By Ed Stetzer, The Exchange.
Dr. Bryan Chapell
Dr. Bryan Chapell, senior pastor of Grace Presbyterian Church and former Chancellor of Covenant Theological Seminary shares about the Presbyterian Church in America.
Ed Stetzer: What are some of the distinctives that make you different than other Evangelical groups?
Bryan Chapell: The PCA affirms the inerrancy of Scripture and places a high value on biblical preaching and worship. This is because we believe the Bible is our only infallible rule of faith and practice. By the design of the Holy Spirit, all that is necessary for a life of godliness are within its pages. The Bible was never intended to address every subject or science that we may confront in our world, but it does provide the standards for truth and life that we require to honor God in every situation.
While holding its Confessional standards secondary to the authority of Scripture, the PCA seeks to maintain its peace and purity by requiring ordained pastors and officers to subscribe to the theological doctrines detailed in the Westminster Standards (i.e., the Westminster Confession of Faith with its Larger and Shorter Catechisms).
Those standards also indicate that we believe churches should be in accountability relationships with one another, just as individual church members are. So we have regional presbyteries (gatherings of pastors and elders that seek to do ministry and mission together). Local churches are governed by elders and pastors elected by the local congregation. We practice the sacraments of the Lord’s Supper and Baptism, as the Scriptures instruct. We believe the Scriptures teach that baptism is for adult believers and their children. We do not practice infant baptism out of tradition and sentiment, but out of the understanding that God pledges his faithfulness in covenant relationships that are consistently taught in the Bible.
This interview was abbreviated for this blog post. Click here to read Bryan’s full responses to the questions.
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Just as I would have expected, and with which I am in accord – mostly. Besides the baptism of children and the regulative principle of worship, the article could have been written by a Calvinistic Baptist such as I. So in a good sense, I have much in common with my PCA brothers and sisters in Christ.
However, I have spoken to many Presbyterian people, and engaged them in theological conversations, so I have a sense of what the people say, if not the PCA leaders. I can tell you, for instance, that though the good pastor here denies teaching that baptism saves, the people who claim the PCA as their church most certainly do believe that. So there is a wide gap between what the church official teaches and what the people actually believe. The same applies for the Reformed churches, who for the most part believe in a similar fashion as the PCA.
I note that the author fastidiously avoids a discussion of the OPC, the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, with whom I enjoy fellowship if not shared pulpits.
I have sometimes referred Baptist people to the OPC churches, especially in those areas where there are few or sometimes no Calvinistic Baptists church at all. Sadly, most of them came back to me to say that they were immediately hit with the issue of baptizing their children, suggesting to any observer that the child baptism issue is perhaps the most decisive issue for the PCA and OPC churches. I have since quit referring my Baptist friends to such churches, deeming it a choice of two evils between an Arminian Baptist church and the baby and child baptism churches, a thing totally unbiblical. There is no infant or child baptism in the Bible, and the only way to justify it is to deem it to be a replacement for Jewish circumcision, another bogus interpretation that underpins child baptism.
Nonetheless, I rejoice that for the most part the PCA is a sound church, but would advise caution to anyone with children. I could still advise an adult to attend a PCA church, with some advice to be careful that the Westminster Confession is not elevated above Scripture. My own experience is that any differing with the WCF is a high sin to the PCA.
I do affirm, though, that the PCA is in the orthodox range of evangelicalism, one of the few remaining, really.