The Continuing Presbyterian Church and The Faith Once Delivered
An address delivered at the First General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in America in Birmingham, AL from Dec. 4-7,1973 (then named The Continuing Presbyterian Church), by O. Palmer Robertson.
Text: Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. Jude 3 (NASV)
At this historic moment, it becomes imperative that the Continuing Presbyterian Church address itself to the world concerning its faith-commitment. Let the trumpet give a certain sound. Let no doubt linger. The Continuing Church commits itself unequivocally to the faith once delivered to the saints.
I. The Continuing Church Commits Itself To The Faith
It is a milk-toast Christianity which substitutes “faith” for “the faith,” “believing” for “belief.” Modern existentialist theology emphasizes that a person believe while minimizing what a person believe. That a man believes has significance; what a man believes must change with the times.
On a more popular level, a song of some years back epitomizes such an approach to Christianity: “I believe for every drop of rain that falls, a flower grows.” To hear these words sung is to be convinced that the person singing has faith. But if the substance of the words of the song really were true, the planet would have been deluged by flower-power at least since the days of Noah. Sad to say, the faith-commitment of much of Christendom today goes no further than such shallow sentimentality.
No, the Continuing Church does not commit itself to a meaningless believism or a man-centered subjectivism when it binds itself to “the faith.” Its commitment is to that solid substance of faith found in Holy Scripture.
Neither is the commitment of the Continuing Church to a faith, to one expression of trust toward a deity among many valid options. Not just any faith among the religions of the world will do. Commitment must be to the one and only body of eternal truths which is the power of God unto salvation to all who believe.
Ask today’s modern missionary executives the hard questions. Ask them the ones that the young people of every generation inevitably formulate:
“Are the heathen lost?”
“Is there only one way to heaven?”
“Is there only one kind of saving faith?”
“How is Jesus’ statement in John 14:6 to be understood: ‘I am the way, the truth and the life; no man comes to the Father but by me’?”
“Are there many faiths that save, or one faith?”
From the older liberal pace-setting studies of the 1930’s to the Bangkok conference on world missions of the 1970’s, the answer has been the same. Under the editorship of William E. Hocking, the Layman’s Foreign Missions Inquiry, representing seven major denominations, expressed its conclusion regarding the relation of Christianity to other religions in the following language:
The Christian will therefore regard himself a coworker with the forces which are making for righteousness within every religious system. If he can in any way aid or encourage these forces, he will regard it as part of his Christion service to spend thought and energy in this way. (Rethinking Missions, Harper and Bros., 1932, p. 40)
From the more recent study papers approved by the Bangkok Conference, we read:
Our eyes will be keenly open to discover what He is doing among people of other faiths and ideologies…Other living faiths…have a mission…We shall rejoice in the common ground we discover. (Quoted by Harold Lindsell, Christianity Today, March 30, 1973, p. 8)
In the judgment of the Continuing Church, there can be no doubt concerning the heretically erroneous character of this position. The Scriptures claim for the Christian faith an exclusiveness which will not allow for any other possible way of salvation. Jesus is not merely a son of God; he is the unique son of God. He is not merely a lord; but as the early church inscribed with its blood in the annals of history, Jesus is Lord. He is the one and only Lord. There is no other Savior. Apart from Him there is no salvation. The commitment of the Continuing Church is not to a faith, but to the faith. Jesus does not reign over a certain ethnic or geographical constituency. He is seated at the right hand of the Father in heaven, reigning over the course of all nations. From among every tribe and tongue and nation he sovereignly calls his people to himself. He is Lord. He alone is Lord. There is no salvation apart from faith-relationship to Jesus Christ.
Scripture makes it quite plain that there is a body of doctrine which may be designated as “the faith.” Even the most radical modern scholarship recognizes the vital role of an authoritative body of doctrine dating from the earliest period of Christianity (cf. Rudolph Bultmann Theology of the New Testament, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1955, II, 119f.) There is such a thing as right belief and wrong belief.
It is to the faith found in Scripture that the Continuing Church commits itself. By adopting the Westminster Confession of Faith as the basis for its fellowship and ministry, the Continuing Church takes its stand unequivocally for the faith once delivered to the saints.
By making such a commitment, the Continuing Church does not thereby subscribe to some dusty dated sectarian view of Christianity. At the heart and core of Christianity is a faith which does not change. Men may change. Churches may change. But the sovereign God does not change. The completed work of atonement by Christ for his people does not change. The effective working of God’s sovereign Spirit in the heart of dead sinners does not change. The certainty of our salvation in Christ cannot change. With good conscience before God and man, and with faith unfeigned, the Continuing Church commits itself to that which is the Christian faith, the biblical faith, the apostolic faith - nothing more and nothing less.
