Church discipline

We've been saying that a father does nothing more important for his children than choosing a church. But our culture presses us into the mold of individualism, so Christians have come to think of religion as "just me and Jesus" with the church a sort of religious social club. But get this: across history, Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholics, and Protestants have all been in agreement that the Church is essential for salvation.

This is typical of what Roman Catholics say. It's from their 1997 Catechism:

All salvation comes from Christ the Head through the Church which is his Body.

Reformed baptists and presbyterians say the same. This is from our most loved doctrinal standard... 

[Note added by TB on May 25, 2016: Here's how Rachel Miller's feminist supporters have just summarized Son Joseph's blog post below: "the Bayly Blog post that accused Rachel Miller of countless sins — albeit without evidence." Well, read on for the non-evidence.]

When Rachel Miller took over the Aquila Report, longtime readers noted a decline in the site's Biblical commitments. Ms. Miller pushed the edge of the doctrinal envelope in a number of places, yet it was possible to think it was simply her attempt to liven up the site.

But then there was sex. This is the place where Satan is focussing his attack on God's law today, and it became apparent that Ms. Miller's editorial leadership was most toxic here. She showed her feminism on the Aquila Report, but Ms. Miller kept the worst parts of her sexual rebellion for publication on her own website titled A Daughter of the Reformation.

Feminists who want to hold onto conservative Christian credentials claim they submit to their husbands at home, in private. Occasionally they trot their husbands out online to testify to their submissiveness at home. But in their online attacks on men, these women take no prisoners. You can see it on all the Reformed sites: women condemn pastors and elders without a hint of modesty or shame.

No one suffers from these attacks more than Pastor Doug Wilson. Some of their attacks are focussed on...

This year we hope women will attend our February 17-19, 2016 conference, The Enemy Within: Sexual Abuse in the Church. Previous years we called this conference a "Pastors Conference" or "Church Officers Conference," and only men attended—men who are officers and men who aspire to holding office in the Church.

This year, though, our subject demands the most intense work and wisdom on the part of pastors, elders, and deacons, and that work cannot be done and that wisdom cannot be gained without the help of wise women of the church, including officers' wives. So we've opened up registration, not just to the wives of pastors, elders, and deacons, but also to women, single or married, who obey the command of God given in Titus 2:3-5, to serve the church by "teaching what is good."

My wife Mary Lee and I will be talking about the necessity and helpfulness of church officers working with Titus 2 women in the protection of children of the church. If elders and pastors don't have...

Dear Paul,

I was surprised that you wrote to tell us how we should view the end of Tullian Tchividjian's marriage. But since you addressed us publicly on your web site, I thought I'd write back and publicly say a few things that have occurred to me as well.

I must confess that for many years I confused you with your brother Tedd, never being quite sure which of you was the one doing or saying what. Sorry. I know it can sting. Perhaps it's the mustaches... (For years, for us it was the bow ties.)

More recently, I've been clear on the distinction. Tedd wrote the book my mother commended to me years ago, Shepherding a Child's Heart. Tedd was the pastor my friend Stephen Baker trained under. You're the PCA Tripp who's done the counseling for years. So I think I've got you straight, and my appreciation for your family's ministry is real. Moreover, there are people in the church I pastor who remember you from the Alliance church you attended in the 1950s and 60s. 

It's recently struck me that we've lived for years as each other's kind of reverse doppelganger, swooping back and forth across the same landscape like ships doomed to pass in the night. For instance, the church I pastor is attended by a daughter of the pastor who led the church you attended throughout your childhood, and even the granddaughter of that man's predecessor, pastor of that church when you were born. You were a kid together with people I'm approaching senior citizenship with. 

You were born and raised in Toledo, moving to Philadelphia as an adult. I was born in Philadelphia (with ties to Tenth Presbyterian) and moved to Toledo when I was thirty.

You went to college at Columbia Bible College. I went to college at Macalester. You went to Reformed Episcopal Seminary. I went to Gordon-Conwell. You were at Tenth under Jim Boice. I interned at Fullerton Ev. Free under Chuck Swindoll. Your name is Paul David and mine David Jeremy.

I could go on... You wear glasses today like those I wore in my college years. It was the punk rock era; I cut my hair short and found the frames of my dreams at an optical shop that sold safety glasses to industry...

