An online acquaintance forwarded this article he recently wrote, regarding Vos, Kuyper and the trajectory of the Presbyterian Church for the last 100 years.
I invited him to come check out Sanityville. Check out his article on the Aquila Report
https://www.theaquilareport.com/geerhardus-vos-a-ruling-elder-and-the-reality-of-the-slippery-slope/
The slippery slope is real, but cooperation with Baptists isnât part of the slide.
Needless to say he and I have some different thoughts on matter of conscience in regards to time and mode of baptism. Nevertheless the slope is quite slippery on a million other things.
The Baptists have similar problems, as the SBC demonstrates on a regular basis, but there are some, including Reformed Baptists, with whom one can make common cause. Because you have a common enemy.
The slippery slope was ever thus. I know that in the tradition I grew up in (Pentecostal), they have âgone off the boilâ w.r.t. holiness; for all its faults in practice, they did have their heart in the right place here.
I think that this is almost inevitable in church life, human nature being what it is. It isnât a âdecline to zeroâ, so much as something more like half-life; that is, as radioactive substances retain some activity, even after several generations of half-life, so the groups people have left from do retain at least some viability.
What this also means is that the groups which are currently bailing out of the PCA will themselves, in about fifty yearsâ time, need a reboot of the sort we are seeing here. For what reason, we cannot see at this stage.
Itâs like institutional entropy and decay. Itâs why âalways reformingâ is so important.
[To Jay]
Oh, I agree completely.
Iâm currently preaching through Ecclesiastes, so this theme is very much on my mind. But Iâve been wrestling with this for a number of years now.
I think the curse of futility in our work, at least in the personal sense of futility, includes the labour of pastors and churches. Maybe sometimes we think that because weâre doing explicitly gospel-focused work thorns and thistles neednât apply here, at least not in the big picture? But being pastors and doing Christian work doesnât get us out of Genesis 3. Our labour is still the sweat of our brow and seemingly futile.
What theologian or pastor can you think of throughout the history of the church who really accomplished something and died feeling heâd really accomplished something?
That is a hard truth. Thank you for saying so. I am ever aware of the thorns in my work as a husband and as a man.