A
PRIMARY OBJECTION TO NAPARC by J. Parnell McCarter
NAPARC is the North American Presbyterian and
Reformed Council (http://www.naparc.org/).
Its member churches are listed at http://www.naparc.org/member-churches/
and it includes such denominations as the PCA, OPC, URC, and ARP. It describes itself in this way:
“Confessing Jesus Christ as only Savior and
Sovereign Lord over all of life, we affirm the basis of the fellowship of Presbyterian
and Reformed Churches to be full commitment to the Bible in its entirety as the
Word of God written, without error in all its parts and to its teaching as set
forth in the Heidelberg Catechism, the Belgic
Confession, the Canons of Dort, the Westminster Confession of Faith, and the
Westminster Larger and Shorter Catechisms. That the adopted basis of fellowship
be regarded as warrant for the establishment of a formal relationship of the
nature of the council, that is, a fellowship that enables the constituent
churches to advise, council, and cooperate in various matters with one another
and hold out before each other the desirability and need for organic union of
churches that are of like faith and practice.”
Since I personally subscribe to the doctrines set
forth in the confessions listed, it would seem I should applaud this organization
and want churches to join it. So why do
I not?
One of my primary objections to NAPARC is that it is
predicated on falsehood. It indicates
the denominations involved agree with the doctrines set forth in the
Westminster Standards and Three Forms of Unity.
But that is a falsehood in at least four respects:
1.
Most
of the denominations involved in NAPARC have amended the Westminster Standards
and Three Forms of Unity for purposes of their own confessional standards. Many
of these amendments are not simply clarifications and fine tuning of the
originals, but actually contradict the originals. Such amended versions are no
more the Westminster Standards and Three Forms of Unity than the 1689 Baptist
Confession or Savoy Declaration is. This
is a form of verbal legerdemain.
2.
The
denominations involved have often amended (or not amended) the Westminster
Standards and Three Forms of Unity in different ways. So it is disingenuous to assert they are
agreed in confessional standards when they really are not.
3.
Many
of the denominations involved in NAPARC do not require their officers fully to
subscribe to their own church’s confessional standards, or really any reformed
confessional standards. It is
disingenuous to say there is agreement when so many officers even within a
number of the member denominations are disagreed, and
that in some cases in quite significant ways.
The largest denomination in NAPARC has open Federal Vision advocates
among its officers, after all.
4.
The
amended confessional standards of many of the NAPARC denominations are false
and erroneous.
The Church is supposed to be the “pillar of truth”
in the world. Given the above listed
concerns, I am afraid that joining NAPARC undermines that mission.