Introduction
“It had hardly begun,” Jack E. Davis says in The Gulf: The Making of an American Sea, “when just before midnight on August 17, 1969, Hurricane Camille swept over the mouth of the Mississippi River, forcing the river waters to flow backward as far north as New Orleans.” (1) Barreling into Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, the Category 5 hurricane caused $1.42 billion in destruction with the death toll rising to 311 people. (2) Its winds were so powerful that many who grew up on the coast remember flimsy pine needles piercing inches deep into the thick pine tree bark. It was a hurricane of unforgettable force.
Hours earlier before the disastrous landfall of Camille, 150 miles east was a man preaching to a sobered group of people in Pensacola, Florida. The forecast of the preceding days said the hurricane was heading straight their way. This esteemed preacher had come across the Atlantic to preach at the historic Pensacola Theological Institute, but Camille had them in her crosshairs.
In light of the immanent threat of the gathering storm, the Sunday evening service was rescheduled to 2:00pm in order for the congregants to safely retreat to their homes to prepare for the ensuing disaster. In light of this gathering storm, John Schultz says, “This was the service when Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones preached the sermon ‘The Acid Test’.” (3)
The Acid Test
The man who once preached while Nazi bombs rained down around his church was now preaching with a Category 5 hurricane heading their way. His text for that evening was 2 Corinthians 4:17-18, which says, “For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” Schultz remembers, “I had the impression for years that the sermon was not in the Doctor’s plan but was one he had used during the Blitz and thought appropriate for the occasion.” (4) In it, Lloyd-Jones preached these famous lines:
What do you feel like when you are sitting in an air-raid shelter and you can hear the bombs dropping round and about you, and you know that the next bomb may land on you and may be the end of you? That is the test. How do you feel when you are face-to-face with the ultimate, with the end?” (5)
As a man who had stared death in the face in the form of Nazi bombs, who had felt the incoming threat of Communism when he started his pastorate in Wales, and who had endured numerous theological conflicts over the years, Lloyd-Jones was now staring down another threat. (6) Toward the end of this sermon he proclaimed, “Let your hurricanes come one after the other, and all together it will make no difference. Let men set off all their bombs in the whole universe at the same time, this inheritance [of the eternal weight of glory] remains solid, durable, everlasting, and eternal.” (7)
A Storm Of Greater Consequences Was Making Landfall
This physical hurricane mirrored a parallel theological hurricane; one brewing over the coast of the Presbyterian Church in the United States (PCUS). The storm had been gathering and growing since the days of J. Gresham Machen and the battle against theological liberalism. Now, in 1969, the theological hurricane was immanent. Unlike Hurricane Camille, which the Lord would sovereignly turn away from Pensacola, the storm of theological liberalism would not turn away from the PCUS. Refuge needed to be taken.
Nick Batzig points out some of the interesting history that happened during the non-preaching parts of the Pensacola conference. A piece of PCA history often neglected, Batzig tells how Lloyd-Jones influenced the formation of the PCA back in 1969:
Interestingly, Dr. James Baird–one of the founding members of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA)–recounted that it was at those 1969 meetings that he and a number of men–having had their hearts stirred by the messages given–met with Lloyd-Jones after the lectures to discuss the state of the Mainline Presbyterian Church in America. As they walked on the beach, several of the founders of the PCA told the Doctor that they knew that they needed to leave the Old Mainline denomination and to start a new one, but that they feared that they would not have the resources to be able to do so. As the story goes, Lloyd-Jones told these men that they not only could leave and start a new denomination of churches that would be faithful to the Scriptures, true to the Reformed faith and obedient to the Great Commission, but that they must do so. In a sense, Lloyd-Jones’ zeal to see the purity of the church, the preservation of the truth of the Gospel and the glory of the name of the Savior was instrumental in the founding of the PCA. (8)
What Lloyd-Jones taught men then, and what he teaches us today, is that The Acid Test comes to every generation. Sometimes in greater waves and sometimes smaller, the Test is one that sharpens the Church collectively and Christians individually. Yet, in the face of each Test, we must preserve the truth of the Gospel and the glory of our Savior.
Today’s Acid Test
Like Lloyd-Jones’ sermons in Setting Our Affections Upon Glory, it appears that the Gospel and the Church are still tested today. Many questions are being asked today: What is the mission of the Church? What is and is not the gospel message? How do we best evangelize in today’s world? What is the relationship between the Church and State? Who makes up the leadership of the local church? What is a biblical worldview? What do we do with the moral, civil, and ceremonial laws?
Theological storms gather for numerous reasons, but one is due to the neglect of foundational doctrines. One of the wallpapers of my phone is a quote from MLJ which says, “Never jump at a problem, never tackle it in and of itself; get hold of the great principle or governing doctrine.” Young men, like myself, often tackle the issue at hand in itself and neglect the greater fault at the foundational level. The fruit of the tree matters but you produce more healthy fruit when you address the unhealthy root.
