By Viola Larson, Naming His Grace.
Screen grab of Landon Whitsitt’s video 6.
Recently The Layman posted an article, “Moderator Rada, May I introduce you to the Rev. John Shuck?” The Moderator had stated at a Presbyterian Mission Agency board meeting that all teaching elders must vow to accept the Scriptures as the authoritative word of God. Speaking of the biblical and confessional doctrine that Jesus is the sole Lord and Savior, Rada stated:
“One cannot join a church in our denomination without answering the question in the affirmative that she or he believes in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. If you do not, you cannot be a member in our churches. And I have not met one single person—member or officer of our church—who does not believe that as truth. There has been a campaign of hate and divisiveness built against us. And it is not a true reflection of our particular body of Christ.”
The Layman pointed out that the Rev. John Shuck does not believe in any of the biblical truths of Christianity; he does not even believe in a personal God. I want to add to this because I believe many in the denomination are totally unaware of the growing apostasy in the Presbyterian Church (USA). The Scripture and the Confessions may proclaim the Christian faith, but a growing body of people within the denomination are allowed to uphold unbiblical views. Without discipline and censure it simply does not matter what the Confessions and Scriptures say.
In 2012, teaching elder Landon Whitsitt, who was vice moderator of General Assembly at the time, was visiting various presbyteries, speaking about a book he had written, Open Source Church the Wisdom of All. Videos were made of his talks and in the last video he stated, “Just because God has called you into relationship through the work and person of Jesus Christ doesn’t mean everybody has to be in relationship with God through the work and person of Jesus Christ.”
I wrote about the videos at, “Landon Whitsitt, Open Source Christianity and the sovereignty of God.” I stated that Whitsitt was a universalist. He read the article and on Twitter, in conversation with me, said no, he was not a universalist but a pluralist. Whitsitt pointed me to a Wikipedia article which explained that pluralists believe that one can be saved without Jesus’ salvation.
Watch video 6 from Landon Whitsitt
“Thou shall not deny the truth and benefits of other religious traditions … Just because God has called you into relationship through the work and person of Jesus Christ doesn’t mean everybody has to be in relationship with God through the work and person of Jesus Christ.”
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John Shuck’s confidence in broadcasting his atheism all over the Internet is bolstered by the support of his church and Presbytery. His position is also supported by “pluralists”, universalists, and other general apostates in great numbers throughout PCUSA, because they all have this one thing in common: They have lost faith in the Christ of the New Testament…
I believe it is now a majority of Elders (Ruling or Teaching) in PCUSA who have taken their loss of faith and turned it into a “doctrine” that it is no longer valid to believe in the literal Divine Christ, his substitutionary atonement, and his resurrection….
There is a growing boldness among all the various kinds of apostates to undermine the faith of those of us who remain, standing on the Rock.
You only have to go as far as the PCUSA’s own survey of Teaching and Ruling Elders that show over 50% of each don’t believe Scripture as authoritative Word of God and Jesus as the only way to heaven. It was their own survey, posted on their own website! Rada is point blank lying. Disgusting!
There is NO WAY that Rada believes what comes out of his mouth, I do not care if he walks on water and calms the seas.
Loren: Heath Rada is a lay member of the PCUSA. He is not clergy; therefore, he is not “Rev. Rada.” While I agree with you that we do not need to be attacking others, it is my respect for Jesus Christ that calls for that, NOT my respect for Heath Rada. For MR. Rada, I have no respect, whatsoever. He willingly signed on to be spokesperson of this apostate denomination, and if he is finding it difficult to support it with truthful answers to questions about it, no one here is surprised. In his bio when he stood for the position of moderator, he said, “And this I can promise: I will give it my all, should I be chosen.” I think he ran out of “all” before the end of the General Assembly meeting.
Also Loren could you please explain what a nominal Christian denomination is? Seriously, I’m not being antagonistic here. I think this is a belief that is crippling the American Church. It would seem that by definition either you are a Christian or you are not. There is no middle ground. I also believe, I think it is fact but others would say it is my opinion, as an organization, PSUSA is no longer Christian by definition. This is partly supported by subject of this thread.
“Nominal” means in name only.
However, remember that in the dead Church in Sardis there were still some “who have not soiled their garments, and they will walk with me in white, for they are worthy.” (Rev. 3.4) Likewise, I believe that there are still those in the PC(USA) who keep genuine faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. But my wife and I are not among them, as we now worship in a PCA church in north Texas.
