9 January 1924 A.D. U.S. Presbyterianism’s
Historic Pivot—Auburn Affirmation
January 9: The
Auburn Affirmation (1924)
The Root of the Presbyterian Apostasy?
When
church historians evaluate the history of American Presbyterianism, the
publication of the “Auburn Affirmation” will stand out in importance like the
nailing of Luther’s ninety-five theses on the Wittenberg Germany church door in
1517. Except this Affirmation, unlike that of the German reformer, constituted
a major offensive against biblical Christianity.
The
General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in 1923 had repeated the earlier
high court’s affirmations of five essential truths which made up the
fundamentals of Christianity. They were the inerrant Scripture, the Virgin
Birth, the substitutionary atonement of Christ, His literal bodily resurrection
from the dead on the third day, and supernatural miracles. However
the very next year, on January 9, 1924, one hundred and fifty
Presbyterian elders issued an affirmation in Auburn, New York which stated that
these five fundamentals were not necessary and essential doctrines for the
church. Eventually the number of ministers to sign it would increase to 1,294
ordained ministers, about ten per cent of the clergy on the rolls of the
Presbyterian church.
[« The Auburn Affirmation as it appeared in its first
edition, including a list of 150 signers.]
The
Auburn Affirmation used many familiar terms on which unsuspecting
Christians might be deceived. Thus, it affirmed inspiration, but denied
Scripture to be without error. It affirmed the incarnation, but denied the
Virgin Birth. It affirmed the atonement, but denied that Christ satisfied
divine justice and reconciled us to God. It affirmed the resurrection of
Christ, but denied Jesus rose from the dead with the same body in which He was
crucified. It affirmed Jesus did many mighty works, but denied that He was a
miracle worker.
The
tragedy of this Affirmation was that not one of its signers were ever brought
up for church discipline by their respective presbyteries. This sin of omission
hastened the apostasy of the church, as many of the signers would later find
placement in every agency of the church.
Words to Live By: “Beloved, my whole concern was to write to you in regard to our common
salvation. [But] I found it necessary and was impelled to write you and
urgently appeal to and exhort [you] to contend for the faith which was once for
all handed down to the saints [the faith which is that sum of Christian belief
which was delivered verbally to the holy people of God”]—Jude
v. 3 (Amplified)
No comments:
Post a Comment