You are here
Confession of 1967 side A.
Primary tabs
Download
- speakerThe place is War Memorial auditorium in Boston, Massachusetts, Thursday, May nineteenth,
- speakernineteen sixty-six. The second day of the one hundred seventy-eighth General Assembly of the United Presbyterian Church
- speakerin the USA and the first of many hours of discussion on the proposed Confession of Nineteen Sixty-
- speakerSeven, introduced by the newly elected moderator of this General Assembly, the Reverend Ganse Little of Pasadena,
- speakerCalifornia. [Ganse Little speaking] We now come to the ordered part of the day but of the night. The report of the Committee of Fifteen
- speakerto examine the proposal to revise the confessional position of the church. The Moderator recognizes the chairman
- speakerof that committee, the Reverend W. Sherman Skinner, the Presbytery of St. Louis. [W. Sherman Skinner speaking] Mr. Moderator.
- speakersisters, and brethren. It seems to me is the climax of a very significant year in the
- speakerlife of the United Presbyterian Church. The church is always confessing its faith, and it bears
- speakerwitness to the grace of God in Christ, but it is especially important when the church tries to rethink a
- speakerformal confession of its faith, as we have been in the process of doing since nineteen
- speakerfifty-eight. And, as you know, the constitution has not made it easy. The fathers who framed the Constitution were not about to
- speakerlet it be tampered with lightly. We are in the middle of the process and at the risk
- speakerof being tireless in repetition, I want to point out to you again precisely where we are
- speakerbecause questions have come to me even today from commissioners who did not seem to understand
- speakerprecisely where we are in the process and precisely what we're doing tonight. After seven years of
- speakerwork, the Committee on the Brief Contemporary Statement of Faith brought its report to last year's General
- speakerAssembly. By constitutional provision, when such a proposal for any revision in the
- speakerdoctrinal standards of the church is presented and received, before it can be sent to the
- speakerpresbyteries for their action, a special committee of no less than
- speakerfifteen, with no more than two from any one synod must be appointed to study it for a year.
- speakerIt is that committee, authorized by last General Assembly and appointed by the moderator of
- speakerthat assembly, which is now in the process of reporting. If our
- speakerreport should be at this assembly adopted and approved,
- speakerthis does not make these changes a part of the Constitution. It is a recommendation
- speakerthat they be sent to the presbyteries in the course of the next year. The presbyteries individually
- speakerwould vote. Two thirds of them approving and saying so in writing to the next General Assembly
- speakerwould make it possible for that Assembly to approve this document as a part of the
- speakerConstitution. We are now reporting for that special Committee of Fifteen, which has studied
- speakerthis year. One of the remarkable significances of this year to me is the fact that the church
- speakerin our case has gone way beyond the Constitution. And, far more than a committee of
- speakerfifteen have been doing the studying. I do not need to relate to most of you how much
- speakertime has been spent in sessions, in churches, by individuals, by
- speakerpresbyteries in this study. Presbyteries spending all day, day after
- speakerday in order to send in their reactions to the proposals. Something unique is happening
- speakerwhen an elder who was a very busy and prominent lawyer who is not that year active
- speakeron his session and has no special relation to this report goes to the trouble of writing a seventeen
- speakerpage brief as he calls it, with regard to the proposal, largely in favor of it,
- speakerbut expressing his concerns also. When another lawyer goes to the same kind of
- speakertrouble in twenty pages on his own, opposing the general drift
- speakerof what has been proposed. Or, when a young woman, as happened in my own congregation, a young woman who
- speakeris not theologically sophisticated or oriented even, in the course of discussion,
- speakermore than once this year, brought up such statements as this. "But, the Scots Confession says so and so."
