FV & Apostasy

At a recent Presbytery meeting up north, an elder under question was defending his supposed view of holding to apostasy and his potential sympathies with the Federal Vision (FV). Those accused of being FV, or those loosely associated with FV, are reputed to hold some form of teaching apostasy. The elder under scrutiny, justified his stance by quoting a passage in Numbers where the LORD pardons the iniquities of the Israelites. The elder than added how the Bible states that that generation perished in the wilderness account of their unbelief. True, the Israelites did perish. No doubt a difficult tension, and I applaud this elder for bringing it to light and attempting to teach it. The tension is this: the Lord pardoned Israel's sins, but that generation perished from unbelief. So, were the Israelites forgiven or were they unbelievers?

Tension and paradox abound in Scripture. The above elder claims to just teach the Scripture, and does not intend to affirm apostasy. What he appears to teach, however, is this: a forgiven believer can perish from unbelief. When questioned his caveat is this: "I am just teaching the text."

In the PCA we hold to a creed, the Westminster Confession of Faith. Although the WFC is a compromise between a variety of denominations in the 17th century on certain points of doctrine, it clearly teaches perseverance of the saints and rejects apostasy. Thus, the onus is on any teaching elder in the PCA, who teaches such things as pardoned Israelites falling away from unbelief, to explain how their interpretation of the WFC and Scripture jive. And no teaching elder in the PCA can take the high ground by saying, "Well, this is my view of Scripture"; for, as teaching elders, we have vowed that the WFC is our interpretation of Scripture.