Here is a hypothetical situation. The details are likely similar to many situations faced by the pastors and elders of churches around the country, including Christ Church in Moscow, Idaho. This is no surprise since the sexual abuse of children is so pervasive in our wicked nation today.

This post is written out of two decades working with children and adults who are victims of these crimes, as well as the criminals who committed the crimes. I hope these thoughts will be helpful to church officers and Titus 2 women who may be wondering what principles to follow in their own congregation.

* * *

Let us assume a case in which an adult man1 who confesses faith in Jesus Christ is found guilty in civil and church courts of multiple acts of predatory sexual violence over several years time against minor children unrelated to him by blood or marriage. Regardless of whether this man confessed Christian faith or appeared to be remorseful and repentant, Christians of sound spiritual judgment would, I believe, not condemn the penal codes of many centuries of Christendom which put such a man under sentence of death. We would agree that capital punishment of this crime against children is just to all concerned, from the sinner himself, to his victims and their families, to the church and her members, and society at large. Our Lord warned...

Paul Tripp just made a public pronouncement that Pastor Tullian Tchividjian "has filed for divorce." Paul goes on to say he agrees it is time for Tully to "move on."

A short time ago Paul made a public pronouncement about Pastor Mark Driscoll, Acts 29, and Mars Hill Church. A little later he made a public pronouncement about Pastor Tullian Tchividjian and Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church. Now he makes a public pronouncement about Pastor Tchividjian filing for divorce and the breakup of the Tchividjian family. Here is Paul in his role as the sole proprietor of what he promotes as "Paul Tripp Ministries, Inc." making judgments without any reference to the courts of Christ's Church.

Such things should never happen. They are a reflection of the displacement of the Church by religious corporations and the celebrities who own them. For the record, here is a screenshot of Paul's corporate web site and the pronouncement he published there...

For those of us who find the SCOTUS decision something to be celebrated, we should remember Romans 14, where the Apostle Paul advises those of us with less scruples to be gracious towards our brothers and sisters with more. (The "weaker" brother language is unfortunate here, because it seems to suggest one is right and the other is wrong...)

- Brian Prentiss, pastor of Intown Presbyterian Church, Portland; member of Pacific Northwest Presbytery, Presbyterian Church in America; M.Div. Reformed Theological Seminary, Jackson, Mississippi; former Campus Director at Campus Outreach and Collegiate Director at Briarwood Presbyterian Church. (On LinkedIn, Prentiss is commended for his pastoral leadership by Andrew Field, former pastor at Redeemer (NYC) and present board member of CCEF—David Powlison, Steve Estes, Ed Welch, etc.)

The above is excerpted from a post on the Intown Presbyterian Church (PCA) web site written by her pastor, Brian Prentiss. The post is scandalous. When the Supreme Court issued its pro-sodomy ruling, Bergefell v. Rhodes, Pastor Prentiss decided not to battle the wolf in defense of the sheep, so he wrote a bunch of gobbledigook to cover his abandonment...

He deprives the trusted ones of speech And takes away the discernment of the elders. (Job 12:20)

In a post put up a couple weeks ago, I recounted how, in the late sixties, Dad Bayly publicly criticised Bob Jones University. He did so in his monthly column in ETERNITY Magazine. It was also in his ETERNITY column that Dad issued public criticisms of Bill Gothard.

Back in 1975.

Forty years ago.

Now, Bill Gothard is eighty years old and others are seeing their way clear to say a few things themselves...

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me three times, I'm a Republican. - Joe Sobran

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me a thousand times, I'm a pastor. - Soe Jobran

The news today from the national level is that the men and women of the Republican Party in Congress have backed down on their late-term abortion bill because they don't want to alienate female voters. The news today from our own Indiana state level is that a certain bill written to protect the unborn children of Indiana from being murdered by their parents is being treated with diffidence by the committee chairman because he and other Republicans don't want the wrath of Planned Parenthood to descend on them.

Now listen, these men and women—the Republicans, that is—are mostly publicly confessing Christians and therefore have pastors, elders, deacons, and older Titus 2 women who are called by God to admonish and rebuke and exhort and encourage them. But you and I know that their pastors, let alone elders, deacons, and Titus 2 women, will say nothing to them about their cowardice—about their selling out unborn children in order to stay in office. If the Church of Jesus Christ in these United States of America desired to stop the mass slaughter of unborn children; if we desired to see the bloodshed of little ones by their mothers end; if we feared God's judgement on our nation...