The Original Arabic

“They can also differ in the adverb—how do you conserve things? One kind of conservative tries to do this woodenly. He doesn’t want anything to change, period, and so he insists that every candidate at presbytery take a vow to uphold the original Westminster in exactly the form it came down from Allah in the original Arabic. But the mushy liberals are no better. They want candidates to appear at presbytery like they were guests on Oprah. ‘Tell us what the Westminster Confession has meant to you in times of trouble.’”

The Auburn Avenue Chronicles, pp. 210–211

The Best Presbyterian Ever

“Presbyterians like to point out (and I actually agree with them on this, being a presbyterian), that the first century Jewish system of polity and governance was a representative and presbyterian one. That makes Jesus a presbyterian. But after the warm glow has worn off, we then realize that this means that the Lord was condemned by the General Assembly—moved, seconded, and spanged right into the minutes.”

The Auburn Avenue Chronicles, pp. 199-200

Out of Conformity

“As a confessional Reformed minister who has honestly subscribed to the Westminster Confession of Faith, I am also convinced that many of the ‘distinctive’ I am accused of promulgating are not distinctives at all, but are in fact the teaching and doctrine of the Confession. And so this means I believe our adversaries are actually out of conformity with the teaching of the Confession at a number of points.”

The Auburn Avenue Chronicles, p. 195