The Presbyterian Panel, a tool of the Research Services Office of the Presbyterian Church (USA), recently published its triennial profile of the opinions and activities of the “rank and file” across the denomination. Titled “Religious and Demographic Profile, 2008” it has drawn media attention (Dylan Loven, Associated Press, 2/10/2010) and subsequent review from the likes of Albert Mohler, President of Southern Baptist Seminary in Louisville (“Vanishing Christianity – A Lesson from the Presbyterians,” http://ow.ly/16dDT ). The lambasting of what Mohler decries in his blog as “liberal Protestantism” calls for another look.
It should be noted that the survey is “of Presbyterians, by Presbyterians” and so may reflect questions and responses peculiar to Reformed protestant sensitivities, and therefore not be fully understood (or properly interpreted) by those outside reformed theological circles. Mohler, for example, sees the finding that 36% of Presbyterian members, 31% of active Elders, and 45% of Pastors serving congregations “disagree, or strongly disagree” with the statement that “only followers of Jesus Christ can be saved” as indication that the Presbyterian church (USA) “has lost its confidence in the Gospel in terms of the clear biblical claim that salvation comes only through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.”
That fundamentalist Baptists such as Mohler may have theological differences with Reformed Protestants is to be expected, and herein lies a perfect example. Presbyterians cling most rigidly to the Calvinist position on the sovereignty of God. This view holds among other things that only God knows who is saved and who is not. To disagree with the survey question is not, contra Mohler, the same as saying that faith in Jesus Christ is optional for salvation, but along with Calvin to say more precisely that ultimately human beings have no say in the matter. To be sure, this would be difficult for a hardcore believer in Baptist “free will” to understand.
Next, following Mohler’s line, one must be prepared to say which of those who claim to be followers of Jesus are saved. Members of the LDS church claim to be Christians. Are they saved? What about those gay-ordaining Episcopalians? Saved or not? Is it possible that those poor “liberal Protestants” like the Presbyterians may be saved? How about the more liberal Baptists, like the American Baptists, who actually ordain women? Or is it “only those who agree with me and my interpretations” who are saved?
Mohler is in the unenviable position to have to defend a weak god who must depend on human judgments to determine who may be saved. Such a god, one would have to conclude, is not capable of “saving” a dying animist in the jungles of the Amazon who never even heard the name “Jesus,” or anyone who lived before Jesus’ time, for that matter. Such a god is not the God we come to know in Scripture.
Presbyterians on the other hand are challenged with a much more ambiguous theology, but one ultimately easier to defend and to offer to an unbelieving world: salvation is the exclusive providence of God by grace, but we are invited by Jesus to live into it through faith.
When Jesus says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” he is talking about relationship, not some 21st century "orthodox" view of salvation. Interestingly, this follows Jesus’ assertion that “in my Father’s house there are many dwelling places.” He is speaking to his followers- the church, in other words- and to them he lays down the invitation to share through relationship with him the same relationship which he has with the Father. As his followers we are to proclaim him as the Way to any who are disposed to listen. As for the rest, we trust them to the hands of a merciful God whose mysterious means of self-disclosure to others we may not know.
That leads to another issue in the discussion: what is meant by the terms “salvation” and “saved”? A mountain man once challenged me with the old theological conundrum: “Do you Presbyterians believe ‘once saved, always saved,’ or do you believe it is possible to backslide all the way down to hell?” My answer was simply, “God only knows.”
The question wouldn’t occur to most "born and raised" Presbyterians because it comes from an understanding of “being saved” as something that happens at a point in time when one “accepts Christ” and undergoes a “believer’s baptism.” (According to the survey less than half of Presbyterian members and Elders report having had such a “conversion experience.”)
Presbyterians on the other hand see salvation as the free gift of God extended before one does anything to merit or deserve it (Hence our practice of infant baptism, to which Mohler would also take exception.) In that we are justified (part 1 of salvation) through Christ- the date we were “saved” was over 2,000 years ago!- our sanctification (part 2 of salvation) is understood as an ongoing process, as with Paul: “…to us who are being saved…” (1Cor 1:18). Salvation in this view has as much to do with the here and now as it does with the hereafter. That is the good news (Gospel) that people today are hungry to hear.
In all fairness, Mohler is “preaching to the choir” in order to hold the fundamentalist line he struck in the sand against any nascent liberal challenges that may be bubbling under the surface in his own denomination. And there can be little doubt that he is also motivated to position himself and his seminary within the bounds of so-called evangelicalism, the better to attract right-thinking students. It is hardly fitting, however, to throw stones at, and slap labels on, Presbyterians.
Personally, I am far more alarmed by what hard-line exclusivists like Mohler are doing to bring about the decline of Christianity. His denomination has lost more members than any other in recent years. That would be telling if the strength of Christianity depended on numbers of adherents. In fact, thanks be to God, it does not. History shows that the Christian faith has often had its greatest influence when it has been outnumbered.
The strident voices of gatekeepers who position themselves to declare who is in and who is out are doing far more harm to the faith than those of us who feel called to traverse the boundary between believer and non-believer in order to engage our culture in meaningful mission.
The brand of Christianity that insists, “Believe like me, then you can belong” needs to vanish. Pounding people over the head with a Bible does not true believers make. As for me, and I hope for my house, it’s “Come belong, and then together we will seek belief.” I think the long history of our faith gives testimony that loving people wherever they are on their spiritual journey is the best way for Christianity to continue to not only survive, but thrive, more relevant than ever.