- speakerOr, the Second Helvetic says so and so. When this kind of thing is happening in serious
- speakerdebate across the church in hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of congregations, something very
- speakersignificant has happened already for the United Presbyterian Church. It began last year
- speakerwith the way the Committee on a Brief Contemporary Statement ended their presentation and
- speakerheld discussion at all hours of day and night so that the whole assembly was a kind of seminar in
- speakertheology. This has been a great year, if nothing else ever comes of it
- speakerfor the United Presbyterian Church and its theological thought. We on the Committee of Fifteen are
- speakerprofoundly grateful for the communications and suggestions which came in from all over the church.
- speakerThere's no need of my repeating how many came in. You might be interested to know that the
- speakerXerox or duplicating machinery they have in the General Assembly office which was having to make copies for all the members of the
- speakercommittee and send them out finally in the middle of the winter blew up and gave up the ghost.
- speakerAnd may I say that I think almost every conceivable question,
- speakerobjection and almost every conceivable suggestion about the proposals
- speakerwas made early in the year. We were saying the other day within the committee that since around the
- speakerfirst of January, or even before that, we have not had many new and
- speakerfresh suggestions. The criticisms, the questions, pointed in general to a few areas
- speakerwith some details of wording in other places. And the questions which we had to face
- speakerwere quite clear from very early in the year. They were also represented
- speakeramong the members of the Committee of Fifteen. Any of you who were here last year will recall
- speakerthe moderator of that Assembly saying that, if the report of the drafting committee was received, he would appoint
- speakera Committee of Fifteen which would represent all shades of theological position, and believe you me, he
- speakerdid! I think everything was represented. It, at times,
- speakerthe committee looked like Ford Rolland leaping on his horse and riding off in all directions. But
- speakeralmost every point of view was represented there as well as in the correspondence we received. The committee were also like to
- speakerexpress in these very brief opening remarks our profound gratitude for the
- speakerwork of the Brief Statement Committee. They have met. You read their report about the
- speakernumber of times they met with us and our report too. And, there is no need to my repeating that. They have been
- speakermost helpful. We have suggested changes. They have often
- speakeraccepted the changes and suggested a better wording. They suggested changes themselves.
- speakerWe've had an exchange back and forth on what ought to be done with regard to the questions
- speakerthat have been raised about their proposal. We are grateful for their consultative help
- speakerwithout which we could not have functioned as we had. But we are especially
- speakergrateful, as I hope the whole church is, for their original work.
- speakerWhat really matters to us, to all of us, is what is being confessed.
- speakerAnd a statement of that is still the work of
- speakerthe committee of which Dr Edward Dowey [Dowey, Edward A., Jr.] was the chair. The thing I would like to emphasize at the
- speakeroutset that as we get into substance now. And this in our report is that what we are
- speakerproposing to the Assembly this year is essentially the same document which was presented last
- speakeryear, with some relatively minor, but significant changes.
- speakerIt has been our conception that we were not a drafting committee. That we
- speakerwere to study a document presented to us. Early in our work together
- speakerwe decided that the work the Committee on a Brief Statement had done was sufficiently
- speakerresponsive to the directives of the General Assembly over a period of years to constitute
- speakera document with which we could work and ought to work. We have suggested
- speakersome changes, which most of you are already familiar with. I might point out
- speakersome little point was made last year of the fact that the Confession of Nineteen Sixty-Seven is,
- speakerwas only forty two hundred words as compared with thirty thousand in the Westminster
- speakerConfession. We have tried hard to keep that document as nearly as
- speakerpossible as it was. We have lengthened it by about four hundred words, so that it
- speakeris now about forty six hundred. You will notice also that we incidentally in passing change
- speakerthe manner of designating the parts so that we would not have to write out. Part One and Part two
- speakerand would follow a natural procedure there after. My procedure for this evening in making this report is
- speakergoing to be as follows. I'm not going to try to point out to all of
- speakeryou what most of you already know, namely all the editorial changes. I'm not going even going to refer to
- speakerall of the changes. I will be glad to answer questions about any changes to which you want to refer.
