The first article explicitly rejects the Westminster Confession of Faith’s view of Adam being made with an immortal soul and questions if Adam was created in knowledge, righteousness and holiness. The other article suggests that “if the biblical account of what we call the fall can be understood as ‘rising beasts,’ ‘falling upwards’ to moral awareness, it would make better sense of biological evolution, theodicy and the human condition.”
On April 3, 2013, the Presbytery of the Dakotas voted to request the 80th General Assembly of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church (OPC) to voice its concerns about the public teachings of Rev. Ron Choong, a Teaching Elder in the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA).
The overture originated from the Salt Lake City OPC church and was recommended by the Bills and Overtures Committee. During the presentation of the motion on the floor, one member of the body expressed concerns that an overture was not the best route. Instead, charges should be brought by the appropriate jurisdictional body.
The overture requests the General Assembly of the OPC to do the following:
Communicate through its Committee on Ecumenicity and Interchurch Relations to the Presbyterian Church in America its grave concerns at the public teaching of Teaching Elder Ron Choong of Metro New York Presbytery. Mr. Choong seems to explicitly deny the teaching of Scripture…
Specifically, Mr. Choong’s blog, “Faith Seeking Understanding,” and two of its posts were mentioned in the overture. The two posts in question are “Who is the Adam of the Christian Confession?” and “A transformative, evolutionary doctrine of creation.” The Presbytery was disturbed by these articles as they publicly question the creation account of Adam.
The first article explicitly rejects the Westminster Confession of Faith’s view of Adam being made with an immortal soul and questions if Adam was created in knowledge, righteousness and holiness.
The other article suggests that “if the biblical account of what we call the fall can be understood as ‘rising beasts,’ ‘falling upwards’ to moral awareness, it would make better sense of biological evolution, theodicy and the human condition.”
Another article (not referenced by the overture) suggests that other humans co-existed with Adam, “Adam was likely to be physiologically anatomically modern human (AMH) but certainly not alone among AMHs. His distinction was that he was the first AMH in the line of Jesus who was formed in the image of God.”
Teaching Elder Choong is the director of the Academy of Christian Thought.
Shawn C. Mathis is Pastor of Providence Orthodox Presbyterian Church (OPC) in Denver, Colo.
[Editor’s note: One or more original URLs (links) referenced in this article are no longer valid; those links have been removed.]