Friday, December 2, 2011

The Beat Goes On...

I guess this photo and song title captures what happens when Federal Vision theology isn't adequately dealt with by the courts of the PCA. 

Last fall Siouxlands Presbytery voted not to find TE Greg Lawrence guilty of teaching theological views that were in conflict with the Westminster Confession of Faith (click here for a good summary).  A complaint has been filed and this issue will be revisited.  But if the situation that played out in Pacific Northwest is any indicator, this will drag out for a long while. 

Now news has broken that TE Lawrence keeps company with with some folks whose theological views are pretty questionable.  Sadly these views are being spread around the world. 

“I understood that we are not alone on the other side of the Earth… ”

by Ruslan Moroz, pastor of the Presbyterian Church of Romanovka in the Far East of Russia, about his trip to the USA this fall.

I spent the next five days in Minneapolis in a wonderful company of my brothers from our Russian seminary, and pastors and elders from the CREC. Pleasant impressions accompanied me during my entire trip in the US and these five days of my participation in the conference were not the exception. I had a chance to take part in the very well prepared and excellently planned presbytery. There was a good opportunity to meet other pastors and communicate with them in the evenings. I was impressed by unhypocritical participation of pastors and elders in problems of every church.
After the conference I spent four days in the church of Gregg Lawrence in Mankato. The elder of his church Dave Pirson came to pick us up. I was happy to find out I would spend time with James Jordan and his wife Brenda whom I met in St. Petersburg Seminary (Russia) where Jim came to teach.
We came to the small town where Dave and his wife Lenora live. They were very kind to let us live in their house.

Unexpectedly we became friends with Dave – we had so many common things to talk about. I had a great time. In the evenings we sat outside in the courtyard, drinking bear and talking about everything. And we understood each other. Dave even became my interpreter and always tried to help me in my conversations with other Christians in their church.

On Saturday James Jordan lectured in Gregg’s church. Therefore the entire Saturday was a ministry day. On Sunday I participated in the worship service of Gregg Lawrence church, talked about myself and my ministry in the Far East, answered many questions. I tried not to make the same mistake I made earlier in Pella and spent all time in fellowship with these believers.

The next day, which was Monday, Gregg drove me back to Minneapolis to the hotel near the airport. At 5am next morning I boarded the plane and headed home. By that time I had missed my family a lot.

To read the entire report, click here.

To read what Jim Jordan thinks about the PCA and its subscription to the Westminster Confession of Faith, click here. 

The beat goes on... 

4 comments:

Mark B said...

If you go to the website of the "St Petersburg Seminary" and read through the various pages, there are a many familiar FV names. There was something of a church split in Russia when th FV guys took over that Seminary, some of the churches claimed that the PCA was "preaching another gospel" and discontinued fellowship with us, continuing instead with the Dutch Reformed Church we had been working with previously. Unfortunatly, I know very little about what happened back then and what the state of the various churches is now.

Dave Sarafolean said...

Mark,

This is news to me and very sad news at that.

Dave Sarafolean said...

Here is another example of Jim Jordan's thoughts about the PCA:

http://greenbaggins.wordpress.com/2010/09/16/james-jordan-tells-the-truth/

Mark B said...

The subject of your post is not in any way suprising, but you got me thinking back, so I looked up B. Purcell and his organization, this is the website, http://slavicreformationsociety.com/home.htm A quick look shows that J. Jordan and J. Meyers are still on the board of directors. If I recall correctly they both have taught at the seminary, Jordan was listed as a professor of something or other at one time.