This series of affirmations and denials, written by Mark Rooze in early 2002 for the original website, served as a rallying point for faithful Presbyterians at the time. While it was specific to the issues raised by PPLN, its confessional nature has proven it to be a sound statement of Presbyterian principles. We offer it again here for your edification.

Affirmations and Denials of Presbyterian Integrity.org

General Affirmations and Denials

We affirm that Jesus Christ is the only head of the Church, His bride. We affirm that her primary end is to glorify God through holy worship according to His Word (1 Chronicles 16:29, 2 Chronicles 20:21, Psalm 29:2, Psalm 96:9, Hebrews 12:22-29), through carrying out the Evangelical Mandate according to the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20), and through equipping the saints as His faithful stewards to fill the earth and subdue it according to man’s first purpose (Genesis 1:28), bringing all creation into subjection to His Word, including every thought of man (2 Corinthians 10:5-6).

We affirm that the visible Church is at her best when she exhibits her unity in Christ (Philippians 2:2, Ephesians 4:5). We also affirm, however, that in His wise providence, God has ordained that there be divisions amongst Her (1 Corinthians 11:18-19). We affirm that these divisions, seen in the Protestant church as denominations, are necessary for the present time.

We affirm, therefore, that the Presbyterian Church in America is called to teach the nations and the broader church, not only the rudimentary lessons of our great salvation, but also, fully convinced by the Scriptures, to teach those things that are marks peculiar to her. We deny that our church progresses in doctrine by adopting the doctrines and practices of the broader church in her seminaries, her agencies and committees, and her solemn assemblies. We instead affirm that the replacement of her Old School Presbyterian doctrinal and practical distinctives with those of the broader church is a sign, not of her success, but rather of her failure to take her faith to the world.

Historical Affirmations and Denials

We affirm, in agreement with her founding declaration, the Message to All Churches,

  • that the Presbyterian Church in America was formed chiefly as a Continuing Church movement of the old Presbyterian Church in the United States (Southern Presbyterian Church);
  • that she believes in the plenary, verbal inspiration of the Scriptures, that they are inerrant in the original autographs, and that they are her sufficient, infallible, and only authoritative rule of faith and practice;
  • that she believes that spiritual discipline is necessary to the health and well-being of the church;
  • that she believes in the system of doctrine found in God’s Word to be the system known as the Reformed faith;
  • that she commits herself without reservation to the Reformed faith as set forth in the Westminster Confession and Catechisms;
  • that this Reformed faith is not sectarian, but an authentic and valid expression of Biblical Christianity;
  • that she seeks fellowship and cooperation with other churches of the Reformed faith;
  • that the Church in her visible aspect is still essentially a spiritual organism;
  • that she consciously seeks to return to the historic and intensely Presbyterian view of church government.

We affirm that this document faithfully sets forth the direction to which the founders of the Presbyterian Church in America committed themselves.

We deny that we are left to appeal to the memories of some as to what they intended the church to be. We further deny that declarations contrary to this statement or to its spirit stand in agreement with our historic founding principles.

We further affirm, in agreement with the report commissioned by the Steering Committee for the Continuing Church entitled How is the Gold Become Dim: The Decline of the Presbyterian Church U.S. as Reflected in its Assembly Actions (1973), that our founding fathers listed among the reasons for their separation:

  • the general departure of the PCUS from its historic positions on matters essential to the Old School Southern Presbyterianism of the PCUS, including especially its departure from strict subscription (pp. 13-14, 20-21);
  • the departure of the PCUS from its historic position on the inerrancy and authority of Scripture, again including its departure from strict subscription (p. 31);
  • the departure of the PCUS from its historic position on the strict subscription to the Standards (the entire ch., esp. pp. 42, 45; cf. p. 93);
  • the departure of the PCUS from its historic Reformed theological position by altering its Confession and Catechisms;
  • the departure of the PCUS from its historic position on Presbyterian church government, including the establishment of a Standing Judicial Commission (p. 71), the ordination of women to church office (p. 75), and a single board to replace all previous church boards and to coordinate and govern all missionary activity (p.77-79);
  • the decline of the PCUS from its historic exercise of discipline, including denying the power of original jurisdiction to the General Assembly (pp. 84-85);
  • the decline of the PCUS from its historic practice of the Regulative Principle of Worship, including the contemporary worship of “New Days, New Ways,” the use of the liturgical calendar, the use of pictures or symbols in worship, and a lower view of the Sabbath;
  • the decline of the PCUS as seen in her relation to other church bodies, including a broader ecumenism and eventual merger with the PCUSA;
  • the departure of the PCUS from its historic position on the spirituality of the Church.