- speakerI do suggest that we give our attention to nine
- speakerprincipal areas of concern expressed by the church and by members of the committee
- speakerand indicate to you what the committee has done about them. The first item of
- speakerrecommendation. Outside of the first paragraph which simply says we are recommending the report
- speakerpresented last year with amendments. And to that end, propose
- speakerrecommend to the General Assembly that the following overture be sent down to the presbyteries.
- speakerThe first paragraph then of the overture is: Shall the Constitution of the
- speakerUnited Presbyterian Church be amended to consist of two parts. And, it refers then to the Book of Confessions and the Book of
- speakerOrder. This belongs first, logically and chronologically.
- speakerAnd therefore we are suggesting that it stand at this point in the proposals this year.
- speakerAnd the recommendations with regard to a Book of Confession are unchanged. We
- speakerhave not changed either the recommendation that there be a Book of Confession, nor made any change in the
- speakerproposals as to its contents. It is our conviction that this is
- speakerthe basis and the genius of the whole proposal. The doctrinal base of the church
- speakeris broadened geographically and lengthened historically and
- speakergreatly enriched. And I think we ought to recognize the fact that this has
- speakerbeen for many in the church, and for some still is, a difficult concept.
- speakerWe have been accustomed to thinking about one single document, out of
- speakerone decade in one small piece of the world, three hundred years ago as
- speakeras being the basis for our confession of faith. What has bothered a great many people of course is
- speakerthe relation between the Confession of Nineteen Sixty-Seven and the other documents in the Book of Confession.
- speakerWhat we are indicating here is that we have a history, what the Committee is
- speakerrecommending. We stand in a long line of history, a history in which the church has continually been
- speakerconfessing its faith when occasion arose in other days. The great central
- speakerdoctrines of the faith run all through all of these documents. If one. If
- speakeryou want to ask where the church stands, you can say the church stands here on God, the Father
- speakerAlmighty, who was present in all of them and so on with all of the great central doctrines of the church.
- speakerBut in a church where we, by the nature of the tradition in which we stand, we are continually
- speakerreforming our faith. We stand at the front edge of that. And to use an expression which has been given
- speakerus by a member of our committee, the pressure of the Word of God is demanding that we confess our
- speakerfaith in this particular way at this particular moment in history. This is the latest
- speakerchapter in a long history in which we stand. We recommend that this proposal
- speakerof the drafting committee stand as it was with the documents within it
- speakerwhich were originally suggested. For the second of the significant
- speakerareas and I'm taking these areas not in the order of importance but in the order in which they appear in the docket.
- speakerThere was a good deal of question raised about the Deity of Christ. It was commonly said that much
- speakerwas made of the humanity of Christ. Actually I think that was overplayed. I mean,
- speakerthe statement was overplayed. A relatively small part of the confession has
- speakerto do with the humanity of Christ. But there was a feeling that the deity of Christ ought to be
- speakermore explicitly indicated. It was always present. I think it's
- speakerimpossible to read the Confession of Sixty -Seven as it appeared last year without knowing that
- speakerthe deity of Christ underlay all of the thinking of those who drew it up. But we have made an
- speakereffort, we are proposing statements which will make it more explicit. The third
- speakerof the nine areas which seem to be of most concern was a fear
- speakerthat this document was teaching universalism. This charge was
- speakermade from a good many sides. This, I think, if you read the first
- speakerdocument carefully it will, must realize that it was never intended. Actually the idea of universalism was excluded
- speakerby a good many statements in the original. But the concern came at several spots. In
- speakerevery place where the question of universalism has been raised with us, we have as a
- speakercommittee, considered the matterm made a change or left it as it is, but we have faced
- speakerevery question that was raised of this sort. The fourth area. The doctrine of the Holy Spirit.
- speakerThere was some feeling that the Holy Spirit had been slighted in this document.
- speakerActually, he heads a whole section, which is more than Westminster did.
