Presbyterians debate salvation by faith in Christ alone
By John H. Adams, The Layman Online, August 18, 2000
A theological brush fire that began at a Presbyterian Peacemaking Conference in Orange, Calif., on August 2 has flared into a national debate over whether salvation is through faith in Jesus Christ alone.
The debate began with news accounts of an address by Dirk Ficca of Chicago, a Presbyterian minister who leads an ecumenical partnership.
John Filiatreau, a reporter for the Presbyterian News Service, wrote that Ficca “espoused a radical brand of ecumenism, calling into question the common Christian assumption that Jesus is the only way to salvation.” Filiatreau’s account included a number of Ficca’s quotes.
According to Filiatreau, Ficca said the challenge Christians face today is to find “a way to maintain the integrity of our own Christian faith, yet not feel that we have to convert others. God’s ability to work in our lives is not determined by becoming a Christian … So what’s the big deal about Jesus?”
While Filiatreau called salvation through Christ alone a “basic assumption of the Christian faith,” it has been far more than that in the confessional history of the Presbyterian Church (USA).
In response to question 29, the Heidelberg Confession says, “…salvation is not to be sought or found in anyone else.” The Scots Confession says, ” … there is neither life nor salvation without Christ Jesus.” And the 2nd Helvitic adds, “For however many seek salvation in any other than in Christ alone, have fallen from the grace of God and have rendered Christ null and void for themselves.”
When ministers take their ordination vows, they promise to “sincerely receive and adopt the essential tenets of the Reformed faith as expressed in the confessions of our church as authentic and reliable expositions of what Scripture leads us to believe and do.”
After criticism of Ficca and the Peacemaking Conference erupted on Presbyterian web sites and forums, leaders of the conference were quick to defend their speaker. In a news release, they said, “The 2000 Peacemaking Conference reflected the Reformed understanding of salvation, which is that God alone is the author and source of salvation which we experience through Jesus Christ.”
But that statement itself did not extinguish the fire. Critics noted that affirming “God alone is the author and source of salvation which we experience through Jesus Christ” leaves open the possibility that others might experience God’s salvation through another source.
“Unfortunately, this affirmation is far from adequate as a description of the meaning of salvation in the Reformed tradition according to the constitutional documents of the PCUSA,” said Dr. George Hunsinger of Princeton Theological Seminary. “Ambiguous at best, it could perhaps in a pinch be interpreted favorably. The direct wording of the sentence, however, seems to separate God, Jesus Christ and salvation from each other in particular ways that the Reformed tradition has always rejected.”
The latest account by the News Service mentioned some of the criticism coming to the attention of Presbyterian officials in Louisville. Some called for a heresy trial. Others threatened to cut off funding for peacemaking programs.
One reader wanted to know, “Is this another ReImagining?”
The Presbyterian Layman’s coverage of the 1993 ReImagining conference prompted many congregations to cease paying their per-capita apportionments and sent PCUSA income into a nosedive. The 1994 General Assembly responded by declaring some aspects of the ReImagining conference “beyond the bounds of Christian faith” and sent letters to every congregation declaring that “Theology matters.”
Excerpts of Ficca’s address were posted on PresbyWeb, a web site that serves as a tracking station for Presbyterian news as reported by a variety of sources. The excerpts did not change the essence of Ficca’s message that there is salvation outside Jesus Christ. According to the previously unpublished excerpts, Ficca said, “That Christians through Jesus of Nazareth have access to God in an intimate, parent-child way … does not rule out that other people do not have other kinds of relationships with God….”
Ficca did not say anything radically different from what a majority of Presbyterians believe, according to the most recent Presbyterian Panel survey to determine the “characteristics” of PCUSA members.
The survey asked respondents whether they agreed with the statement that “only followers of Jesus Christ can be saved.” Only 46 percent of the members, 48 percent of the pastors and 22 percent of the specialized clergy agreed with that statement.
Alan Belch, an elder from Cary, N.C., took note of the PCUSA’s data and concluded: “One might interpret these numbers to say that there are a majority of members in the church that would agree with Rev. Ficca that God is bigger than any single interpretation. There apparently is a large minority in the church that considers that there are also valid truths in other religions.”
But orthodoxy in the Reformed tradition is not measured by opinion polls, according to the Rev. Dan Reuter of Prospect, Pa., one of the architects of an overture to the 2000 General Assembly which sought to recognize that there are two constituencies in the PCUSA: the orthodox and the unorthodox. His point in that overture, which was defeated, is that the authority for belief resides in Scripture and the confessions – not in opinion polls or experience.