General Assembly Council affirms Jesus alone is Savior statement
By John H. Adams, The Layman Online, September 30, 2001
TEMPE, Ariz. — With hundreds of congregations questioning whether the Presbyterian Church (USA) remains committed to Jesus Christ as the only Lord and Savior for the world, the General Assembly Council voted overwhelmingly on Sept. 29, 2001 to “affirm and commend” a statement that says he is.
There appeared to be only two to four negative voice votes among about 65 voting council members in response to a theological statement titled “Hope in Our Lord Jesus Christ.” The Office of Theology and Worship of the Presbyterian Church (USA) prepared the statement in response to a directive from the 2001 General Assembly.
Both the 2001 General Assembly and the General Assembly Council had adopted statements describing Christ as “our” Lord and Savior — which left room for pluralists to assert that there were valid paths to God other than Jesus’ own claim: “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me” (John 14.6).
“Hope in Our Lord Jesus Christ” left little wiggle room for theological pluralism. It declares, with italics for emphasis, that Jesus “was and is the path” to God.
By its endorsement of the statement, the General Assembly Council essentially affirmed a statement that supplanted its previous declaration. But there was no admission of or apology for having previously fallen short of a Biblical and confessional declaration of the saving work of Jesus Christ.
The 2002 General Assembly will have to decide next year whether the Office and Theology statement supplants what commissioners voted for during their annual meeting in Louisville in June.
Stated Clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick strongly endorsed the statement and called it “critically important.” He said he has “spent a lot of time” receiving letters from congregations “with a continuing concern” over the denomination’s understanding of the saving work of Jesus Christ.
“Quite a few are talking about schism,” he said. The denomination’s ambivalence about Christ’s role in salvation has been one of the driving forces in the fast-growing Confessing Church Movement within the Presbyterian Church (USA). More than 950 Confessing Churches are ascribing to three anchor tenets: that Jesus Christ alone is the Lord and Savior for the world; that the Bible is the highest authoritative for life and faith and that God’s standards for holiness have not been changed to accommodate today’s culture.
“When I read this paper, I thought it was an answer to prayer,” said the Rev. James G. Kirk of Baltimore, moderator of the Congregational Ministries Division subcommittee that reviewed the statement. In urging the council to approve it, Kirk said he would use the statement as a teaching tool in his congregation.
There was only one stated objection to the theological content of amendment. Horatio Valdez of the Presbytery of Boston opposed a single sentence: “Thus, we neither restrict the grace of God to those who express explicit faith in Christ nor assume that all people are saved regardless of faith. Grace, love and communion belong to God, and are not ours to determine.”
That sentence, in deference to the sovereignty of God, concluded a paragraph that began: “Jesus Christ is the only Savior and Lord, and all people everywhere are called to place their faith, hope, and love in him.”
Because the concluding sentence is “hinting that the possibility of doubt of what Jesus said in John 14:6,” Valdez said, “I cannot support or affirm this document.”
Emily Wigger of Alton, Ill., said she supported the statement, but she raised a objection: that the language was not inclusive because of numerous references to God as “Father.”
Neal Presa of San Francisco, a seminarian, said he found that the word “Father” was used five times — three from the confessions and two from Scripture.
Syngman Rhee of Richmond, Va., moderator of the 2000 General Assembly, asked whether the General Assembly Council should make a stronger endorsement of the statement other than “to affirm and commend.”
“I, too, commend wholeheartedly what is said in this paper,” Rhee said. “But is there some way even more strongly that we may endorse this document? This touches the very basic issues that many, many churches are dealing with these days.”
Jeff Bridgeman, chair of the General Assembly Council, said the “affirm and commend” language did represent a strong endorsement.