One further point should be noted regarding the Continuing Church’s commitment to the faith. The Continuing Church commits itself to “the faith” as it affects the totality of man’s existence. No narrowing fundamentalism is to mar the vision of this church as it searches out the implications of Scripture for the totality of human life. It is to the faith of Christianity in its fulness, as it relates to the whole of creation, that the Continuing Church commits itself. In humble dependence on the Holy Spirit to enlighten and empower, the Continuing Church commits itself to the Christian faith in its wholeness. May the hallmark of the life-style of its members be an awareness that Christ came preaching the kingdom of God. May guidelines found in Scripture for the whole of man’s existence be the tenor of its proclamation. May the Lord of the kingdom himself be the Lord of every aspect of the life of the Continuing Church.
What is the Continuing Church to do with “the faith”?
With the help of God’s spirit, the Continuing Church shall fulfill the admonition in the text of the day. It shall contend earnestly for the faith.
The word which the apostle uses in the text suggests an athletic contest. It speaks of the agony involved in contending for a prize.
Most of you are aware of the fact that we’re in Crimson Tide territory. Bear Bryant has been in charge of the gridirons in this area for some time.
The story is told that once Coach Bryant was asked, “Coach, the secret of your success must be due to your effective recruitment program. How do you spot good material for the gridiron?”
Responded the Bear: “Simple. I just look for men who are mobile, agile and hostile.”
Certainly an encouragement of hostility is not the intention of Jude when he urges his readers to “contend earnestly” for the faith. But he is urging that the intense concentration and devotion of the athlete mark their concern for the truth of Scripture.
See that fullback hit the scrimmage-line on fourth down when he’s one foot from the goal? Look at the intensity of effort symbolized in those bulging neck-muscles.
With just such intensity the Continuing Church must contend earnestly for the faith. Heap agonizing effort on agonizing effort. God’s kingdom and God’s glory are at stake. Ungodly persons are turning the liberating freedom of God’s gift of salvation into the debauchery of the new morality. Men - would you believe their audacity - are making mockery of the Lordship of God’s son Jesus. Agonize for the faith! Don’t just sit there when men speak untruth, or leave the truth unspoken. Agonize! The Continuing Church has been born out of a context of agonizing for the truth. The Continuing Church commits itself anew to this ministry of agony.
II. The Continuing Church Commits Itself To The Faith Which Has Been Delivered
A delivered faith suggests two things: it suggests one who delivers, and it suggests one who receives the delivery.
A. The One Who Delivers The Faith
When Jude suggests that someone has delivered the faith, he could be understood as referring to the apostles. They were commissioned by God officially to deliver the faith to the church. Or he could be referring to God himself as the ultimate source of the faith.
Most likely God is the one being considered as the deliverer of the faith in this context. In the final analysis, the apostles themselves must be included with the rest of the saints as the recipients of the faith. The faith did not originate with the apostles. It originated with God.
Scripture is uniform in its affirmation that the faith of Christianity originates in God, not in man. Who has delivered the faith that saves men from sin and death? The Almighty Creator-God. The sovereign Lord of heaven and earth is the source of the faith which we affirm.
The faith which we profess is not a faith invented of man. Take any of the cardinal truths of Christianity, and its source must be affirmed to be in God, not in man. “For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ…” (2 Pet. 1:16).
See God’s sovereign choice of a single man in the history of lost humanity? He chooses an idolator from Ur of the Chaldees, changes his name to Abraham, “father of a multitude,” and promises that the seed-designate who is to bruise Satan’s head will be the descendant of his barren wife. God alone stands as the author of this history of salvation. God’s sovereignty alone explains the faith of every true believer who enters into this history.
See the finger of God carving in stone the revelation of his gracious law? These ten commandments are not the product of human evolutionary development. They have been delivered to man by God himself. Dare to treat them as originating from man, if you will. Flaunt his laws, embodying as they do the very structures of the created order. They will break you rather than your breaking them. God alone stands as author of the ethical norms of Scripture.
Feel the earth shaking as God’s virgin-born son dies? The veil of the temple is torn from heaven to earth, from top to bottom, indicating that He is the one providing free access to Himself by the sacrificial blood of his son.
The faith of the Continuing Church is the faith delivered by God himself. We affirm without equivocation that the faith of genuine Christianity originates in God. He is the deliverer of the faith.
B. The Ones Receiving the Faith which is Delivered
Who should receive such a trust? Who is worthy of such things? To whom does God deliver “the faith”?
Jude is quite explicit. It is “the faith which has been delivered to the saints.”