- speakerIf you look carefully, you find that the doctrine of the Holy Spirit is all through this confession. There are
- speakersixteen references to the Holy Spirit or the spirit capitalized. The fifth area where there
- speakerwas concern was the question of man's response to God's love and
- speakerto his reconciling act in Christ. There was a feeling on the part of some
- speakerthat this had not been clearly indicated. Actually it
- speakerhad been indicated in a number of places. A sixth area of major concern, which
- speakerof course was the one which drew the greatest amount of notice, namely the section on
- speakerthe Bible. You have all read this, I suppose. And, I'm not going to read it all to you.
- speakerSimply to say this about although we will be glad to try to answer any questions later if they come.
- speakerWe believe that we have in its present form preserved
- speakerthe original thrust and intent of the section on the Bible as it appeared in
- speakerthe document originally, while at the same time our amendments, we believe, do four things:
- speakerOne. We know it does, replaces the word Mormon.
- speakerIt was known as early as the General Assembly last year that had to go. Secondly, it underscores what was
- speakerreally there, but underscores the uniqueness and authority of scripture. Thirdly,
- speakerit indicates the place of God's Spirit in the production, the source of scripture.
- speakerWe hope it has corrected a false impression which many received and which was not intended in the original in that
- speakersame paragraph. There were many concerned for fear it implied that one had to be a scholar in order to
- speakerread the Scriptures with any understanding at all. So for the sentence which was originally
- speakerthere, we proposed. The church therefore has an obligation to approach the Scriptures
- speakerwith literary and historical understanding. The seventh area of concern to which
- speakerwe gave our attention was that on reconciliation in society.
- speakerLet me say, that I think there was never really in the Committee of Fifteen
- speakerany serious question about the wisdom of there being such a section in this confession.
- speakerWe did have communications which question the wisdom of having such a section in.
- speakerYou will have had it pointed out to you before now or will have observed that this is not
- speakerproposing a program for social action. It does point
- speakerto some urgent and difficult problems to which a reconciling commute
- speakerabout what to reconciling community must be concerned. There were questions
- speakerraised about what issues ought to be included and about some details in the statements of those
- speakerwhich are included. The eighth area about which there was considerable
- speakerconcern, although not as intense as in some others, was in the sacrament.
- speakerThe objections which came largely were that the parents were omitted and the
- speakerobligation to nurture the child was given, at least as far as the words were concerned, only to the church. In both
- speakerbaptism and the Lord's Supper, we have made an effort to indicate the role of these Sacraments as
- speakera joyful celebration of the grace of God. And these are the
- speakermajor areas of concern indicated to us and in our own minds in the
- speakerconfession proper of Nineteen Sixty-Seven. The other area of concern, of course, was in the
- speakersubscription questions. We believe that, particularly as they are amended, they
- speakerare in accord with the character of our confession and with the character of the
- speakerReformed tradition. The only questions in ordination which were
- speakerchanged at all by in the original proposal were questions two and three,
- speakerwhich we are proposing amending only in these ways. The name, the word
- speaker"normative" to be replaced by "unique and authoritative" in question two. This is in the ordination of
- speakerruling elders and deacons. Do you accept the Scriptures of the Old or New Testament to be the unique and authoritative
- speakerwitness to Jesus Christ in the church catholic and, by the Holy Spirit, God's word
- speakerto you? That's a minor change before sent by his Spirit God's word to you.
- speakerIn Question three, we are proposing the addition of four words
- speaker"under the continuing instruction and." That is five. It did read, "Under the, in
- speakerobedience to Jesus Christ, under the authority of the Scriptures and the guidance of the confessions of this church."