In our discussions in the PCA today about women in the church, Christian Nationalism, evangelism and missions, social justice, ethnicity, sanctification, regulative principle of worship, Sabbath day, and others, we must get to “the great principle or governing doctrine.” Consider some controversies of the past. One influence to the Side-B controversy was a neglect of the doctrine of sin and the doctrine of Man. The Federal Vision controversy stemmed from faulty covenant theology. Theological liberalism arose from the misunderstanding of the doctrine of Scripture. Even further back, the Marrow Controversy came forth from a misunderstanding of sovereign grace and the free offer of the gospel. One reason for the Reformation was watering down the doctrine of the Person & Work of Christ and the authority of Scripture.
This is why we need theological standards. The Westminster Confession and Catechisms are not optional add-ons nor merely a candidate’s final test for ordination. These are our philosophy of ministry, our catechizing truths, and the theological grid with which we interpret Scripture. What men fought for in the past is often neglected today. Regardless of who we quote or which founding fathers said what about the intended culture of the PCA, what is sure set in stone is that the Westminster Confession and Catechisms are our theological standards. Standards that are standard, and not the exception.
Teaching The Standards, Trusting The Process
When we face storms in General Assembly, presbyteries, sessions, or local churches, we can find a refuge in our tried and true Standards. This is not raising them above Scripture; it is what we believe Scripture teaches. While everyone has their favorite books, our favorite books are not the agreed upon theological standard of the denomination. This belongs to the Westminster Confession and Catechisms. But, even more so, our ultimate authority is God’s Word.
The Bible is God’s life-giving speech. No words of men, however clever, can produce what God’s Word can produce. Our words are at their best when they are clearly consistent with God’s Word. We ought to explain doctrines, concepts, and truths consistently with Scripture. This is one of the reasons why Creeds and Confessions were written. (9)
What our denomination believes, and what men have taken vows to God to uphold, is that the Westminster Confession of Faith along with the Shorter & Larger Catechisms contain “the system of doctrine taught in the Holy Scriptures” (BCO 21-5). We don’t pit the two against each other because we believe that Scripture teaches the truths that are summarized in the Westminster Confession and Catechisms.
Not Every Storm Is A Category 5 Hurricane
Not every hurricane is a Camille. Not every Test is as big as what happened in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Not every discussion of theology or theological application needs to determine whether a new denomination forms. Yet, all doctrine matters. If the Bible has revealed it then it matters to God.
Small discussions that compromise with faithlessness lead to big controversies that can result in division. To be sure, we must discern between ignorance and arrogance. (10) We should not echo the tone on social media that everything is always in dire straits. The PCA is always in need of sanctification because every Christian this side of Heaven is always in need of sanctification. But not every discussion needs to determine whether the PCA will be saved or not.
Nevertheless, it is true that we must always be re-forming to Scripture. This requires more than mere social media presence; several of the most effective men have no social media presence at all. Sometimes they are effective for the very reason that they are not talking on social media. Far more so do we need men with a godly presence in presbytery, General Assembly, committees, and their local Session. It is one thing to speak a word on social media to your followers but another to follow the proper channels in church courts while patiently trusting the BCO process.
We need men who will be watchmen for the lurking threats. We need men who will treat their local churches like the Bible calls them: A pillar and buttress of the truth (1 Tim. 3:15). We need men who preach each week in ways that are clearly consistently with the Standards in order to build up a people who know the truth from error. We need men who will say the hard word when arrogant error arises and those who patiently teach when ignorance is present. We need men who will be the “local theologians” to young men in their churches rather than the anonymous social media accounts that garners for their gaze.
Above all, we need men who are unashamedly those who expound the central tenets of the gospel and don’t merely mention the word “gospel”. We need men who trust the foolishness of the Cross in an age of idolatry of worldly wisdom. We need men who help their people see by faith rather than be governed by external appearances. We need men who are gripped by the graciousness of God’s free grace and long for others to be as well. This ought to be our biggest prayer in the PCA.
(1) Jack E. Davis, The Gulf: The Making of an American Sea (New York: Liveright Publishing Corporation, 2017), 363.
(2) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Camille#Aftermath
(3) Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Setting Our Affections Upon Glory: Nine Sermons on the Gospel and the Church (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2013), 9.
(4) Ibid.
(5) Ibid, 16.
(6) “One observer of the period, with no sympathies for Calvinistic Methodism, and who bcame a Professor of Law at the University of Liverpool, was of the opinion that two men were foremost in keeping South Wales from Communism in the 1930s. One was Aneurin Bevan, who held back the politically-minded; the other was Martyn Lloyd-Jones who kept such large numbers of chapel-goers ot the Christian Faith.” Iain H. Murray, The Life of Martyn Lloyd-Jones, 1899-1981 (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 2013), 170.
(7) Lloyd-Jones, 26.
(8) https://feedingonchrist.org/mlj-pca/
(9) See Carl Trueman’s Crisis of Confidence and J.V. Fesko’s The Need for Creeds Today.
(10) This is often the rarest trait of discussions happening on social media.
