Theology and Worship staff declares that Jesus alone is Lord
By John H. Adams, The Layman Online, September 28, 2001
TEMPE, Ariz.– Sixteen months after the Presbyterian Church (USA) erupted into a controversy over whether Jesus Christ alone is Lord and Savior for the entire world, the denomination’s Office of Theology and Worship has weighed in: He is.
“Jesus Christ was and is the path” to God, the six theological staff members of the office said in a statement that was released to the General Assembly Council on Sept. 27. The italicized “the” was intended to emphasize that Jesus alone is the Lord – and not “a” lord among many options.
The Christological statement, titled “Hope in the Lord Jesus Christ,” said “Jesus is Lord” is the “foundational declaration of the earliest confession of faith.” The Theology and Worship statement supported that declaration in a four-page document that includes 12 citations from Scripture and nine from The Book of Confessions.
Joseph D. Small, coordinator of the Office of Theology and Worship, introduced the statement at the meeting of the General Assembly Council’s committee that oversees the work of the Congregational Ministries Division. In addition, the statement, as well as a cover letter, was reviewed by a subcommittee. Both the subcommittee and the full committee affirmed the statement and commended it to the full General Assembly Council.
The Rev. Lynn Shurley of Paducah, Ky., the committee’s chair, expressed relief over the Theology and Worship statement. Referring to the continuing discontent over the failure of the General Assembly and the General Assembly Council to affirm that Jesus Christ alone is Lord and Savior, Shurley said, “This gets us out of the panic of having to draft at a critical moment a statement by people who are not prepared to do so.”
Nonetheless, one committee member, the Rev. Nancy Kahaian of Chesterton, Ind., suggested that the statement itself was not necessarily the last word. “It invites people to speak to the issue rather than just ascribe to it.”
“Hope in the Lord Jesus Christ” was written at the direction of the 2001 General Assembly, which approved a resolution describing Jesus as “unique” as Savior and Lord – but not as the Lord and Savior for the world. The General Assembly’s instructions were that Small’s office to prepare a Christological statement that provided an expanded Reformed understanding of what it means to confess that “Jesus is Lord.” The response of Office of Theologic and Worship is Christological and thoroughly Trinitarian. After Small presented the statement to the subcommittee, he was asked by The Layman what its practical application was; for instance, how should a Christian respond to a Muslim about issues of faith?
Small suggested two possible arenas: an “interfaith dialogue” and a missionary to Islamic people. In the interfaith dialogue, he said, it is incumbent on a Christian to explain clearly why and what he believes about Christ – but not necessarily try to convert the Muslim. The missionary’s call, he said, is to proclaim the gospel of salvation by grace through faith in Christ.
While the statement asserts that “Jesus Christ is the only savior and lord, and all people are called to place their faith, hope, and love in him,” it does not presume that God cannot work outside traditional Christian understanding of salvation. “Thus, we neither restrict the grace of God to those who profess 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.”
As support for that conclusion, the document cites the 16th century’s Helvetic Confession, 5.006-7:
Paul, after a beautiful development of his thought, in Romans 10:17 at length comes to the conclusion, “So faith comes from hearing and hearing from the Word of God by the preaching of Christ.” At the same time we recognize that God can illuminate whom and when he will, even without the external ministry, for that is in his power.”
What the declaration does not do is allow for Presbyterians to consider that Jesus Christ is but one of many gods or “paths” to God.
Such an assertion was made in June 2000 at the denomination’s annual Peacekeeping Conference when the Rev. Dirk Ficca, a Presbyterian minister and a keynote speaker at the conference, asked, “What’s the big deal about Jesus?” Ficca’s argument was essentially that Christians should recognize that other religions are valid for purposes of salvation.
After thousands of Presbyterians expressed their disapproval of Ficca’s comments – and the sponsorship of his remarks by the denomination – both the General Assembly Council and the General Assembly responded with resolutions that fell short of affirming Christ alone as the way, the truth and the life for all people.
The Confessing Church Movement within the Presbyterian Church (USA) has been an outgrowth of that failure to make an unequivocal declaration that Jesus alone is Lord and Savior, as well as other issues – the failure in the denomination to subscribe to the traditional doctrine that Scripture is authoritative for life and faith and that God’s standards of holiness have not changed to accommodate modern culture.
Small said he did not regard his staff’s statement as “some belated response to Dirk Ficca.”
While the declaration by Theology and Worship bears the imprimatur of an office of the denomination, it does not countermand previous resolutions by the General Assembly Council or the 2001 General Assembly. It is essentially advisory, not authoritative.