ChristopherPaul
Puritan Board Senior
Originally posted by VirginiaHuguenot
Chris,
As seen in another thread, cyber discussions can easily go awry. I accept your apology. I was not in any way trying to be "elitist" or "snobbish" as you describe. I was attempting to state briefly why my church practices exclusive psalmody, and I was not addressing you at all. I apologize if my wording came across arrogantly. I was simply trying to state a fact.
Your denomination and mine do not hold to the same directory for worship and even our confessions of faith are different. It is a sad thing that they are close and yet there are differences, but the differences that exist are substantial. I pray that Reformed Christians, indeed all Christians, may one day be united in one spirit and in one body, worshipping God together in spirit and in truth.
May the grace of God be with you, brother. Peace.
Indeed cyber discussions are more ambiguous and impersonal and our words tend to be read with different emphasis than intended. I do not see you as an elitist or a snobbish person. I appreciate the knowledge and grace you share with us here. As I mentioned in reply to crhoades' post my intent was not to turn this into another EP debate. My church will declare that they abide by the WCF and the PCA BCO. The debates occur over how true or untrue such a statement is. So in attempt to point out that your "proof" is in itself what the debate is about, in haste I simply copied your initial response and turned it around not scrutinizing the details about the directory of worship and BCO. I would take any approach to stating a fact to be a loaded statement and elitist in tone. I could say (and in fact I did so yesterday ), that "my church is a reformed church and and therefore we baptize infant children." That may be a stated fact, but a Baptist could take that as arrogant since he considers his Baptist church to be a Reformed church as well. Herein lies the debate. That is how I read your post and will read posts like it. Unfortunately the discussion got a bit offensive.
I do tend to get abrasive when it comes to the divisions with Confessional Presbyterianism. Unity and ecumenism is to be sought, certainly within Presbyterianism. In our unity the world will know Jesus is God's Son (John 17:23). The many divisions among WCF supporting churches is embarrassing. A lot of it can probably be attributed to arrogance. So although you were not trying to be arrogant, I read you that way and I apologize. I should have known better considering who it was I was responding to.
Grace and peace to you as well.