I am an elder in the PCA (Presbyterian Church in America) and was a voting commissioner (delegate, representative) at the PCA General Assembly in Tampa in June, 2000. John McIntyre's remarks in the December, 2000 PSCF were written before the June, 2000 General Assembly (anyone who has been published in PSCF knows that the elapsed time between acceptance for publication and actual publication is 6 months to a year, as is true for other professional journals). His remarks refer to the action taken by the 1999 General Assembly. In June, 2000 the denomination came down decisively on the side of inclusiveness, within the bounds of the Creation Study Committee report. The report dealt only with the issue of the age of the earth; it did not consider alternative views of natural history. The question of theistic evolution vs. progressive creation vs. special creation vs. some other view was not under consideration. I think it is fair to state that theistic evolution would be rejected by all or almost all presbyteries (regional groupings of churches, which have the responsibility of accepting or rejecting ministerial candidates); but the issue of the origin and development of life was not under consideration by the GA. The GA definitely affirmed that old-earth views as well as the young-earth view are within the confessional bounds of the PCA (i.e,, are compatible with the Westminster Confession of Faith, the Shorter Catechism, and the Longer Catechism). I wrote to Dr. McIntyre after the publication of his article, and he was glad to hear of the action of the 2000 Ga, not having been aware of it before. I am grateful to God for the stand my denomination has taken.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Tue Feb 13 2001 - 22:24:55 EST