One of the problems I have with the GAFCON conference and the resulting Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (FOCA) is the way in which their arguments deny the existence of any valid Biblical schlarship other than their own.
They begin by setting up a stereotype of liberal scholarship as a strawman against which to rally their troops:
"The first fact is the acceptance and promotion within the provinces of the Anglican Communion of a different ‘gospel’ (cf. Galatians 1:6-8) which is contrary to the apostolic gospel. This false gospel undermines the authority of God’s Word written and the uniqueness of Jesus Christ as the author of salvation from sin, death and judgement. Many of its proponents claim that all religions offer equal access to God and that Jesus is only a way, not the way, the truth and the life. It promotes a variety of sexual preferences and immoral behaviour as a universal human right. It claims God’s blessing for same-sex unions over against the biblical teaching on holy matrimony. In 2003 this false gospel led to the consecration of a bishop living in a homosexual relationship." (from the GAFCON declaration)
Then this is set against the clarity and undeniable truth of their position. So, for example, Archbishop Peter Jensen said at the post-GAFCON meeting at All Souls Langham Place (taken from summary notes posted by John Richardson):
"First, brothers and sisters, the Bible is clear and the Liberals know it is clear.
Secondly, this is crucial. Sexual immorality leads you outside the kingdom of God, just as does greed. It is not a second-order issue.
Thirdly, if you continue in fellowship you are endorsing the lie and are complicit in it ...
The answer was that we must be clear that the gospel of Jesus Christ is a transforming gospel, which does not leave you where you are — which is what Liberalism does in simply affirming you. The testimony matters. We want to hear you are committed to the path of light and repentance."
The final move is to claim that Evangelicalism is deeply divided (because not all evangelicals agree with the views of the GAFCON participants!) and that we must all unite (i.e. agree with the GAFCON declaration) against the common foe. For example, here is Peter Jensen again:
"English Evangelicalism is terribly divided. We cannot continue our tribal warfare. We need to advance, and it is the gospel and evangelism which will bring us together under godly focussed leadership."
Most of these same components were also in the speech that Archbishop Greg Venables made to the All Souls meeting:
"The doubt being cast on the gospel and the person of Jesus is not the result of modern knowledge, it is the result of what the serpent said to Eve in Eden: ‘Did God say?’ Eve took a ‘modern’ approach: ‘I am modern, I know better than my husband.’ Thank God for those who have taught us to stay faithful to the word of God.
The modern doubt did not begin with modernism and the search for the historical Jesus. It began when the same tempter came to Jesus in the wilderness saying, ‘If you are the Son of God.’ Either Jesus is the Son of God or he is not. If not, Christianity is a sham. CS Lewis: Jesus is mad, bad or God.
In recent times it is about a shift from a biblical paradigm to rationalism, not under the authority of God and his word. The shift was from an open universe, where God can intervene, to a closed universe, where we are subject to determinism and religion is a subjective event for you.
Also a shift from universe where truth and non-truth are opposed to one where truth and non-truth can be brought together to find a new truth. Synthesis is not the way God works.
When the Global South came together they read the word of God together from Galatians 1, ‘I am astonished you are deserting him ...’ This is not about inclusion but about walking away from the gospel. If you want to understand this, go to Packer’s Fundamentalism and the Word of God written fifty years ago: the uninhibited character of American liberalism ... God’s character is one of pure benevolence, sin separates no-one from God, Christ is man’s saviour only as a perfect teacher and example, not divine, God only in the sense of God-conscious, no miracles, Christianity differs from other religions only as the ‘best and highest’, the Bible is not a divine record of revelation, doctrine is not the God-given word.!"
One problem with all this is that committed, responsible Biblical scholarship does exist which arrives at totally different conclusions to those of the GAFCON participants and the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (FOCA) emerging from GAFCON. Examples of some such approaches can be found here and here and here and here and here and here (and these are just a few easily accessible internet based examples from a much larger pool). However, this scholarship is either ignored by FOCA advocates or dismissed as being part of the liberal stereotype that is perceived as 'the enemy.'
Last Wednesday I was at a service in St Paul's Cathedral to launch St Mellitus College (a report of what was a wonderfully creative service has been posted at Philip's Tree House). In his sermon Bishop Richard Chartres said the following, which I understand to be a critique of the narrow understanding of the Bible and biblical scholarship that underpins GAFCON and its aftermath:
"We can understand this better if we consider the nature of the Bible which is where we say faith “is uniquely revealed”. We want neat orderly systems which our minds can comprehend and God gives us Himself in the answer he gave to Moses – simply “I am”. We want absolute truth nailed down in propositional form and we are given a huge drama, a symphony of the many ways in which God has related to human kind. We want bottom lines for life and God gives us those and then moves beyond them to the law of love. We want programmes to follow, preferably with SMART objectives and the Bible teaches us to follow closely after God when he calls. We want something tangible and the Bible instructs us to have faith in the unseen. The Bible reveals truth, tragic and glorious; bloody and violent; nurturing and inspiring by breaking in upon our understanding from another realm and taking us by surprise."
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Buddy Miller - With God On Our Side.
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