We affirm with this report that these were the historic reasons for our church’s separation from the old PCUS. We deny that the absence of debate on these matters, especially on the often-mentioned matter of strict (now often called full) subscription, indicates that our church was divided on the issue. Rather, we affirm that the absence of debate indicates that the Steering Committee concurred with its own report and with the strict subscription view. We deny that we are left to appeal to the memories of some as to what they intended the church to be. We especially deny that any form of “Good Faith” subscription was the historical position of our church. We further deny that attempts to advocate doctrines and practices lamented in this report stand in agreement with our historic founding principles.

Suggested Affirmations and Denials to Lead the PCA into the 21st Century

Note: The following affirmations and denials have been adopted by no group or organization. We offer them in the format below as suggestions that sessions, presbyteries, committees, agencies, and schools should consider and adopt.

We deny that the Presbyterian Church in America manifests her Reformed doctrine and practice to the world by adopting a Church Growth Movement view of evangelism, a Charismatic view of worship, a Liberal view of mercy ministry, a Parachurch view of missiology, a culturally-shaped view of the role of women, a Congregationalist independency or an Episcopalian hierarchy in her presbyteries and churches, or an Antinomian view of church discipline.

We affirm with the Reformers the principle of Sola Scriptura and the doctrine of the sufficiency of Scripture. We affirm that it is repugnant to this principle to believe that God has left His Church without instruction in these or any other areas necessary to her health and well-being. We therefore deny that we should look for leadership to the world or to Christian groups that do not share this understanding, but rather affirm that we are to search the Scriptures for answers. We further deny that numeric success or acclaim by the world is a sign of God’s blessing. Rather, we affirm that God has given His Church distinctly Biblical principles by which she is to be governed, and that He is most pleased with her when she faithfully obeys His principles.

Evangelism

  • We affirm that the primary means of Scriptural evangelism is by the preaching of the Word of God by ordained men.
  • We deny that the Word of God is properly preached when it is based upon self-help psychology, personal anecdotes, or other inventions of men, or when it makes no application to the hearer.
  • We affirm that preaching should be based upon the exposition and application of the Word of God, inviting the sinner to turn from his wicked way and embrace grace through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone, and pressing those already in Christ to reckon themselves dead to sin and alive to righteousness.
  • We affirm that Scripture forbids the Church from altering her Biblical forms of worship to meet the desires and demands of the unregenerate, or from experimenting in other worship forms as a means of evangelism.
  • We affirm that an essential part of the Church’s mission is to disciple men in worshipping God in the manner consonant with His Holy Word.
  • We affirm that Scripture emphasizes that one proper object of Biblical evangelism is our Covenant children. We deny that a theory of evangelism that overlooks this emphasis is in accordance with the whole counsel of God.

Worship

  • We affirm that vital corporate worship based upon the commands of Scripture and its Regulative Principle is a sacred duty of the church and necessary to her health and well-being.
  • We deny that any element of worship springing from the will of man, including dance, drama, the making and use of images and icons, and the celebration of the mass, has any part in the Reformed tradition of worship.
  • We affirm that all these, as well as other abuses, were present in the worship of Church of Rome at the time of the Reformation, and that the church rejected them as not conforming to the pattern of New Testament worship.
  • We affirm that the practice of Confessional Sabbath-keeping is essential to Christian piety.
  • We affirm that the establishment of a fully constitutional Directory for the Worship of God, consonant with the Word of God and agreeable to the church, would promote her peace, purity, and unity.
  • We deny that the lack of such a constitutional provision has been beneficial to the church, but rather affirm that its absence has been the source of much dissention among us.
  • We affirm the need for vital family worship in which family members are regularly catechized and brought up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord as necessary to the keeping of our covenant vows to our spouses and our children.
  • We affirm the need for vital personal worship in which believers regularly feast upon the Word of God and offer up fervent prayer as necessary to the obedient Christian life.

