Reformed theologian: When ‘must’ you leave?
By John H. Adams, The Layman Online, January 26, 2006
During his Jan. 24 radio broadcast, Dr. R.C. Sproul, probably the best-known Reformed theologian in the United States, posed and answered the question: When must you leave the church?
His answer was framed around the marks of the true church as identified by Reformation leaders in the 16th century: 1) the preaching of the gospel, 2) the right administration of the sacraments and 3) discipline. The Reformers used those themes to draw a distinction between the Roman Catholic Church’s teachings and the emerging Reformation movement.
“To some degree or another, many of us will face that same battle,” Sproul said, adding that the Roman Catholic Church in the 16th century was “pure by comparison” with some of today’s Christian churches when “all sorts of heinous sin are not only tolerated but endorsed.”
Today, Sproul said, Christians are faced with deciding whether “this is simply a momentary eclipse or fall from grace or are we witnessing apostasy?”
What he said on the broadcast, speaking in the context of local congregations and denominations, might not have settled the issue for many listeners. Sproul urged caution and exercising discernment to distinguish between error and apostasy: “You have to be very careful not to be too hasty to separate or to tolerate the intolerable.”
For Sproul personally, the matter was settled when he left the Northern stream of the mainline Presbyterian Church after the Presbytery of Pittsburgh in 1981 defrocked his friend, Walter Kenyon, whom Sproul counseled during his defense. Kenyon argued that he would accept women as ministers, elders and deacons but not actively participate in their ordination. The presbytery did not accept that as sufficient.
John “Mike” Loudon, pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Lakeland, Fla., and a member of the Theological Task Force on Peace, Unity and Purity of the Presbyterian Church (USA), also was one of Kenyon’s friends. An evangelical, Loudon cited Kenyon’s case as one reason he favored the task force’s report that would allow the ordination of practicing homosexuals who are unwilling to fulfill the letter of the PCUSA prohibitions against their ordination. Loudon believes Kenyon’s refusal to participate in the ordination of a woman should have been an acceptable scruple.
After the Kenyon case, Sproul, then a professor of theology at Westminster Theological Seminary, became ordained by the Presbyterian Church in America and established Ligonier Ministries, now based in Florida. He has a huge following in his multi-million-dollar ministry of conferences, books, radio broadcasts and tape series.
Sproul also is the preaching minister at St. Andrews Chapel in Orlando, which is not affiliated with the PCA.
“We’re living today in a period of unprecedented splits,” Sproul said during the broadcast. While “most of the splits are over trivial matters,” he added, “there are times when a church or any institution becomes so corrupt” that Christians have “a moral obligation to leave it.”
And what are the evidences of corruption?
In the category of preaching the gospel, Sproul said it is not merely a matter of error – such as the ordination of women and bishops. The crux is what he described as “the essence of the gospel.”
“How pure must it be to be the true church?” he asked. “A lot of people think any error is justification to call a church apostate.” The Reformers, recognizing errors as insufficient basis for leaving a church, believed that the gospel must be preached “essentially … the necessary ingredients without which it would not be the gospel.”
He cited as an example of an “essential” the atonement of Christ, adding, “If you denied the atonement, it wouldn’t be the gospel.” As a corollary, he said the 16th century Reformers regarded “justification by faith” as essential to the gospel.
“They were touched on how the church was redeemed,” Sproul said. “They were not shadow boxing. This was real conflict. Luther said he was willing to stand up against every authority in defiance. He believed that if he did not defy church authority, he would be in defiance to God.”
Sproul said a church body is also apostate “if the sacraments are rejected or blasphemed” or “if discipline reaches such a level that the church endorses heinous sins.”