Ack, ack, ack! My favorite preacher has fallen from his pedestal with this sermon from Matthew.

Nah, I didn’t really have him on a pedestal. He’s said things in the past that I disagree with. The reason he’s my favorite preacher is that he limits himself to the word and doesn’t bring in a lot of outside sources. He looks at a passage and he says, “What does this passage say to us? What is the Author trying to convey?” He does that rather than making up a lecture on this or that problem and then searching out scripture verses that support his theory and offer a jumping-off place from which he may launch his lecture.

So he’s still my favorite preacher. And today, as I listened to his sermon on the Parable of the Sower, I was with him for quite a while. Even when he got to the part where he said that sometimes holding to certain statements of faith can block the hearing of God’s word. And I was still with him when he said that even in the OPC there might be repression or oppression, or something like that, because people are so committed to the Westminster Confession that they can’t hear God’s word.

I’ve lived in the OPC and one of the reasons I’m in the PCA now is that I’ve sought counsel from some OPC elders and gotten the Westminster Confession quoted to me, instead of being fed God’s word, which has the power to convict.

But the PCA I’m in, love it as I do–and I do love it because it’s the best, most balanced, church I’ve ever been in–is a struggle for me, too, sometimes. It is more ecumenical than I like. I was born in an RPCNA crib and raised in an OPC nursery, after all. And here I am in a clappy, happy PCA with a pastor who prays with United Methodists. I’d like to rebel. The reason I don’t is that I believe that God has given me this church and he’s given me these pastors and elders because they can help me. They are fine Christian men and if we don’t agree on all points, so what? I’m not perfect and neither are they. We are all growing in our understanding and we will keep growing until we die. So I don’t have to run from a church every time the elders do something I don’t like. If I did that, I’d have no church to go to because all elders sin and they all do things I don’t like.

I’m pretty sure they feel the same way about me. I think they can see some of my many faults.

So, I bring up this PCA because here I sit chuckling in my “loose by OPC standards” church, as my old pal Martin Emmrich tosses a little rebuke at those in the OPC who elevate the Westminster Confession above scripture. He’s absolutely right to do so. We are quick to complain about the Romans and the Eastern Orthodox elevating tradition above scripture. When they say that Holy Tradition is equal to Holy Scripture they are, in fact, putting it above scripture. Because whatever interprets scripture has the ultimate authority.

What’s the problem with the Confession, then? It says itself that Scripture alone is our only rule of faith and practice. It makes no claims at being equal to scripture. It clearly elevates scripture above all.

The problem is that, say what we like, there are OPC elders who have the confession memorized and who seem unfamiliar with scripture. There are those who argue a point every time by going to the Confession and never get around to looking at what scripture has to say on the matter. They are so sure that the Confession is without error that they wouldn’t think of changing it. They say it is not inerrant and not on par with scripture, but they treat it as if it is inerrant and cannot be improved upon.

So, since I was tracking so well with the sermon, what knocked perfect Martin off the pedestal today? He made his case, convicting us of our refusal to hear scripture, by going first to the place where God says, “Now, I know” about Abraham’s willingness to obey and sacrifice Isaac. Martin says we shouldn’t say that God knows everything therefore this passage can’t mean that God really didn’t know what Abraham would do.

He’s wrong.

Or maybe I should say I’d be interested in hearing him flesh this out a little so I can be sure I understand what he’s trying to say.

Because some things we do know about God. We know he’s all-knowing. So when I look at this statement, “Now, I know…” I most certainly can say it doesn’t mean that God didn’t know what Abraham would do. I don’t have to say what it does mean. I may not know what it does mean. And I don’t care if Martin can’t say what it does mean. But I do care if he says it might mean God didn’t already know.

I’ve had lots of friends see the illogical stance of Arminianism and, hating Calvinism as they do because they believe Calvin’s God is an ogre who denies hapless people the ability to repent and believe, they slide to the only place they can reconcile with their finite brains–Open Theism.

We don’t have to go there. We know that God is all-knowing. We know that God is all-loving. We know that God is all-powerful. And if we look at the world or the word and see apparent contradictions we can let them lie, content to have them answered later when we will fully know even as we are fully known.

Martin also brings up another thing that keeps us from hearing God’s word. Self-righteousness. Thinking, “So and so should have heard this sermon,” and never applying it to ourselves. So here I sit saying there are OPC elders who need to hear the rebuke Martin levels, but, by golly, I’m not going to give an inch on my surety that God did too know Abraham would obey him.

Well, I’m willing to be convinced. I’ll read the Bible with an eye open for passages that say God doesn’t know the end from the beginning. I’ll go that far. Open Theism gives me the willies, but if it’s true what does it matter how I feel about it? I need to ask God to make me love truth. Because, honestly, my first reaction is often to hate truth.

However, I’ve been made new. And sometimes those feelings of distaste are not self-righteousness. Sometimes they come from having a mind and heart in tune with Christ.

We shall see.

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