Missions and Ministry

  • We affirm that the church’s primary mission is to carry out the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20) in accordance with her spiritual nature.
  • We deny that we should ignore the physical needs of those to whom we preach the Gospel or that we should disobey the command to do good to all men.
  • We further deny that the church has any commission to function as a relief agency to the world without preaching the Gospel.
  • We affirm that mercy ministries that do not preach the Gospel are but another manifestation of the Social Gospel of Liberalism, and are no proper ministry of the church.
  • We affirm that our presbyteries are the proper bodies to examine and ordain men to particular works.
  • We deny that our missionary committees ought to function as super-presbyteries, or that they ought to reject men regularly empowered by our presbyteries to carry out a particular work, or that they ought to accept men for a work that the presbyteries have found unsuitable.
  • We affirm that the ordinary channel of theological and practical instruction for men entering the mission field is through the seminaries under the instruction of the doctors of the church.
  • We deny that our missionary committees ought to engage in theological re-education of men already deemed to be sound in doctrine and practice by our presbyteries, but rather affirm that such agencies should engage only in such training as acquaints our missionaries with their people group and work in the field.
  • We deny that the evangelism of the world is best achieved by expensive administration in central offices, while our missionaries exhaust themselves itinerating to raise funds to sustain them in the field.
  • We affirm that we would better carry out the evangelization of the world if our missionary agencies would abandon the functions not properly their own, and instead focus on raising sufficient funds across our denomination so that our missionaries, as our pastors, could be without worldly care and concern in their various callings.

Polity, Structure, and Discipline

  • We affirm that the church best functions under a system of graded and deliberative church courts.
  • We deny that the church best functions when her courts cease to be deliberative bodies or when lower courts do not answer to higher courts.
  • We deny that a properly operated and effective system of graded and deliberative church courts threatens the grassroots nature of our denomination.
  • We affirm that we would do well to institute synods between the presbyteries and General Assembly, as is appropriate for a church of national size.
  • We affirm the need for a functioning church judiciary that produces righteous decisions based upon Scripture and our Constitution.
  • We affirm that one goal of church discipline is the restoration of the sinner.
  • We deny that the proper exercise of church discipline is cruel or unmerciful, or that those who exercise it in accordance with Scripture and our Constitution ought to be maligned in any terms whatsoever.
  • We affirm that the Biblical pattern of discipline found in Matthew 18:15-20 allows for sufficient informal confrontation of sin before proceeding to formal discipline in the courts of the church.
  • We deny both the validity and efficacy of informal discipline beyond that commanded by Scripture.
  • We affirm that, once such preliminary steps have been taken and rebuffed, the church should not shrink from formal discipline in her courts.
  • We further affirm that general history of failing to apply church discipline, whether by shielding guilty parties or by advocating further informal discipline, has been the loss of sinners, rather than their restoration, and the general decline of the church.

Presbyterian Unity and the Standards

  • We affirm that in their oath of office our officers receive and adopt the Standards of our church as containing the system of doctrine found in the Scriptures.
  • We deny that they merely receive and adopt the fundamentals of the system of doctrine contained in the Standards of our church.
  • We affirm that our Standards are a faithful summary of the system of doctrine contained in the Scriptures, and although imperfect are the most faithful to the Scriptures yet produced by sinful men.
  • We deny that this belief is sectarian, but rather affirm that it is based upon firm conviction of what the Scriptures themselves principally teach.
  • We affirm, along with the whole church throughout her history, the necessity of creedal statements as a shield against those in every age who have arisen and attempted to wrest the Scriptures from their true meaning.
  • We deny that strict subscription elevates our Standards above the Scriptures, but rather affirm that such an argument would eliminate all creeds, which the church has found necessary in every age.
  • We affirm that we are open to correction of our Standards by proper and thorough exposition of the Scriptures, and that our current constitution adequately allows for such correction while guarding against theological whims and novelties.
  • We deny that any doctrine in our Standards ought to be nullified by en thesi pronouncements of our courts, but rather that such acts may only be accomplished by the required constitutional means.
  • We deny that those who differ significantly from our Standards should seek ordination in our church.
  • We deny that unity can be found in allowing multitudes of exceptions on propositions of doctrine among our teaching elders, but rather affirm that we should properly seek to be a church of “one Lord, one faith, one baptism.”
  • We deny that the old Southern Presbyterian policy current during the Reconstruction era, begun at the request of black pastors and church members, of promoting separate churches for the races has any Scriptural basis, or that any sentiment toward such should be countenanced by any minister in the Presbyterian Church of America.

May God bless us as we seek greater obedience to His Word.