Comments on: What Does it Declare?

By: I will not be signing the Manhattan Declaration | The Church of Jesus Christ

Sun, 27 Dec 2009 05:24:08 +0000

[...] What Does it Declare? [...]

By: Iohannes

Iohannes — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 02:44:13 +0000

An interesting write-up in the NYT about Robert P. George, in connection with the Manhattan Declaration.

By: irishanglican

irishanglican — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 18:02:03 +0000

*in a general sense

By: irishanglican

irishanglican — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 18:01:03 +0000

Let me quote K. Barth here, “Faith in God’s revelation has nothing to do with an ideology which glorifies the status quo.” I quote this is a general sense and for us all! And whatever one thinks of Barth (pron. Bart), he was a modern Church Father type. And helps us to think!

By: irishanglican

irishanglican — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 17:41:33 +0000

BTW dgh, For what it’s worth, this old Irish born toehead is 60 years old. I have lived too in both the UK and the USA.

By: irishanglican

irishanglican — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 17:25:36 +0000

dgh,

I don’t think it quite that easy to separate them? And “our Christian culture” has been fractured for longer than we realize. One must not judge this by American standards. But yes certainly ‘sin & death’ are almost in a place of denial even in a postmodern church. “For the wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23) This reality is still God’s judgment!

By: dgh

dgh — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 11:07:25 +0000

Bill, I do think it’s a mistake to make statements like this for the reason that Kevin McCormick unintentionally gives: “if these matters are not worthy of the united voice of Christianity, then how should we have responded to any serious crisis in world history?”

Are the matters of marriage and abortion on a par with the eternal destinies of bodies and souls? I don’t think so. That doesn’t mean they are not a problem. But too many Christians have lost sight of the enemies of sin and death in order to preserve “our Christian culture.”

By: irishanglican

irishanglican — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 22:07:38 +0000

Indeed as long as we live in this fallen and broken world, we who believe in both moral and spiritual freedom must be vigilant! Allways willing and hopefully spiritually, mentally and physically able. Semper Fi as the American Marines have it, in this our Judeo-Christian worldview.

By: Kevin McCormick

Kevin McCormick — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 14:17:22 +0000

Thank you and God Bless you for your service Fr. Robert. Indeed true freedom is in Christ!

And as you say, radical Islam is a great threat to our Christian culture and life. It is easy to sit in our current state of religious freedom and theologize as if our freedom to do so is inconsequential to our faith. Those who have lived under tyranny have spoken otherwise. Christianity did survive under Communism but the damage to individual souls was, and still is, severe.

And it will be the secular tyranny and anti-Christianity of the West which will allow radical Islam to take over Europe. The low birth rates caused by abortion and contraception have combined to make this perhaps already a forgone conclusion. It’s simply a matter of time.

We need Christian unity now in opposition to this great threat of our time. Tyranny is tyranny no matter what name it is given. Dr. Birzer’s DRC piece last month on President Reagan, Pope John Paul II, and Solzhenitsyn (“The Priest, the Prophet, and the King”) reminds us how important even a few individuals can be when united for truth and in Christ.

By: William Chellis

William Chellis — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 13:59:58 +0000

Darryl,

I appreciate your general concerns. I too am concerned about the language of historic Protestant progressive whiggish-ness serving as a foundation for unity between Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant. Christianity does not equal progressive.

I am not certain what the purpose of such declarations are, but can they hurt? Can it hurt to speak to the culture on moral issues that transcend denominational boundaries?

Also, on the issue of who speaks for the church, even you would admit that PR bodies beyond the Ministry of the Word are appropriate. The General Assembly of the OPC has numerous declarations of the like, no?