The RCUS On Norman Shepher
So the RCUS put out an official paper at the 2004 Synod on Norman Shepherd.
You gotta love (from a humor standpoint) how the RCUS does things. Check the first line of the second paragraph:
"While we would like simply to dismiss Shepherd's teachings on justification by faith as negligible error and move on, we find this difficult to do because of the growing impact of his teachings in the broader Reformed community and within our own fold."
Well, I suppose Norman should apologize to the RCUS for troubling them so; and I suppose all those men and women who find his teachings Biblical should apologize for exacerbating the problem. They should all be sorry for inconveniencing the RCUS. (btw, I'm not a big proponent of Shepherd, for the record).
Moreover, the line is indicative of the RCUS's general policy towards any theology outside of their Reformed fundamentalism, i.e. its guilty until we come up with some reason why its guilty, but only if you bug us enough to get us to prove why its guilty. Or something along those lines.
There are reason's why the RCUS has been treading water for years and it's primarily an issue of culture and mindset.
Josiah Q. Roe | By Josiah Roe | 8:22 PM
Comments
While I don't want to bash the RCUS at all. I did run across this the other day and could not help getting a huge kick out of it. It's from the RCUS's publication through P & R of "Commentary on the HC" (Phillipsburg, NJ: 1985) by Ursinus. Three quarter's of the way through the introduction written by some early 20th Century Church History Prof named "J. W. Nevin," the RCUS editor jumps in:
"At this point in Professor Nevin's otherwise fine introduction, he becomes very critical of two questions in the Catechism.... To spare the reader from Nevin's erroneous theological and mystical teachings, we have taken the liberty to delete two of his lengthy paragraphs..." (xvii).
Hilarious--best to keep the reader from reading such scandalous paragraphs!!! But no problem using the rest. Good thing the guy's not around to know the difference....
Posted by: David at June 20, 2005 11:20 PM
