Posted on 01/25/2011 5:42:51 AM PST by Cronos
The Presbyterian Church in America commissioned a report, which was given to their 28th General Assembly in 2000. The report considered several possible interpretations of the days in Genesis 1, including:
That since historically in Reformed theology there has been a diversity of views of the creation days among highly resected theologicans, and, since the PCA has from its inception allowed a diversity, that the Assembly affirm that such diversity as covered in this report is acceptable as long as the full historicity of the creation account is accepted.
yes, the OPC broke from the PCUSA (which was called the PCA at the time) and tried to call themselves the PCA, but changed it to the OPC. Later the PCA changed to calling itself PCUSA and then you had the PCA arising. In the meanwhile the OPC broke split to form the BPC and later split again to form the EPC
Correction. The PC(USA) was never called the Presbyterian Church of [or in] America. In 1936 the northern Presbyterian Church was called the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America. When the 1936 break away group took the name Presbyterian Church of America, the larger body just didnt like the names being so close, so they sued.
In 1958 the larger northern body adopted the name United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (UPCUSA).
The larger southern Presbyterian Church was called the Presbyterian Church in the United States (PCUS). In 1973 the current PCA broke away from that group.
The main body north and south churches joined in 1983 to become the (current) Presbyterian Church (U.S.A).
You can track the history visually here. Warning: Itll make your head hurt.
Who told you that?
and I think the PCUSA — or is it the ECUSA that denies Genesis completely as a myth? But then they ECUSA now basically thinks the enire Judeo-Christian religion is a myth. So, just as accepting women priestess is the start of the slippery slope leading to Gene Robinson and accepting contraception is the start of the slippery slope leading to 1 million abortions a year in the USA alone, denying the validity of Genesis leads to the slippery slope of denying the entire Bible
ok, so the OPC broke from the PCUSA, then the PCUSA became the UPCUSA and the PCUS. The the PCUS broke into the PCA and PCUS. Then the PCUS and UPCUSA joined to become the PCUSA. Meanwhile the OPC split into the BPC and EPC. Ouch!
And, in 1982 the PCA and the Reformed Presbyterian Church Evangelical Synod (RPCES) came together in a process called joining and receiving whereby all the RPCES churches with their officers became members of the PCA. Thus the PCA is the conservative result of two prior groups coming together, one mainly Southern and the other mainly Northern.
In the last few years many (relatively) conservative PCUSA congregations have left that denomination and joined with another (relatively) conservative body, the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. So, its safe to say that the PCUSA has gotten even more liberal.
If you are saying that we read the historical narratives in the Bible as history, then I would agree. But not all the Bible is meant to be taken literally, e.g., the Psalms are a book of poetry with poetic imagery. The prophets and Revelation are apocalyptic literature, again, with many symbols and images, that, while literally true, are not necessarily to be read literally.
The problem is when we try to read history as symbolism or allegory or prophecy as history written in advance as we would read the morning newspaper.
I take Genesis 1-3 as historical narrative so I believe the Bible teaches that the universe was created in 6 normal days, 6 evening-mornings.
Yes. the problem seems to be a slippery slope. If one says Gen 1 is a myth, I think the slop leads to saying the entire Bible is a myth
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