- speakerWe think the "under" ought to be repeated. And that the words "the continuing instruction and" ought to
- speakerbe added. And then we have also proposed a change in the seventh question,
- speakerwhich was not suggested before. This is partly because of the
- speakernumber of people who thought the Book of Confessions was just going to become a museum kept on a private museum
- speakerkept on the shelf. So the seventh question now reads, "Do you promise to be zealous
- speakerand faithful in studying the Book of Confessions and the Book of Order in maintaining the truth of the gospel
- speakerand in furthering the peace, unity and purity of the church? This goes in all of
- speakerthe questions. The five questions of or five series of questions for ordination.
- speakerYou may not have realized previously that, until now,
- speakeronly ruling elders and deacons have been asked to study the unity of the church. Ministers were asked only
- speakerto study its peace and purity. So
- speakerin the seventh question, we are adding in the third line in the bottom, "And, in furthering the
- speakerpeace, unity and purity of the church, whatever persecution or opposition may arise unto you
- speakeron that behalf." These constitute the proposals we have made. There
- speakerare some minor proposals under the paragraph. I mean. Chapter
- speakerthirty-four of the Form of Government having to do with amendments, simply to bring this in line with the proposals now.
- speakerThe last question is. The last two questions in the overture just have to do with changing
- speakerother places in the Form of Government and substitute confess. Book of Confessions for The Confession of
- speakerFaith. So that it reads in accordance with our Constitution will be. These are
- speakerthe proposals we suggest. I am sure all of you have read them. There may be questions on your mind,
- speakerwhich you will want to address to some of either the Committee of Fifteen or the Committee on a Brief
- speakerContemporary Statement of Faith. And I simply say very briefly in closing that
- speakerthis is a report of the whole Committee of Fifteen. There is
- speakerno minority report. To me, it has been a real sign of
- speakerthe Spirit of God moving in the church that it has been possible to come
- speakerto the kind of agreement which there has been. It is our conviction that this confession
- speakerplaces us squarely in the middle of the Reformed tradition. It is Christo-centric.
- speakerIt speaks to the hour in which we live. Those of us who are pastors, at least this is
- speakermy experience, I have been finding it speaking in a way, I
- speakernever knew any of doctrinal statements to speak before to the very problems
- speakerI face with the people in my congregation. Without elaborating on this, let me simply add
- speakerthat I believe we have here a charter under which a
- speakerchurch, the church, can and will move forward
- speakerin the freedom of those who have found life in Christ, in obedience to
- speakerChrist, under the authority of scriptures
- speakerwith a vigor and a strength, which we've got to have
- speakerto meet the world in which we are living. [Applause]
- speakerSince
- speakerI'm not a commissioner to this Assembly and cannot make a motion, may I call on one of the members of the Special
- speakerCommittee of Fifteen, Reverend Louis Evans Jr, [Evans, Louis H., Jr.] of
- speakerLa Jolla, California, to make a motion for us. [Ganse Little speaking] Not only La Jolla, Califormia,
- speakermore appropriately he is a member of the Presbytery of Los Angeles, which putsim in business in this body.
- speaker[Louis H. Evans, Jr., speaking] Mr Moderator on behalf of the Committee of Fifteen, I move the approval of this
- speakerreport and the adoption of the recommendations of the committee as found on page
- speakerthree hundred fifty-eight of the blue book of this assembly,
- speakerwhich consists in three parts. That is the report
- speakerconsists in three parts, not the assembly. On page three hundred fifty-eight,
- speakerThe Book of Confessions, and on that page the beginning of the text revised
- speakerof the Confession of Nineteen Sixty-Seven. And on page three hundred sixty-nine, the
- speakeramended subscription questions. [Ganse Little] Is there a second to this motion.? The motion has
- speakernow been duly made and seconded. Pursuant to further consideration of this important
- speakermotion, the Moderator calls upon and recognizes the chairman of the special committee on a
- speakerBrief Contemporary Statement of Faith, the Reverend Edward A. Dowey, Junior, in order that he
- speakermay help us along in the docket to the third and most important item--a general discussion of this
- speakerproposal up to revise the confessional position of the church.