The Lord Jesus said to His disciples, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (Jn. 14.6)
Likewise, the Apostle Peter said to the Sanhedrin, “Let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by him this man is standing before you well. This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4.12)
One would think that the testimony of the Lord Jesus and the Apostle Peter would be sufficient to end all debate. But not so.
When Colonial Presbyterian Church was in the discernment process five years ago to separate from the PC(USA) and affiliate with the EPC, one of the elders in the church expressed a concern during one of the listening sessions that the Heartland Presbytery Administrative Review Committee held at Colonial that Heartland had not been supportive of the three tenets of the Confessing Church Movement (of which Colonial was a part), particularly the tenet that Jesus Christ alone is Lord of all and the only way of salvation. The elder stated that Heartland’s ability to support this tenet bothered him greatly, so he asked the Presbytery representatives present if this was something that Heartland would be able to unequivocally affirm today. In response, one of the representatives stood up and said,
“Well, I think that the first thing that needs to be said is, as (Executive Presbyter Rev. Charles Spencer) said earlier, there is no one person that can speak for all of the hundreds of members of Heartland Presbytery. And I think there are a couple of things that come to my mind. And one is a very important part of the Book of Order, the Constitution of the PCUSA, ‘God alone is Lord of the conscience.’ There are those who would say, ‘I believe in Jesus Christ as my Savior and Lord,’ and I would be one who would say that. One reason being because what I know of God I know through Jesus Christ, my Savior and Lord. But am I going to be so arrogant as to say, ‘I know everything there is about God to say the only way God can reach another human being is through Jesus Christ’? I don’t know that. I know that’s how God found me, and I believe very strongly in Jesus Christ. But I think sometimes, frankly, we Christians—and we Presbyterians—become a little arrogant. And the fact is, I think there is always something more—whether we’re talking about individuals, congregations, or presbyteries—there’s always something more to know about God and how God is working. And I become uneasy when any of us—and I’ve been guilty of it myself—put too many restrictions on what we believe Scripture is saying or what God is doing, and that’s one thing I just think needs to be kept in mind and in balance. I suspect a good number of people in Heartland Presbytery would say, ‘Absolutely! The only way to salvation is through Jesus Christ our Lord.’ But there may be others who see it a bit differently, and I don’t think they’re all heretics. I just think some of us are at a different place in our spiritual journey and our spiritual growth, and I think we do well to remember, we have to leave room for that spiritual growth to take place wherever someone may be.”
So then, in the opinion of many, many ordained officers in the PC(USA), to take the Lord Jesus and the Apostle Peter at their word and believe that salvation from sin cannot be found apart from the Lord Jesus Christ is arrogance. Such is the insidious judgment of Pluralism.
Pluralism is no friend to the Christian religion but a back-stabbing competitor. It would seek to strip Christianity of all its essential Christian elements and make it to pay obeisance to the fundamental laws of Pluralism, and in the process the Lord Jesus is robbed of His glory as His work of substitutionary atonement on the Cross is denigrated. And sadly, Pluralism is alive and well and threatening to choke out Christianity in the PC(USA).
Therefore, you who are leaders of the Pluralistic Church (USA) would do well to “remember therefore from where you have fallen and repent.” (Rev. 2.5) The Lord Jesus is removing His lampstand from your sanctuaries. In the past half century, your denomination has lost 61% of its total membership. Yet your Stated Clerk continues to say that “God continues to breathe new life into our work and challenges us to find new, creative ways to touch and transform lives,” when that is patently untrue. Your Moderator continues to say that every member and officer of the PC(USA) believes that Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior, when plain evidence has been produced to the contrary. Well did the Prophet Jeremiah say of you, “They have healed the wound of my people lightly, saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace. Were they ashamed when they committed abomination? No, they were not at all ashamed; they did not know how to blush.” (Jer. 6.14-15)
Repent, therefore, of your Pluralism, of your accommodation of the world’s ways of thinking, of your covetousness of the world’s favor. This has been your mantra for the past half century, thinking thereby to stem the flow of your young people from your pews, when it has so patently proven false. Look around you: God is most assuredly not blessing you! When the day comes (and it will not be long in the coming) that the United States begins overtly persecuting those who cling to the name of Jesus Christ, you will not stand. You are so very concerned about how the history books of the world will look upon you. But “the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.” (I Jn. 2.17) So then, you should be far more concerned about how the history books of the Lord will look upon you. Repent, again I say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Mt. 3.2)