God does not entrust the treasure of his revelation to humanity in general. No man in his natural state is capable of receiving the treasure of the gospel.
Only the regenerate receive the trust of the gospel. Only men who have been born from above by the power of the sovereign Holy Spirit may possess the deposit of the faith.
To speak of “the saints” as the receivers of “the faith” clearly implies a priority of God’s working in the re-creation of a man from within. If all are dead in trespasses and sins, then God first must operate with the same creative power which raised Christ from the dead before it will be possible for a man to receive “the faith.” “Flesh and blood” did not reveal the equality of the incarnate Christ with the eternal God to the apostle Peter. The Father in heaven had to be the source of such a revelation (Matthew 16:16, 17).
In this respect, the Continuing church makes a firm commitment. Only the holy ones of God shall be adjudged worthy possessors of the treasure of the gospel. The Continuing Church commits itself to the task of contending earnestly for the purity of the church.
Too long the church has allowed aberrations from the faith in the name of charity. When true love would have admonished and disciplined a brother, the folly of man's wisdom has prevailed. The result has been the inclusion into the ordained status of the church individuals who openly have refused to repent of their denial of essential doctrines of the Christian faith.
Out of love and concern for the health of Christ's body, the Continuing Church commits itself to maintaining the purity of the church. This great faith, the trust of God himself, shall be delivered to the saints, and to the saints alone.
When Jude speaks of the faith being delivered, he refers to a transferal of trust. An invaluable item has been entrusted to an honored recipient.
See those proud, beaming parents? They have received a trust from God. A precious life has been placed in their hands for a time. Their privilege and responsibility is to raise their child in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
Into your hands almighty God has placed the trust of the gospel. It has been delivered to you. What are you to do with that trust?
Not only are you to contend earnestly for the faith. You are to declare the faith. You are to communicate the faith to others.
What a thrill it is to see the banner of world missions unfurled once more as the Continuing Church is reborn: “A Continuing Presbyterian Church, loyal to Scripture, faithful to the Reformed Faith, and obedient to the Great Commission.” The Continuing Church commits itself to the worldwide proclamation of the faith with which it has been entrusted.
III. The Continuing Church Commits Itself To The Faith Once Delivered
The commitment of the Continuing Church is not only to the faith; not only to the faith which has been delivered; but to the faith which has been once delivered.
It is a glad note to be sounded. It is a note which brings a sigh of satisfaction. God has revealed in his Word once and for all everything that a man needs to know for life and godliness.
Future shock is on us. The knowledge explosion has overtaken us. Before an engineer completes his university training, a discouragingly large percentage of his knowledge already has become passe.
How great it is to turn to the impregnable rock of Holy Scripture and to find certainty in its finalized form. God has completed the long historical process of his revelation to men. In the inscripturated word of God may be found the truth - unchanging, life-giving, understandable truth.
The Continuing Church is fully aware that everyone does not hold to the finality of the revelation found in Scripture. It knows full well of those who piously boast of a ‘living Christ” who continues to reveal himself in the assemblies of the church.
Far from denying the reality of the living Christ who rose in the body on the third day, the Continuing Church makes concrete its commitment to this Christ by submitting to his finalized revelation as it is found in Scripture. We affirm without equivocation that to Scripture “nothing at any time is to be added, whether by new revelations of the Spirit, or traditions of men” (Westminster Confession of Faith, I, 6). The faith has been “once” delivered. It stands complete. It lacks nothing.
In the current scene, additions to the once-for-all revelation of Scripture are being proposed by ecclesiastical hierarchists. These people propose to add to the revelation of God found in Scripture. They presume to suggest that the pronouncements of church courts may serve alongside Scripture as the word of God. They suggest that the temporal limitations of Scripture may be superseded by their contemporary additions to God’s revelation.
The Continuing Church affirms anew in this day of confusion that “the faith” has been delivered “once for all,” and that it stands complete and sufficient. While the church clearly has the task of promoting the submission of God’s people to Scripture, it never may assume to itself the responsibility of supplementing Scripture. Scripture is the completed revelation of God to his people, which needs no supplementary additions, and which is the “only infallible rule of faith and practice.”
In conclusion, the Continuing Church launches its existence into the mainstream of history by rejoicing in the wholeness it finds in “the faith once delivered to the saints.” Our newfound unity in the faith reflects our privileged position of being one with Christ as a part of his body. Knowing his body to be one, we rejoice in the oneness we now experience, with all who are committed to the same precious faith. May the Lord of his church be pleased to hasten the perfecting of that unity with himself and among us, “until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fulness of Christ.” (Ephesians 4:13 NASV).