly. But the gist of those proposals was beyond
credulity:
- a. On suicide, speculation that Jesus’ death was
suicide and suggestion that euthanasia was appropriate.
- b. On families, a proposal that traditional families
were outdated and that acceptable family structures included
unmarried couples and homosexual couples.
- c. On religious diversity, the possibility that many
paths (Jesus, Buddha, Gaia, Allah, et al.) lead to God. Meanwhile,
staggering membership losses, particularly among young people, beset
the denomination. These and other matters make up a polytheistic
catechism that chases away believers.
Micah 6:8 is a high mark in the prophecy. It declares succinctly
and powerfully what God requires of a Christian: justice, mercy and
humility. Nearly all of the leaders and members of the PCUSA will agree
that those attributes are worthy. But what they don’t agree on is
huge:
Justice. Justice-love has been a fad since a 1978 human
sexuality report used that phrase to endorse sexual behavior outside of
marriage – even among teen-agers. The report was rejected, but the
denomination continues to disseminate the report as “resource
material.” The denomination tends to take on many “justice”
causes – Taco Bell, Burger King, countless other corporations –
that trivialize the Biblical standards of justice.
Mercy. Can those who have little appreciation for God’s
mercy toward them be fit or effective purveyors of that mercy to others?
Can one who does not know Christ as Lord and Savior help another to
understand that He is the only Lord of Lords and King of Kings? Is the
mercy of God so real to the commissioners and denominational leaders
that seeing they would see and hearing they would hear that God has a
controversy with the PCUSA? Are the declines and controversies simply
social phenomena and unrelated to the faithfulness of leaders and
members?
Humility. Walking humbly with God would be revolutionary. It
might require breaking ties with such groups as the National Council of
Churches, the World Council of Churches, Churches Uniting in Christ and
the World Alliance of Reformed Churches. Their resources promote
arrogant attacks on capitalism. The thrust of their theology is
liberationism – ranging from liberation from the commandments of
God to liberation from democracy. Presbyterian leaders have flaunted
humility by siding with terrorists against Israel, forgetting the kind
of humbleness before God that was expressed by the late Golda Meier.
She told the terrorists: “We will some day forgive you for killing
our children, but we can never forgive you for making us kill your
children.”
Micah lived to see Israel fall in 721 B.C. But he died long before
Jerusalem fell in 587 B.C. Which suggests, as the Bible says, that God
is slow to anger. But is the PCUSA fast enough to repent?
John H. Adams retired in 2006 as the editor of The Layman.
1. Micah, A Commentary, Bruce Waltke, page 125. |